MUMSNET

Mumsnet is a website for parents in the UK. It hosts discussion forums where users share advice and information on parenting and many other topic. Mumsnet also has an Influencers’ network with over 10,000 bloggers, vloggers and social media influencers.

Challenges

• Managing BAU requests coming from the users
• Product ownership and roadmapping
• Implementation of Agile ways of working and Agile adoption
• Long time lead for changes due to the monolith

Solution

• Introduction of Agile, Scrum & Kanban
• Agile training and workshops
• Defining new workstreams (product and BAU) and splitting the team into squads
• Defining the BAU SLA and lines of comms when resolving the users issues

Team

As an Agile Delivery Manager I led the whole technical team and their small squads. I introduced and implemented Agile ways of working, defined the team cadence of agile ceremonies and their interactions and dependencies with the rest of the organisation.
The team decided to follow the Scrum methodology, however the BAU team who was dealing with user requests and who worked on migration to microservices used Kanban as a more effective method in their situation.

Key Statistics/METRICS

• The lead time of BAU tickets has decreased for half of the time
• 90% of user stories completed by the product team each sprint
• Product ownership has significantly improved and the quality of the user stories and the requirements has become much more clearer
• The squads morale has increased as the delivery rate of items delivered raised significantly