The RSG Taipei 2022 series campaign (from November 4th to 6th, 2022), hosted by the Taiwan Agile Tribe (TAT), has come to a successful conclusion. Attracting 888 people to sign up, the three-day online event has set a record for the most participants in the global RSG (https://ynews.page.link/Pd458) and successfully showcased the passion and cohesion of Taiwan’s Agile enthusiasts to the world.
“Innovation” plays a critical role in this TAT’s impressive achievements. This campaign broke through the previous limitations by using strategies such as focusing on Agile mainly from non-IT industries, inviting over 300 senior executives to participate, utilizing Scrum cross-functional teams, and offering many exclusive events to meet the needs of participants to result in the remarkable RSG Taipei 2022. Here I will share the details of the event from the perspective of the Product Owner (PO) of this campaign.
Please take a look at Taiwan RSG recommended by international Scrum Guru Mike Cohn http://youtu.be/YT-4Wg1qGHA
Taiwan’s First “Non-IT Oriented” Agile Conference Breaks a New Ground
I have set three strategies for RSG Taipei 2022. The first one is to make my long-held Scrum vision, “promoting Taiwan’s Agile to non-IT industries,” as the core axis. The origin of Agile is the “Agile development frameworks” in the IT industry. Thus, to most people, Agile is often inseparable from the IT industry. Today, although the application of Agile has already expanded to all professions and trades, many related activities are still dominated by IT, and some people even believe that it is only relevant to “software” development, which makes it difficult for non-IT industry people who are interested in learning or applying Agile to get involved.
To change the world with Agile, we cannot limit ourselves. For example, I have collaborated with industry experts, academia, and the government to apply Agile in promoting the establishment of five national standards, each of which is a highly complex project and must be issued by the Ministry of Economic Affairs. I have also led hundreds of volunteers to translate four international Agile classics (https://bit.ly/3FCsR6o), each of which has entered the top ten best-selling list on Taiwan biggest online bookstore, proving the high flexibility and applicability of Agile in non-IT industries. I firmly believe that to make Taiwan’s industry more competitive internationally, Agile must be promoted across all fields. Thus, I have set up a goal to help 100 companies adopt Scrum within ten years, and RSG Taipei 2022 is indeed a valuable promotion opportunity. Thus, we aim to invite experts with diverse backgrounds when organizing the Agile gathering that will stand out from the rest.
Frankly speaking, many people expressed doubts about my vision. However, RSG Taipei 2022 has proved the success of the decision-making with a record-breaking number of participants. The Statistics show that only 41% of the participants are with IT backgrounds, and the rest come from diverse backgrounds, such as finance and insurance, education, healthcare, transportation, trade, construction, retail, manufacturing, service industries, and even current students, who were all showing great interest in Agile. After immersing in these three-day online gatherings, the seed of Agile must have been planted in their hearts.
The second strategy
The next strategy is to invite high-level executives widely. In the past, Agile activities take place mainly among middle- or lower-level employees. If high-level management does not understand or support Agile, one cannot fully implement it in the enterprise. Thus, when TAT obtained the right to host the campaign, I invited my good friend Bruce Hsu, the executive director of Ricoh Taiwan, to serve as the convener of the RSG Advisory Group, comprising 25 CEOs from Taiwan. (https://rsg.taipei/about/#rsg-taipei- 2022-consultants) They then invited their friends to take part in this campaign. In addition, by designing many topics suitable for high-level executives to think about, such as Agile leadership, selfless coaching demonstrations, CEO forums, etc., the campaign ultimately attracted 319 senior executives to sign up. Only when high-level management has a sufficient understanding and support for Agile can the application of it be implemented from top to bottom.
The third strategy is to combine three professional areas. Taking my PhD. expertise in competitive dynamics (CD) as the foundation, I then imported OKR, which has been highly discussed recently, and Scrum, which is the most used in Agile, to combine them to form an iron triangle. Using the “Analysis of Competitors” in the competitive dynamics framework, we identified the advantages of RSG Taipei 2022. OKR acts as a steering wheel, guiding the campaign to progress in the right direction, while Scrum allows teams to adjust limited resources quickly and flexibly in constantly changing environments. This iron triangle serves as a solid and stable strategy pyramid for RSG Taipei 2022.
We used MC-RS (Market Commonality-Resource Similarity) analysis to compare RSG campaigns in other regions and took Asian RSGs and related international forums that use Chinese as a hypothetical competitor. By analyzing the two variables, “market commonality” and “resource similarity,” we helped RSG Taipei 2022 position itself more clearly. After the analysis, we established the general direction. To make the campaign more impactful, a strong lineup of speakers is essential. We successfully invited well-known contemporary Agile masters and experienced Agile coaches, such as Roman Pichler, Lyssa Adkins, Geoff Watts, and Dave West, and hosted the “CEO Roundtable Forum” for the first time. (https://youtu.be/ZGzwhRNnQdo) Senior executives from well-known companies, such as Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Ricoh, Chunghwa Telecom (Taiwan largest) , Lang Live, and Galaxy Software Services shared their practical cases of Agile implementation.
Visual Notes + Branding “Segmentation” + Cooperation with ManagerToday = Highlighting Competitive Advantages
Despite having a highly attractive lineup of speakers, our differentiation from the other RSG campaigns was still lacking. Thus, we worked on “positioning and segmentation,” which successfully elevated the quality and appeal of RSG Taipei 2022 through three unprecedented innovations. First, we invited Coach Yih-Lin Chiu and several graphic recorders to participate in the entire event to create 28 exquisite Agile “visual notes” (worth US$350 dollars each) through comic- recording while the lectures were taking place, so all attendees could review lectures by viewing the visual arts afterward to deepen their memories, which was amazed to everyone.
Next, we decided to make a brand design for RSG Taipei 2022. Peilun Lin from the volunteer group and Yuting Huang, the chief designer of the brand company, and one of the RSG consultants, worked together to conduct brand building and image design. With visual communication, the most complete and deep-seated meaning of Agile is conveyed. The design company adopted purple, symbolizing wisdom, and yellow, representing brightness, as the representative colors and used them on the website, Posters, PPT representation, souvenirs, etc. The striking and consistent visual effects make the brand image of RSG Taipei more deeply ingrained in people’s minds. (https://www.pm-mag.net/Article/Article_content.aspx?Tid=1291)
The last strategy
Third, the most famous business magazines in Taiwan are Business Weekly, CommonWealth, and ManagerToday. Among them, ManagerToday not only keeps up with the trend but also has an increasing number of reports on Agile-related topics. There are always intriguing hidden talents in the volunteer group. When I expressed my desire to find the best partner to endow RSG with wings (the most influential media), Bo-Yen Hsu from the volunteer group came forward to arrange cooperation with the president of ManagerToday. The cooperation was successful by signing a memorandum. (https://today.line.me/tw/v2/article/VxZ66ng) As a result, the logo of ManagerToday appeared on our official website and in various campaign’s promotional materials. The two parties in this collaboration are so disproportionately size-wise and just like a small shrimp to a big whale.
Finally, I promise attendees will be able to watch the video playbacks of all the speeches in the day’s evening when the speeches occurred. At first, this decision aroused doubts among volunteers, worrying that someone might deliberately leak the videos, endangering the rights and interests of ticket buyers and the intellectual property rights of the speakers. However, I have finally kept this promise by persuading the volunteer group to agree with this decision. In the end, most attendees appreciated the efficiency of video playbacks of speeches. I should say that this service was launched after careful consideration from a “customer-oriented” perspective.
Additionally, in my previous experiences participating in international online conferences, I found it difficult to interact with peers and often felt let out during the learning process. Thus, this time, I specially set up eight “VUCA System Learning Partner Planet” Line chat groups and at least 500 of the 888 participants joined these study companion groups. When encountering problems, they could raise and discuss questions within the group, experience the joy of learning together, and these groups served as excellent channels for them to make connections.
OKR＋Scrum: Flexibly Adjust Resources to Resolve Difficulties
During the preparation of the campaign, we extensively use OKR. OKR can be traced back to the Management by Objective, proposed by Peter Drucker in 1954, evolving into modern KPI, and gradually developing into OKR (Objectives and Key Results). Literarily, it means that the team discusses a grand objective together, and the purpose is to clarify what needs to be done clearly. Also, several specific and concrete results must be set up so that the team can confirm whether the objective is met.
To thoroughly implement OKR, I invited general manager Wang Xing-Wei, aka the “Taiwan OKR master,” also an RSG consultant who served as a volunteer counselor, to coach the team and help volunteers clearly list out the “key results” step by step. By holding multiple meetings to clarify the goals of RSG Taipei 2022 and carefully considering what benefits the attendees would like to gain, we finally listed five major objectives (the “O” in OKR), which were “Expanding the impact of Agile leadership and Agile development,” “Creating 300 paid participants through community and online marketing,” “Creating exciting event content,” “Creating a win-win situation between RSG and sponsors,” and “Harvesting ongoing impact of RSG.”
After setting clear objectives, the team, under the leadership of Mr. Wang Xing-Wei, began to focus on the “Aligning” of Objectives (O) and Key Results (KR), and jointly voted for the “increment” that is valuable to RSG, such as “Successfully inviting a highly influential person as a speaker,” “Adding a powerful person take part in RSG,” “Adding a paid participant,” “Introducing an RSG event to participants,” “Creating a new marketing website page,” and so on, for a total of 12 increments. After focusing has been completed, these increments became accurate and transparent indicators: the horizontal axis is for strategy and the vertical axis is for time, which helps each team to confirm its progress and results (“KR” of OKR).
Another major characteristics of RSG Taipei 2022 is to effective use of the Scrum Cross-functional Teams. I delegated authority to eight teams to operate independently and produce the “increments” listed above. Each team is an automatic and spontaneous “self-organized” team that continuously produces results in two-week sprints during the seven months of pre-work. Using the above “transparency indicators” as the eyes of RSG to achieve key results and target increments, the team must adjust resources as needed at all times.
The focus of the “eye” of RSG is “choosing the right time.” For example, it would be meaningless to monitor the ticket sales situation too early. You could observe it after the release of the preliminary speaker list and then find problems through indicators. Between April and August, there were only over 100 tickets sold, which caused low morale among the teams and led us to rethink and adjust our strategy. Thus, we sent our energetic team members to promote RSG in different communities, allowing potential audiences to experience Agile Q&A. As the result, ticket sales gradually improved, and ultimately even created a world highest participants confirmed by the Scrum Alliance. This success is due to the effective collaboration between OKR and Scrum.
Retain Essential Knowledge and Expand Agile Impact Sustainably
After the curtain call of RSG Taipei 2022, we have not only shared the comprehensive closing report with future organizers and mainland communities that will hold Agile campaigns in the future but also translated the report into English for introducing new ideas to the other RSG host countries around the world. In addition, we used the US$ 3,500 dollars from the RSG revenue to produce a TV episode that introduces the features and significance of this campaign, which has been broadcasted on the official Youtube channel of a TV station and has already attracted over 140,000 viewers. This action has left a memorable record for RSG Taipei 2022, expanded the recognition and attention towards Agile, and established a solid foundation for the future campaign.
To continuously expand the benefits of the campaign, we offered the precious collection of 28 visual notes (worth US$ 10,000 dollars) and four master review charts to the public on the internet (https://bit.ly/3XetqvL) for free download by anyone interested. The number of downloads has exceeded 10,000, and successfully achieved the goal of promoting Agile. When sharing the experience of organizing this campaign with the China RSG organizer, she stated that RSG was limited to the IT industries in the past, since RSG Taipei 2022 has given her new inspiration and may try in another direction for the future event. I think this is a very good benign communication.
Challenges in the RSG process and Suggestions for Overcome Them
What you have read so far are the sparkling results of this RSG; however, the process was actually filled with many challenges. I have selected the most difficult obstacles for this RSG to share with you about how I put aside my ego to solve them.
First, the most difficult-to-forget incident was regarding my promise to the audience during the event preparation: “You can watch video playbacks of all the speeches on the same evening. From the very beginning, I have required all lecturers could accept video recordings to be invited as RSG speakers; however, a misunderstanding occurred due to the cognitive gap in the implementation process and resulted in three speakers refusing to be recorded and quitting, which caused significant trouble in public opinion. To calm the storm, I issued a public statement to apologize to those affected within the shortest possible time. Although it may feel difficult or wronged at times, to ensure the success of the campaign, as the PO, I must maintain a sound mind and a humble attitude.
Another challenge is about inviting high-level executives to take part in the event. Involving high-level executives in Agile activities is a critical factor in the acceptance of Agile in Taiwanese companies. Thus, through 25 CEO-level consultants, I invited 319 senior executives to participate in this campaign. At the same time, I also held the “CEO Roundtable Forum” to share with them how to successfully introduce Agile. This approach also brought questions and doubts from some lower-level employees, as in the past Agile activities in Taiwan were rarely attended by such a high proportion of senior executives. However, I firmly believe that no organization can achieve organizational Agile without the full support and authorization of high-level executives. The final turnaround of participants in this CEO Agile Forum ranked the first among all events in this RSG campaign, with more than half of the attendees being high-level executives, showing that this decision was ultimately correct.
Finally, I would like to thank all the volunteer teams who have dedicated tremendous efforts to the campaign. Your cooperation and teamwork have been my strongest support. I also thank the audience who took part in this Scrum Gathering. It is because of your participation that RSG Taipei 2022 has become a shining milestone in Taiwan’s Agile history. I believe that the ongoing benefits of this campaign will continue to grow and Agile will continue to flourish.
Please allow me, as the PO, to express my feelings for RSG through this song, “Together Is Better Than One”
English Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvL7zRfx8lo
Chinese Version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=isbWM_XSoI8
All these good works were inspired by my strong Scrum vision: “for 100 non-IT enterprises to adopt Scrum within ten years.”
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