Agile Ideologies with Carl Elliott, Director of Agile Delivery

“Agile is a mindset. It’s also really about leveraging the power of everyone in the organization.”

Carl Elliott came to Flipp looking to make an impact. Joining a company that was already living out elements of an Agile workplace gave him an opportunity to further develop Flipp as an Agile organization, and educate the wider company about the benefits of this ideology for all teams — not just those focused around building product.

Today, Carl leads a team of Scrum Masters and Program Delivery Managers who help drive Flipp’s innovation and product. We sat down with Carl to discuss his career path and the impact Agile has had here at Flipp.

So, the burning question, what is Agile for people who may not be familiar with the term?

Well, the shortest answer is that there’s no definitive answer. Agile began in 2001 as an attempt to define a method of managing and organizing an empowered workforce. Distilled down to its origins, Agile is a collection of 12 principles that form the Agile Manifesto. When you look at the Agile Manifesto today, it’s important to look at in the context of when it was created — it was a time when businesses were run from the top down. The industry has evolved beyond when it was created, but it is ultimately a mindset. Just like a company has values and principles, Agile has values and principles that dictate an environment that promotes empowerment, reflection, and adaptation for the people on the team.

We talk a lot about homothumadon (definition: ‘to rush along in unison’) here at Flipp, and while the word can be difficult to understand, Agile and homothumadon really are the same thing. We’re one team working toward one goal.

Can you give us a glimpse into how you got started working in Agile?

I originally got into software development because I loved video games. I went to school for development and found that it wasn’t for me. As soon as I wrote something I’d find I wasn’t happy with it and would rewrite it into something better or more efficient. These constant “refactoring cycles” were fascinating to me but also incredibly frustrating. Ultimately I decided to pivot towards QA (quality assurance). I learned that the key to being successful in QA was being able to identify problems and solve them as early as possible, ideally before you create them, which was a good challenge for me. This eventually led me to focus on the processes and ways of working we were using that were allowing problems to be created in the first place. I didn’t necessarily realize this was ‘Agile’ at the time, it was just the way that I enjoyed working. The process work dovetailed into project management and team leadership and I found myself in a project management role at a company that was attempting to incorporate Agile ideologies across the entire company, including the professional services team that I was part of. It was at that point I got my Scrum Master certification and started working explicitly in Agile processes.

Why were you interested in joining Flipp?

I worked for some very established organizations, and it made me realize how important it is to get buy-in from the entire company in order for it to succeed. A company can’t just have an ‘Agile’ team, they need to adopt the ideology across the entire organization — and particularly in leadership — to be effective, so I wanted to join a company that understood the need for organizational alignment.

Also, I was a real ‘flyer guy.’ I wanted to be somewhere where I completely believed in the product. I’m dating myself, but I had a paper route as a kid and would get the sale inserts early, so I’d know the sale prices before anyone else. Even though I had no money then, I loved reading about weekly sales. So I believed in Flipp’s product and vision, and I thought it was a place that I could make an impact.

And what helped you make the decision to join?

I could tell Flipp wanted to go in an Agile direction, that it was appropriate for their situation, and I felt I could help. Frankly, I liked the challenge that the take-home assignment presented during the interview process. I liked that I was given leeway in my approach to solving a complex problem. It also gave me a taste of the way that we work here at Flipp, which was adaptable and collaborative.

What are the benefits of Agile? Why has it been so important to Flipp’s success?

Well, if you think about our company as a whole, our values and principles are really just words until you put them into action. But when you invoke an Agile methodology behind them, you take these principles and push them through the organization to ensure that everyone in the company is operating with those in mind. There really is a parallel between a company’s values and Agile when it’s done properly and it’s far more likely to be successful when those values already align with the direction you’re going in.

Obviously we practice Agile methods across the organization, but what does your specific team of Agile experts look like?

Our team has a number of Certified Scrum Masters and Program Delivery Managers who support our Engineering teams. We structure our Engineering teams around the work that needs to be done, and the scrum master will sit with that team. The scrum master has certain Agile subject matter expertise, but they’re also a member of the team that they work with. They don’t necessarily come from a software development background, but it does help to have a somewhat detailed understanding of what our developers are working on when you’re sitting with them and embedded in their day-to-day.

What advice would you give to a company that is starting out and adopting an Agile methodology?

Agile is really about leveraging the power of everyone in the organization. Agile is something that you have to ensure you understand, and really acknowledge and commit to the whole company working within its principles. Many organizations say they want to be Agile without truly understanding what it is they’re committing to. It often means those who made the decision to go in this direction will themselves have to change the way they work. Agile requires both trust and healthy conflict, and moving as much decision making as possible closer to the people doing the work.

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