This document discusses the implementation of Portfolio Kanban at Trade Me to improve project workflow and management. It describes how they visualized their workflow, limited work in progress, established prioritization and policies, and linked the Portfolio Kanban system to project squads. This resulted in fewer projects in progress and improved ability to work on the highest priority projects. The document advocates the six steps of Portfolio Kanban and shares Trade Me's experience in implementing the framework.

1. Sandy Mamoli
@smamol
sandy@nomad8.com
www.nomad8.com
Portfolio Kanban
AgileAustralia Quiz: bit.ly/agileoz1
Or pull down from the session description in the app

2. Number of Member Accounts 3,400,000
2 thirds of NZ’s domestic internet traffic

3. Each month we:
• Send 80 million emails
• Serve 1.5 billion pages
• Sell 3000 chickens
Every second we have:
• 10,000 images served
• 20,000+ DB transactions
• 450 auctions viewed

4. Growing

6. I asked and found ...
‣ Projects take a really long time to get
finished
‣ We don’t know where our projects are at
‣ We can’t trust the estimates

7. Project stickies

8. We realised...
‣ Heaps of projects are in progress
‣ We have no idea of what our capacity
is

9. Causes

10. Lackofvisualisation

12. Lackofvisualisation

16. Solution

17. Moving targets

18. Small Stable Teams

19. Stable work

20. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

21. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

22. Step 1: Visualise

24. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

26. Block stuff in
progress

28. Blocked means don’t work on it!

29. Sandy Mamoli
@smamol
sandy@nomad8.com
www.nomad8.com
xc

30. How we prioritised

31. Whichprojectstoblock?

33. Prioritisation session outcomes
‣ A ranked list of 14 projects
‣ Shared understanding of all projects
‣ An agreement to do this every 3
months
‣ Acceptance that things will change

34. Priorities <> Our Work

35. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

37. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

38. Sandy Mamoli
@smamol
sandy@nomad8.com
www.nomad8.com
Definition of Done

39. Explicit exit policies

41. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

43. What matters to Trade Me?
‣ Get stuff out fast
‣ Have high quality
‣ Have happy clients (business people/
end users)
‣ Have happy employees
‣ Build the right thing

47. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

48. Visibility

51. Link to squads

52. What we got out of it

53. Fewer projects in progress

54. Working on the right stuff

58. What next?

60. Portfolio Kanban
1. Visualise your workflow
2. Limit work in progress
3. Manage flow
4. Make policies explicit
5. Implement feedback loops
6. Improve collaboratively

61. Thank You
www.nomad8.com
Sandy Mamoli
sandy@nomad8.com
@smamol
AgileAustralia Quiz: bit.ly/agileoz1
Or pull down from the session description in the app