At Hard Yards, we try to eat our own dog food. Strategic alignment is one of the most challenging things for our client partners to achieve. In 2021, we focused on aligning our marketing strategy with the products and services we believe are most important to digital transformation and product development today. We created a word cloud (in the shape of a boat - of course) based on all our social media posts for the year to see if our actions and words were aligned. The Data Dojo and Accelerator are clearly central to our effort in 2021. Let us know if you like the cut of our jib!
2021 Hard Yards Word Cloud
Data Dojo
The Hard Yards Data Dojo is an immersive 5-day experience. Through the week, you will uncover the relationship between enterprise architectures and enhanced product development. You will LEARN to read, write and communicate data in context, including an understanding of data sources and constructs, analytical methods and techniques applied. And just like a martial arts dojo, the Hard Yards Data Dojo emphasizes “learning by doing.” We leverage your real data to showcase best practices of data understanding, data preparation, and modeling to enhance decision making.
Design Thinking
Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to problem solving and strategic innovation. It has surged to prominence because it allows teams to research and design solutions by focusing on the needs, expectations, and emotional insights of customers. The Hard Yards’ 3-day highly interactive and collaborative workshop is ideal for those that are ready to level up to Dual Track Agile, a process that blends continuous discovery with delivery.
Accelerator
While supporting a Fortune 10 Healthcare company, Hard Yards developed a structured coaching curriculum to help practitioners and teams put product development theory into practice. We call these ‘Accelerators’. These Accelerators enable agile transformation at scale because they create a one-to-many relationship with the coach and enable a repeatable way to train the trainer. We have had great success executing Accelerators in Silicon Valley technology companies, top-tier banks, and in the national security market. If you are struggling with alignment and getting your teams started or managing a portfolio at scale, our Accelerators will help get you through the Hard Yards.
Definition of Done
One of the most important things a team can do when starting working together is create a shared Definition of Done. The Definition of Done is a list of criteria that the team identifies as required for any piece of work to be considered “done”. Only when the work product satisfies all the criteria can it be considered completed.