Introducing Agile Practices Inspired by Pixar at Mastercard
IT ALL BEGAN WITH A BOLD MOVE...
Upon joining the mobile development team at Mastercard, Donal embarked on a transformative journey by stepping beyond his comfort zone. Voluntarily taking on a leadership role, he became the linchpin connecting a team of five within an engineering pod to both the product team and broader business outcomes. Drawing inspiration from Pixar's innovative idea development process, Donal introduced agile-based rituals, creating a platform for the mobile team's engineers to share their work and ideas. These practices not only enhanced creativity but also elevated morale, improved code quality, and reduced deployment times.
DONAL’S LEADERSHIP IN ACTION
Pixar-Inspired Ideation Practices: Influenced by his research on Pixar's idea development, Donal integrated agile rituals to foster creativity within the mobile development team. Ideation sessions provided engineers with dedicated time to experiment with new app functionalities, while napkin presentations allowed them to showcase early-stage ideas to the product team. Additionally, storyboarding, using the drawing toast activity as a template for journey mapping, empowered developers with insights into how their work contributed to the overall product.
Agile Wrappers for Bespoke Processes: By seamlessly integrating these innovative practices into traditional agile rituals, Donal crafted a customized process that empowered the team to produce their best work. This approach resulted in a notable improvement in output and quality, earning commendation from the product team.
TRANSFORMATIONAL OUTCOMES
Efficiency and Global Accessibility: Donal's leadership contributed to a remarkable 20% reduction in the time required to translate applications into over 50 languages, ensuring global accessibility and efficiency.
Stability and Deployment Success: There was a striking 50% increase in the measured stability of application deployments, with 50% more deployments proving successful without issues such as bugs or deployment blockers.
Enhanced Team Retention and Satisfaction: Under Donal's leadership, there was a noteworthy 23% increase in developer retention within the team, accompanied by a 33% increase in the length of tenure compared to prior leadership.
Elevated Employee Satisfaction: The yearly employee satisfaction survey reflected a significant 38% increase in responses indicating that employees felt their contributions made a real-world impact on Mastercard's products and customers.