A couple of weeks ago, Rick Garber, our manager of process engineering at Corbis, and I attended the 2nd Lean New Product Development Summit in Chicago. This event is primarily a vehicle for Don Reinertsen to promote Lean ideas in design and product development. Last year I was an invited speaker and at Don's request presented a mish mash of stuff that spanned my adventures in Lean and Agile over the previous 5 years including results from my work at Motorola and Microsoft. I tried to present too much in a short time window and the result wasn't pretty. I didn't publish the presentation as it mostly reworked previous longer presentations. Somehow, I still managed to get invited back again this year, despite overloading last year's audience with too much material.

So, demonstrating my ability to learn from feedback, this year I decided we'd focus only on our Kanban System case study. The results were much better. This year we really got the conference a-buzz with discussion and both Rick and I were swamped with questions during subsequent breaks and at the cocktail reception in the evening. The following day many speakers were referring to our presentation with favorable comments and as a reference point for what was possible. I believe that we delivered a presentation that told a real story, presented real data and provided an actionable set of guidance that others could copy. The full presentation is available over on my Articles (and Home) page, A Kanban System for Sustaining Engineering.

A few more comments about the event...

I really like this conference. It is limited to just 75 participants. They generally range from senior process people (individual contributors) through several layers of managers including directors and vice presidents. I really don't attend any other event where I can mix with so many thoughtful and pro-active managers experimenting with Lean ideas. The participants also span a range of industries including medical products, aircraft, industrial components and high technology (not just software). This is also refreshing. It's nice to get out and mix with people from other backgrounds and be exposed to fresh ideas. I have found the event both years to be incredibly energizing and I've returned from it both times renewed and ready to push on with yet more ideas for management innovation.

My biggest wonder this year was why an event that had such a stellar set of speakers and included Mary Poppendieck as a keynote in addition to Don, wasn't sold out! If you get the chance, carve out three days on your calendar next year and attend. It's probably the best investment you'll make in a management event all year. Technorati tag: Agile, David+Anderson, Lean, Kanban, Software+Engineering, Don+Reinertsen