Increasing project speed and impact

Using Agile and Design Thinking to introduce New Ways of Working at Telenor

Telenor was looking for a tailored approach to increase the speed and impact of its projects. Together, we have designed a New Way of Working, leveraging the best of Design Thinking and Agile methods to be infused in the organisation through large-scale application. The practice has been anchored in the day-to-day support of individual project teams, with Implement acting as a sparring partner and facilitator to ensure continuous progress and shorter time to impact for Telenor’s top strategic projects.

Telenor has historically been a major telecommunications player in Denmark. In a fast-paced environment driven by technological disruptions and a volatile customer base, Telenor wanted to strengthen its position by developing new capabilities designed to make the company stay relevant and get ahead of the game. After having developed and rolled out a strategic innovation education programme, Telenor teamed up with Implement to shape, pilot and anchor these new capabilities throughout the organisation.

Building capabilities

The focus was set on two core capabilities:

1. Achieving a shared problem-solving mindset, using user-centric innovation methods to solve complex problems.
   
2. Establishing an Agile project model, shortening the time to impact and allowing for an iterative development process.

Implement joined Telenor’s transformation team as method stewards in order to help them translate their ambitions into actionable plans, clear working structures and hands-on activities within their teams.

The first step consisted of prototyping and experimenting with the New Way of Working based on Project Half Double and Design Thinking in the strategic programmes for three months. Experiences and learning from the pilot programmes were captured and iterated on the principles and tools that put together and formed a tailored methodology. Following this, Implement and Telenor expanded the pool of strategic programmes and key initiatives where this methodology was to be applied, while at the same time applying its essence into the line organisation. As a final step, a large-scale training programme was rolled out throughout the organisation, building and strengthening capabilities in key areas.

Along the journey, Telenor spotted one additional capability to be reinforced: portfolio management. The objective here was to design a robust governance process, enabling Telenor to focus its resources on the right projects and create the best possible framework for the New Way of Working. The exercise was conducted first with the commercial portfolio and then with the technology portfolio, with the end goal of merging them together.

The clarity and transparency this has created across the entire organisation has created an awareness of the importance of benefits realisation at Telenor. Now, projects are evaluated on the basis of the impact they create and not only if the deliverables are on time and within budget.