From concept to social impact (and cash)...

We developped and launched an innovative crowdfunding platform based on 0% loans within 6 months time. hellomerci.com, borrow from those who care, helps people with personal or entrepreneurial projects get loans and energy from their community and the people. How a 4-people team has built and is now running such a complex system? How we managed (and sometimes failed) to connect a highly productive team with a much slower external environment? What are the cultural conflicts that arise when people with a “minimum marketable feature” vision meet people with an...

Lean Software Factory – Applying The Toy...

In 2011, Bouygues Telecom built a “software factory” to deliver software for its “boxes” (IPTV set-top boxes and internet routers). A Software Factory is a combination of tools and methods to promote automated building and testing, with a focus on configuration management. Since then, we have started a transformation journey, combining the ambition of agile software development and lean product/management culture. This talk focuses on the “factory” metaphor, since we have found that the way the software is built is as important as the software product itself...

The power of lean thinking in a developi...

What can we learn from technology advances in developing economies? A 2010 United Nations study found that cell phones are one of the most effective advancements in history to lift people out of poverty. Inexpensive cellular networks help remote villagers make informed and skillful decisions on when and where to bring their products to market, and for how much. While only 4% of households in Africa have Internet access, and few have bank accounts, more than 50% have cell phones — so the cell phone becomes the channel for communication, collaboration, commerce, and...

Lean & Agile digital content

Early in 2013, we realised that we needed to change the way we manage operations and projects. Whilst the team was delivering, we knew that we’d be challenged to do more with less. Also, as the team had grown, colleagues no longer knew what each other was working on, leading to difficulty in coordination, morale and managing customer expectations. Starting with the team in Berlin, we are using a mixture of classic lean philosophy, lean startup and agile methodology to plan, deliver, evaluate and communicate our work. We are just a few months in and, although there is...