From a Flintstone Pilot to Thousands of Users in 18 Months

Let's look through a real-world example of starting large transformations with tiny steps, breaking a large transformation program into a series of quick wins. This example comes from my pre-charity life, delivering a large transformation program for one of Australia's largest electricity distributors. It was an 18-month program, including the pilot, which rolled out a work scheduling and collaboration tool to thousands of field workers across 32 depots.

The Flintstone project was completed successfully within the first month—actually, three weeks technically—and it was already delivering some cost savings by the end of that pilot. Within four months, the cost savings realised by the unfinished solution had already paid for the whole 18-month program in advance, which is not something you see in normal projects. We saved in excess of $10 million every year ongoing after that and saved $10 million during the course of the 18-month program for a full delivery cost of just over a million dollars.

The project was originally designed as an interim solution, which is a pattern I've seen before. A big consulting firm was conducting a four- to five-year review aimed at implementing a strategic solution, like an SAP-type thing. As it turns out, they never found a better solution than the one we built. That solution is still in production, still delivering benefits, and still has a cult following. This project exemplifies the approach that I advocate and am very passionate about applying in the care sector.

We rephrased the problem and success criteria, identified the first pilot group, prepared them, ran a successful Flintstone project in less than a month, and scaled gradually over the remaining 17 months.

Step 1: Rephrasing the Problem and Success Criteria

We were initially engaged to build a scheduling system, a traditional but ambiguous task. Instead of spending 12 months scoping that up, we opted to govern the program using business benefits rather than scope. Over a couple of weeks, we held a few short meetings to understand the problem and define a commercial success criterion. The problem was simple: too many cancelled jobs due to unpreparedness. We aimed to dramatically reduce cancelled jobs as our success criterion. This metric allowed us to manage partial implementation and gradually scale up while maintaining consistent success measures.

Step 2: Identifying the First Pilot Group

We grouped the field service team into 32 depots, each managed individually. We chose one depot and further narrowed it down to a geographic team of 10-15 people for the pilot. The solution involved consolidating multiple data sources and providing a collaboration tool for the team to finalise jobs before deployment. We arranged access to necessary systems, wrote a two-pager for our sponsor, and ensured IT was on board with data security and business risk management. The pilot was designed to be low risk, with the option to stop at any point.

Step 3: Running the Pilot

The pilot involved some manual work, but it was necessary to demonstrate the benefit. We manually integrated information from various systems and built a collaboration tool. By the end of the second week, the pilot team was using the solution full-time and had already reduced cancelled jobs. The rest of the pilot period was spent adding enhancements requested by the users. This iterative approach allowed us to build features we hadn't anticipated before the pilot.

Step 4: Scaling the Solution

Post-pilot, we focused on automating manual tasks and enhancing the system based on user feedback. The funding for scaling was approved in three batches, each representing a rollout to broader groups. The savings from each phase funded the next, making the project self-sustaining. We gradually rolled out to additional teams within the first depot, then moved to other depots. Each new depot had the opportunity to review and request features, ensuring high user engagement and satisfaction.

One of the cool things about this project was our sponsor, the head of field services, describing our approach as the "white glove approach" and a "low-risk approach." His logic was that involving each depot in co-building the solution ensured high engagement and minimal disruption. We hosted the solution on secure service infrastructure, costing less than $1,000 a month for all environments. We didn't require any IT resources for monitoring or support.

Over 18 months, we completed 118 production releases, averaging three releases every fortnight. We wrote no scope documents, epics, or user stories upfront. We did minimal user experience work initially, focusing on functionality and iterating based on user feedback. This approach allowed us to deliver significant benefits quickly and maintain momentum throughout the project.

Conclusion

The success of the Flintstone project highlights the power of starting small, focusing on business outcomes, and iterating based on user feedback. By reframing the problem and success criteria, pinpointing a manageable pilot group, and scaling gradually, we crafted a solution that surpassed expectations. The project's ability to pay for itself within four months and deliver ongoing savings is a testament to this methodology. This strategy of breaking down large transformations into quick wins can be applied across various sectors, including the care sector, to achieve meaningful and sustainable improvements.

Andrew Walker
Technology consulting for charities
https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-walker-the-impatient-futurist/