Review at the trade fair — Panda Story — Episode #12
Silke meets Britta on her way back to the office. They exchange a few words about the fair and Silke lets Britta know that Ray and Ken are coming to the fair as well. This news makes Britta very confident about the presentation at the fair. Meanwhile, Ray and Ken go through the click dummy again to identify any final pitfalls. They, too, are happy to be going to the fair and to be able to exchange ideas with the customers. Howard also joins them.
Howard: “How did the demo with Silke go?”
Ray: “Basically good, I think, we will be able to present it at the fair!”
Ken: “Yes it went well, although I would have liked to have had more time to demo with Silke.”
Howard: “Ohh you’re going to the fair, that’s great, when do you have to leave?”
Ray: “I think in about an hour, the fair is unfortunately not around the corner, but I want to talk to the team beforehand. The review and the retrospective will probably be a bit different this time.”
Howard: “Yes, I was afraid of that. But we have to manage both. It’s important for the team that we finish the sprint with a review and retrospective.”
Ray: “What if we just skip them this time around?”
Howard: “I don’t think it’s good for the team, we all need the feedback from the customers and of course the retrospective, the last sprint was very challenging for everyone after all. And Planning is on Wednesday, so we would miss the feedback there as well.”
Ray: “You’re right, for Wednesday I also don’t know yet which user stories I want to present to the team, that depends a lot on the customer feedback at the fair.”
Ken: “Well, we’re definitely taking webcams to the fair so that we can all participate as a team in the review and retrospective. It’s going to be an exciting new experience, the review will be a presentation to customers at the fair, so we’ll immediately get feedback.”
Ray: “I’d like to have another short team meeting now to get everyone on board for the presentations at the show.”
Howard, Ray, Ken and the rest of the team gather in the team meeting room. Ray reports how the demo with Silke went. Most of them had overheard anyway, as Silke had deliberately spoken out loud when she said thank you. Ken asks his team members if it is okay for them if he presents most of the new features at the fair in the review and they are there via webcam. The suggestion is made that they all take the time to go through the review together so that a good impression is made at the fair. Howard also brings up the topic of the Retrospective. The Scrum team around Ray, Howard and Ken is curious about how the first remote review and retrospective will go. Howard wants to prepare a suitable tool for this.
Ray: “Thank you all for achieving so much in this sprint as a team, despite the initial difficulties I am very grateful that we found a solution together to achieve the sprint goal. I’m excited that we now have the opportunity to present it to our customers at the fair tomorrow.”
Ken: “When will the review be tomorrow, do we know yet?”
Ray: “The first presentation should be at 11am if I remember correctly.”
Howard: “Good luck to us all tomorrow at the show.”
Ray is relieved and satisfied on this Monday evening that everything has turned out well. Even though there is still a lot of work to do for the team and the organisation, he now believes that the transformation can succeed.
On Tuesday morning, Ray and Howard arrive at the exhibition centre together. They still have to find the ReG AG stand, which presents them with a bit of a challenge due to the large area. When they arrive at the stand, Ken immediately starts setting up the presentation equipment. Ray tries to talk to Silke.
Ray: “Good morning Silke.”
Silke: “Good morning Ray, glad you could make it. I hope it all works out. We have the first presentation at 10.30.”
Ray: “Are there special guests coming or is it open to everyone?”
Silke: “There are important guests coming, from a big logistics company. We hope to win them as customers. Means the sales director will be there too.”
Ray: “That sounds exciting, I’d like to get the team on webcam and screen to share the presentation, our review.”
Silke: “The clients are not interested in Scrum.”
Ray: “That’s right, we can present it as a way of having all the experts ready for questions.”
Silke: “As long as it doesn’t interfere with the presentation, fine by me. I have to prepare something, see you later Ray.”
Ray: “See you later.”
Ray gets himself and Ken another coffee and then goes into the presentation area of the booth.
Ray: “Hey Ken, I brought you a coffee. How are you coming along?”
Ken: “Looking good, I can just see the frontend team has also finished the final changes, I just tested it again.”
Ray: “Great, nothing can go wrong with the presentation then.”
Ken: “Why isn’t the frontend team at the fair?”
Ray: “I don’t know, I don’t think the project manager there is such a fan of Silke, it’s probably mutual. It’s good that you have an old colleague there who helped us.”
Ken: “If we need anything, I’ve got him in the chat too. What time is the first presentation?”
Ray: “10.30.”
Ken: “Ok, perfect, the rest of the team will be in the team room ready for the review.”
The ReG AG stand is well attended, including interest in the new SuS Suite. Ray is already talking to the first customers and users and collecting feedback. The first big presentation to invited guests is coming up in a few minutes. Richard, the Sales Director, says a few introductory words and then hands over to Silke.
Silke: “Thank you for the introduction.” <nods towards the board> “We are pleased to be able to present the new version of SuS Suite to you today. For this, we have brought our colleagues on board to address any specific questions.” <Silke points to one of the monitors on which the backend team can be seen> “I will now hand over to Ray, our Product Owner . He, together with Ken, will introduce you to the new SuS Suite.”
Ray: “Thank you very much Silke. The team has been working hard for the last few weeks to make sure we can present the new features to you. We look forward to your feedback, don’t be afraid to ask and comment.”
Ray starts by introducing the new features before Ken presents them in the click dummy.
Guest: “I have a question about a feature.”
Ray: “Please do.”
Guest: “I want to be frank, with the software of a competitor of yours it’s possibility to calculate several alternative routes, also depending on different parameters such as payload. Do they offer that as well.”
Ray: “The route calculation will be completely configurable by you, as well as the parameters. Ken is happy to show a sample configuration.” <looks at Ken>
Ken clicks unerringly through the click dummy and presents the appropriate feature.
Guest: “Thank you, we can set it up just how we want it to be?”
Ray: “You can!”
Ray, Ken and the rest of the team guide through the other features of the SuS Suite, answering questions and collecting valuable feedback. At the end, Silke says goodbye to the guests while the Sales Director retires to talk further with the guests. Everyone feels the presentation was a complete success.
Silke: “Thank you both, or rather all of you, it went great. I think we won the customer with that.”
Ray: “That would be great, the feedback was very valuable. It’s good that it’s only a click dummy. We can still improve a lot there.”
Silke: “We should use this method more often.”
Ray: <looks at the monitor to the team> “Thanks for the review, I’ll hear you later for the retrospective?”
Howard: “Yes, I have already prepared a board for a remote retrospective, do you have another presentation today?”
Ray: “I think not until this evening, right Silke?”
Silke: “Not until this evening yes.”
Ray: “Ok, I’ll continue to collect feedback for us with Ken and I’ll hear from you in the afternoon for the retrospective. See you guys later.”
Ray is more than happy with the review. He immediately takes some time to document the feedback from the customers and to transfer some of them to the backlog as PBIs. The sales director talks to the guests, who are very interested in the new suite. Ray and Ken present the new features a few more times to various customers who have gathered at the stand over the next few hours.
Shortly before 2 pm, the sales director comes to Silke and is visibly irritated. He wants to know why the software is full of errors. He describes that he just wanted to present a few more features to the important customer from the first presentation and that the adjustments had not worked. Silke explains to him that the software can’t do this at the moment because it is only a click dummy. Richard talks himself into a rage, is furious that he was not informed about this and that it jeopardised the entire deal. He already had the client on the hook. Richard makes Silke understand that this mistake, at least it is one in his eyes, must have consequences. He asks who is responsible for the fact that only a click dummy is presented at the fair and not the real product. Silke tells him that the team made this decision so that at least something could be presented at the fair. Richard is not satisfied with this statement and demands that Silke has to hold someone accountable or even kick them out of the company. Such behaviour must not be allowed to become a habit; Richard is certain that it needs a firm hand and must be swiftly dealt with.
