Agile Kolkata 29-30 Aug 2025 | Human-Centered Agility: Integrating Design Thinking, Systems Thinking, and Lean Startup by Kausik Sarkar

Agile Kolkata 29-30 Aug 2025 | Human-Centered Agility: Integrating Design Thinking, Systems Thinking, and Lean Startup by Kausik Sarkar

• 1.
  Human-Centered Agility: Integrating DesignThinking, Systems Thinking, and Lean Startup Kausik Sarkar Head of Technology – mjPRO mjunction Services Limited
• 2.
  Human-Centered Agility: IntegratingDesign Thinking, Systems Thinking, and Lean Startup Agile practices have transformed the way organizations deliver products and services, but many teams still face challenges in aligning speed with real customer value and long-term impact. This session will explore how combining Design Thinking (human-centered empathy), Systems Thinking (holistic ecosystem view), and Lean Startup (validated learning) can elevate agile beyond delivery speed — helping organizations build the right solutions, for the right problems, in the right way.
• 3.
  Agile Software Development Method Thetwenty-first century customer demands a quality application delivered almost immediately. In 2001 a group of developers met to discuss the state of lightweight (not too many rigorous rules) and rapid development methodologies. They created the "Manifesto for Agile Software Development," a document that became the cornerstone of the Agile movement
• 4.
  Key Features of Agile Software Develop ment Iterative: Entireapplication is distributed in incremental units called iterations. Active Customer Involvement: Every iteration is tested and approved by the client. The feedback obtained is implemented in subsequent iterations; Adaptive: Goal is not to remove the uncertainty in the very beginning, but is to adapt to the changing needs. Empowered Teams: The team is empowered to make decisions. People Centric: More emphasis is on using well-skilled people to do the development than on following specific processes. Disciplined: Process involves a lot of team discipline and self- discipline. Simplicity: Emphasis is on keeping things as simple as possible and being open to change.
• 5.
  Manifesto for AgileSoftware Development The Agile Manifesto contains 4 Core Agile Values & 12 principles. Agile = “Characterized by quickness, lightness, and ease of movement” Agile Software development is about fast delivery of software with more ease of development Emphasizes customer satisfaction through continuous delivery of functional software The two most popular methods are Scrum and Kanban
• 8.
  12 principles ofagile manifesto
• 9.
  Agile Methodologies (AgileUmbrella)
• 12.
  Agile has given usspeed — but speed alone doesn’t guarantee value. But today, I want to pose a simple question —one that I believe cuts to the heart of Agile’s future: Are we moving fast… or are we moving in the right direction?
• 13.
  The Agile Transformation Agilepractices have undeniably improved product delivery. Teams are more autonomous, iterative, and customer-focused than ever before. Product cycles that used to take 18 months now happen in 6 weeks. MVPs have replaced moonshots. Continuous delivery has replaced waterfall planning. That’s real progress. And yet, despite all this agility—despite all the rituals, the tooling, the sprints, the demos—many teams still struggle with the same core challenge: Connecting what we do with what our customers actually need. •We ship more, but does it matter more? •We measure velocity, but do we measure impact? •We pivot faster, but do we pause to ask: why?
• 14.
  The Alignment Gap– Where Agile Falls Short Here’s the paradox: • Agile is meant to be customer-centric, yet many teams lose sight of the customer amid the rush to ship the next feature. Why does this happen? • Because we often optimize for activity over outcomes. • We reward teams for hitting deadlines, not for solving problems. • We fill backlogs with features, not with validated by customer. • And most critically, we confuse delivering software with delivering value. This is the alignment gap—the space between doing Agile and being truly agile. It’s the space between speed and significance.
• 15.
  Value Over Velocity –A Shift in Focus FROM OUTPUTS TO OUTCOMES ASK NOT “WHAT DID WE SHIP?” BUT “WHAT DID WE CHANGE?” HOW DID THIS RELEASE IMPROVE THE CUSTOMER’S LIFE, SOLVE THEIR PROBLEM, OR CREATE A NEW OPPORTUNITY? FROM ROADMAPS TO REAL FEEDBACK PRODUCT ROADMAPS SHOULD NOT BE STATIC DOCUMENTS—THEY SHOULD BE LIVING HYPOTHESES. THE BEST TEAMS BUILD WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS, NOT JUST FOR THEM. THAT MEANS CONTINUOUS VALIDATION, RAPID EXPERIMENTATION, AND THE HUMILITY TO BE WRONG EARLY. FROM TEAMS TO SYSTEMS THINKING AGILE ISN'T JUST A TEAM SPORT—IT’S AN ORGANIZATIONAL MINDSET. VALUE IS CREATED NOT JUST IN THE SPRINT PLANNING ROOM, BUT ACROSS THE ENTIRE VALUE STREAM—FROM STRATEGY TO SUPPORT, FROM THE C-SUITE TO THE END USER. So how do we close that gap? How do we move beyond Agile as a delivery engine and toward Agile as a value engine? It starts with 3 fundamental shifts:
• 16.
  Gartner shows how ideally,inside a company, the three approaches should be combined sequentially: Empathize Define and create an idea through by Design Thinking Transforming Transforming the idea into a business model through by the Lean Start-up Building Building the final product and progressively improving it through
• 18.
  Design Thinking "Design thinkingis a human-centered approach to innovation that draws the designer's toolkit to integrate the needs of people, the possibility of technology and the requirements for business success". Design Thinking is a methodology codified at the beginning of the 2000 by Tim Brown, CEO of the Californian IDEO. Design Thinking is said to have brought the human back to the center of the design process.
• 19.
  Design Thinking isbased on the principles of Strategic Design in order to find an innovative solution to a problem keeping in mind three aspects: • Human Aspect (“User Satisfaction") • Economic Aspect (“Sustainability" and “Profitability") • Technological Aspect (“Feasibility").
• 20.
  Design Thinking Process– 5 Steps
• 21.
  Lean Start-up: fromthe idea to the product According to Forbes, globally 90% of start-ups fail and the first reason for this failure is "Produce products that nobody wants" (Fortune). This simple statistic explains very well why every company should use the Lean Startup for the launch of new products. Lean Start-Up is a methodology for the development of an idea and its transformation into business, addressed especially to Product Managers. The creator of the Lean Start-up is Eric Ries. In 2011, in his famous book "Lean Startup" Ries said: “The Lean Startup provides a scientific approach to creating and managing startups and getting a desired product to customers’ hands faster. Therefore, this methodology aims to verify quickly the potential of an idea on the market and to shorten the development cycles reducing waste. In order to do this, the Lean Startup proceeds for cyclic and subsequent experiments of initial versions of products (the Minimum Viable Products), passing to the next release only when the customer feedback has been analysed.
• 22.
  Lean Start-up: fromthe idea to the product
• 23.
  Design Thinking mustbe guided and managed, so that ideas produced are actually feasible and consistent with the company strategy. The manager who adopts the Lean Start-Up approach must be really ready and feel "authorized" to "change his mind" based on the feedback received, and not just define a priori what to release in the first release and in the subsequent ones. Agile, which moves towards greater reactivity to customer requests, must not turn into a condescending attitude, losing sight of the real usefulness of the final product. The three methodologies have in common the centrality of the client and their advantages, at least theoretical, are clear. Common mistakes can discourage companies and induce them to abandon these methodologies before seeing their fruits ripen.
• 24.
  Final Thought Friends, the goalof Agile was never just speed. It was responsiveness. Relevance. Resonance. Our work must echo in the lives of real people. And that means redefining what success looks like —not just faster sprints, but deeper impact. So as you leave here today and return to your teams, your standups, your planning sessions, I leave you with this: • Be fast, yes—but be thoughtful. • Embrace change—but make sure it's meaningful. • And above all—don’t just deliver… matter what is delivered to the customer.
• 25.
  Thank You Let’s buildproducts that matter, systems that last, and teams that learn.