1. INSPIRE AND NURTURE THE
HUMAN SPIRIT
ONE FEATURE AT A TIME
Courtney Kissler, vice president, Retail Technology
Starbucks

2. MY JOURNEY
Over 20 years in the technology industry
• Started as an infrastructure engineer in Ops at two
start-ups
• Moved to Nordstrom for 14 years (held various roles
in Ops and Dev, engineering and leadership)
• Recently started at Starbucks as VP of Retail Tech
• Very different to come in to an organization at a
Senior leadership level
• Starbucks alignment and awareness of DevOps
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3. WELCOME TO STARBUCKS

4. STARBUCKS STORE GROWTH
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0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
24,000+ stores
70 countries

5. POINT OF SALE

6. POINT OF SALE
INNOVATION ACCELERATOR
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• We need to continue to unlock the capability
• Technology should be the enabler for delivering value
• It’s an amazing customer experience and now it’s all
about improving and scaling/growth

7. STARBUCKS TECHNOLOGY
TRANSFORMATION

8. STARBUCKS MISSION & VALUES
OUR MISSION
To inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup, and one neighborhood at a time.
OUR VALUES
With our partners, our coffee and our customers at our core, we live these values:
• Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome.
• Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow our company
and each other.
• Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and respect.
• Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results.
We are performance driven, through the lens of humanity.
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9. STARBUCKS TECHNOLOGY
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Talented
Technologists
Delivering
Today
Leading Into
The Future
Confident, curious, accomplished & proud
Trusted, valued, transparent & insightful
Agile, timely, modern & value-driven
Resilient, elastic, affordable & secure
Pioneering, inquisitive & game-changing
ourmission

10. ACTIONS THIS PAST YEAR
First CTO - Silicon Valley vet, technology leader
• Entered organization conducting a lot of observing and
listening
• Restructured senior leadership team - more focus, could go
deeper
• Created a common vocabulary and shared understanding
through a capability map
• Rebranded Starbucks IT -> Starbucks Technology
• Set clear vision/direction
• Strategic alignment, prioritization and focus, providing line
of sight to teams, making work visible
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11. STARBUCKS POS TEAM

12. MY INTRO AND OBSERVATIONS
• Team had a VALUE STREAM MAP
• Already set a target of moving from quarterly to monthly
releases
• Early stages of agile journey
• Curious about lean and DevOps
• Leadership alignment on value of data-driven decision-
making
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13. BURNING PLATFORM
“If it hurts, do it more frequently and bring the pain
forward” – Jez Humble
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• POS technology becomes an enabler for innovation
• Team capacity is aligned with strategic priorities
• Optimizing for speed to value

14. OUR RESPONSE
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Problem… Countermeasure…
Context switching Allocate 100% capacity to one initiative
Coordination and delivery timelines Value stream mapping
Silos Team structure by value stream
Are we working on the right thing? Line of sight to results/strategy
Prescribed processes and tools Minimal Guardrails

15. OUR APPROACH
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• Started with capacity required to support operational work
• Applied remaining capacity in priority order
• Reviewed team dynamics through the lens of:
• Continuity
• Skillset matched to work
• Mentoring/pairing opportunities
• Stretch assignments, new learning opportunities
• Made adjustments knowing that we will not get it right out of the gate and
need to allow for flexibility

16. OUR APPROACH
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• Serve others, share success
• Design for Joy
• Simple, Elegant (flexible), Emotional Connection (meaningful work)
• Show love for the brand

17. LEAN AND CONTINUOUS
IMPROVEMENT
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• Perfection of the product (maximize
customer value)
• Perfection of the process (eliminate
waste)
• Perfection of the individual (respect
people)
• AND – HAVE FUN!!

18. PERFORMANCE METRICS
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• Speed of service is a focus
• Measure and make visible transaction duration across all stores
• Changes in technology (EMV) and operational processes (adding
new beverages/food items) can now be inspected and validated
• Reliability
• MTTR
• Incident count

19. LEADERSHIP EXPECTATIONS
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• Living our mission and values
• Creating a culture of warmth and belonging, where everyone is welcome
• Acting with courage, challenging the status quo and finding new ways to grow
our company and each other
• Being present, connecting with transparency, dignity and respect
• Delivering our very best in all we do, holding ourselves accountable for results
• Articulating the “why” behind every change
• Honoring and extracting reality
• Becoming students – Go & See (not Go & Tell)
• Becoming coaches – creating a learning culture
• Leading by example - actions matching words

20. TEAM JOURNEY
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21. WHAT I NEED HELP WITH
• On-going sharing
• To hear more stories about
how leaders are investing in
themselves and their talent to
get ready for the future
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22. QUESTION & ANSWER