Organization Transformation: Agile Operating Model

Strategic Design

The Challenge:

“Deliver faster and better results by accelerating the design, development and delivery of user-centered technology by shifting to a ‘product and platform’ operating model that incorporates business and technology perspectives.”

— Strategic Operating Plan, FY2023 - 2031

Constraints:

  • Limited executive understanding of digital transformation operating model fundamentals

  • Lack of unified leadership commitment to drive the transformation

Image of operating model elements with an aperture focused on "value" and six wedges for strategy & governance, customer understanding, service design & improvement, technology adoption & integration, organization & culture, and measurement.

Key Activities:

Stakeholder Engagement:

  • Designed and conducted 26 executive interviews across all divisions

  • Tagged and analyzed interview data to surface and quantify impact of recurring pain points

  • Mapped themes to six operating model elements and best practices

  • Presented key insights to senior sponsor executives

My Role:

Subject matter expert to executives and teams in both the federal agency and MITRE to translate and apply evolving agile enterprise principles and practices.

Sponsor executives included:

  • Associate Chief Information Officer for Strategy & Planning

  • Transformation & Strategy Office Foundational Technology Lead

  • Operating Model / New Ways of Working Team Lead

  • Multiple executives from Business and Functional Operating Divisions for stakeholder engagement

Provide Tactical Guidance:

  • Adapted "products and platforms" concepts to sponsor-specific org design, governance, and team structures for multiple business and IT functions

  • Created step-by-step guidance for building platforms as “capabilities as a service”

  • Supported leaders in refining OKRs to focus on customer-centric outcomes

Image of a slide that shows the structure of a service design platform capability as a service.

Create Transformation Strategy and Roadmap:

  • Developed a transformation roadmap using Kotter’s eight-stage framework*, aligning strategic and tactical activities

*Kotter, J. (2012). Leading change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 194 p.

Outcomes and Impact:

  • Shaped organization design and operating model principles adopted by leadership

  • Sparked cross-functional workshops to apply domain-driven design to enterprise architecture

  • Laid foundation for enterprise adoption of a “product operating model”

Next

Strategic Design & Culture Shift: Modernizing Census Data Dissemination