Speed Boat: An Agile method to discover for your projects

The whole team in the same boat

This method uses the metaphor of a boat to get players to think about what is causing them problems or what is helping them move forward with a project. Speed Boat is much more than just a retrospective; it allows collective intelligence to be brought into play thanks to the following visuals:

• The boat: This is the central element. It symbolizes the team, regardless of the subject of the discussion (create a new product, achieve a successful transformation project, design another organisation, to name just a few).
• The island: This represents the objectives to be achieved (market release of an innovative product, establishment of a new organization, improvement in a process, etc.).
• The wind: This shows the strengths of the team. Just as the wind blows into the sails of the boat, the assets identified by the group have enabled it to move forward.
• The anchors: These represent the brakes, the elements that have slowed the team down.
• The reef: This element is not used in all Speed Boat workshops. When it is used, the reef represents the obstacles that might appear on the boat's (meaning the team's) path in the future.

Once established, all of these elements enable four main themes to emerge, recalling the SWOT matrix: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

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The equipment required

Speed Boat is a method that is easy to implement. Often carried out using paperboards, markers, and sticky notes, this Agile method can also be carried out using digital tools such as Klaxoon Board.

The team chooses a background to represent the boat, the island, the anchors and the wind. They can move their ideas around as the debates progress and access the matrix to modify it whenever they want, even if their members are not physically in the same room.

All hands on deck

A Speed Boat session may be broken down in two main steps: ‍

• ‍Brainstorming‍
• Collective discussion

1. Brainstorming session

Each person thinks about the different issues to be addressed (goals, strengths, brakes and obstacles). They then draw their ideas, position them on the visual medium (paper or digital) and explain them verbally.

• If a team member finds a particularly difficult brake, he or she will show it by placing the idea very low around the anchors.
• Conversely, if they feel that one of the team's strengths will provide a real boost, they will place their idea very high in the space representing the wind in the sails.

This exercise is extremely rich because it allows for the collection of very diverse ideas according to each person's area of expertise and their different personalities and sensibilities.

Once each person has positioned their ideas, the exercise continues with a collective discussion.

2. Collective discussion

The visual medium gives the team an overview of the project. They can immediately see where their ideas converge and what issues need to be discussed.

The discussion framework is designed to allow the group to work together to find solutions from the ideas that naturally emerge:

• How can we limit the elements that slow us down?
• What assets can we use to avoid the obstacles?
• Etc.

The main benefit of this method? The whole team participates and shares a vision! Everyone says what they think, on an equal footing. The collective is mobilized and committed, without the workload of the project falling on the shoulders of a single member.

3. Room for effectiveness and creativity

Another great benefit of the Speed Boat method is that it can be adapted to your needs and wishes. For example, you can decide to set a time limit for individual reflection (5 to 10 minutes) to speed up your workshop. For an even more collaborative session, you can ask the team to design the boat matrix themselves.

Paradise island or desert island, small yacht or cruise liner... the visual representation that the group makes of your project will allow its members to see from the outset how they will approach and discuss it.

When to use the Speed Boat method?

You can use this collaborative workshop in any context and at any time.

During the project launch phase

Whether you are building a team, revising a communications plan, or even developing a business strategy, the Speed Boat retrospective will get the team moving toward defining goals. By sharing ideas and debating, the team will be able to identify the distance between their current position (the boat) and the goal to be achieved (the island).

This work will be used to break down the journey into stages. It will also make it possible to show external help (such as parachutes) on the speedboat matrix, which will enable the team to overcome any difficulties that may arise from time to time throughout the project. In this case, the workshop allows the team to have a vision for the future and to define an action plan with tasks assigned to each person.

Throughout the project

The team can reuse their Speed Boat framework from one week or month to the next. In this case, the mast serves as a visual marker between the past and the future. The group examines what has enabled them to move forward and what has slowed their progress.

It explores how the brakes can be turned into accelerators through the actions they plan (e.g., if the team realizes that they have been communicating poorly, they may decide to implement daily checkpoints the following week). When conducted in this way, the workshop plays its part in an effective continuous improvement logic by pushing the team to take notice of their assets and make progress in their areas of improvement.

During the analysis phase

This Agile method can also be done after a project is completed. In this hypothesis, the team is asked to look at how they worked. The Speed Boat framework then allows them to make an analysis, ask questions of themselves, and learn from their experience.

Speed Boat is therefore an essential collaborative tool at any point in the life of a project: easy to use, participatory and adaptable, it is an Agile working method that allows the whole team to move forward.