2016 ITX X10 MEETING

PARTICIPATION AND SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

INTRODUCTION
Over the last 17 years, ITX has grown from a startup focused on project management, to
a team of over 100 professionals building world-class digital products worthy of the brands
of many leading organizations. This growth has been possible only because of the
strategic decisions we’ve made at all levels in the past and the constant improvements to
the way we work.

As we get better over time, it becomes harder and harder to find opportunities to
significantly improve. In addition, the opportunities we do find may not have the same size
impact. X10 is an experiment with the following hypothesis: “As we get more team
members involved, we’ll be able to identify more opportunities for transformational
improvements.” We are looking for “X10 Problems”, problems that, once solved, will
facilitate ITX’s continued growth by an order of magnitude.

INCREMENTAL CHANGE VS. TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Mastery is the never-ending search for doing better, and is one of the core values at
ITX. It’s what has allowed us to become as effective and efficient as we are today. But
not all improvements have the same impact. Many improvements are obvious,
“incremental changes” to existing policies, processes or procedures that result in
improved productivity. To be sure, any positive change is better than no change at all,
but the changes that create the biggest impacts, however, aren’t so obvious. These
“transformational changes” often challenge the way we see our clients, the problems we
solve, our processes, and each other.

Transformational change comes from a fundamental change in our business model, our
strategies, or our way of seeing the world. Here are some examples of “incremental
change” vs. “transformational change”:

Incremental Change Transformational Change

-­‐   Adding a step to an existing -­‐   Changing the way we think about
checklist. quality, so that we drive quality to
ITX standards and not to a lesser
client standard.
 -­‐   Clarifying the requirements -­‐   Moving the delivery process to one
process. that uses many ideas from Scrum
and Agile methodologies.
-­‐   Improving the kick-off experience -­‐   Creating the 5 ways we create
for a new customer. value and aligning everyone around
these methods.
-­‐   Building a process to resolve black -­‐   Eliminating the issues that cause
holes faster. black holes so they do not happen
at all.
-­‐   Improving QA plans. -­‐   Moving to test driven development.

Today, you can find plenty of evidence of past transformational changes. Much of what
makes us different from other companies is the foundation of our competitive advantage.
But some of what makes us different just makes us different. It’s not always easy to tell
the difference.

Transformational change is also riskier than smaller, more measured changes, so we

must be very thoughtful to avoid waste and unintended consequences. Because
transformational changes are not obvious, the consequences of any transformational
change are not obvious either. Thinking through risky, non-obvious changes is difficult,
but it must be done. As much as we want transformational changes that improve ITX,
we must also avoid changes that waste our resources or that create unintended
consequences. (Think of “New Coke”.) Many companies do not exist today because of
such mistakes.

We need your help to identifying potential transformational changes and to thoughtfully

consider the consequences of implementing them.

HOW THE MEETING IS ORGANIZED

The X10 meeting will be a two-day gathering at the end of January with a packed
schedule. We’ll start each day with a keynote speaker selected to speak on a topic related
to one of our core values. Then we’ll break up into smaller work groups to tackle each of
the problems on our agenda. At the end of the two days, we’ll present the results of our
work sessions.

The goal is to have representative participation from every department, from all levels of
the organization, and from many geographic areas. The participants will have the
opportunity to meet and work with other ITXers from other parts of the organization and
other parts of the world.
THERE WILL BE 16 WORK SESSIONS WHERE A SMALL GROUP OF MEETING PARTICIPANTS
WILL WORKSHOP AND BRAINSTORM ON AN X10 PROBLEM STATEMENT , REFINING THE
PROBLEM AND PERHAPS PROPOSING A SOLUTION . WE ’LL ALSO HAVE SOME SOCIAL TIME
WHERE PARTICIPANTS WILL BE ABLE TO RELAX AND GET TO KNOW TEAMMATES WITH WHOM
THEY DON ’T WORK WITH NORMALLY .

AFTER THE X10 MEETING

The outcome from the X10 Meeting work sessions will be delivered to the Executive
Team, who have already scheduled a half-day working session in early February to
discuss the meeting results and how to integrate these opportunities into the 2016 ITX
strategic planning process. The best ideas will move from proposal to implementation in
only a matter of a couple of months!

The successful initiatives that originate from the X10 meeting will be featured in our
2016 ITX Yearbook. The participants who produce the most impactful X10 Problems, as
determined by the Executive Team, will be recognized during our Monthly Broadcast,
and may be asked to become coaches for future strategic initiatives.

SUBMITTING AN IDEA FOR CONSIDERATION

X10 problems are the problems we must solve to make ITX more relevant to, and
successful in, the future.

To have a successful X10 Meeting, we’ll need well-defined problems to consider. Finding
and defining those problems is admittedly the biggest hurdle to having a successful
meeting. Look around at the way we currently operate. The problems most interesting to
us at the X10 meeting will answer one of the following questions:

•   What stands in the way of our team more completely delivering on our
Unique Value Propositions (UVPs)?
•   What stands in the way of our team living the 5 Ways we Deliver Value more
fully?
•   What stands in the way of our team finding new and challenging technology
problems to solve?

Remember, we want to define problems, and not solutions. As Einstein once said, “If I
had an hour to solve a problem, I would spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem,
and five minutes thinking about solutions.” We must do everything we can to ensure that
we are solving the right problems, otherwise our efforts might be wasted. You can use a
possible solution to help illustrate how to solve the problem, but you must define the
problem, and not be making a proposal for a specific solution. Furthermore, if you can
make a case that the solution is so obvious, then it’s not an X10 problem.
There is no standard format for submission. Simply identify the basis of the problem and
your approach to finding a solution (not the solution itself, except to illustrate a potential
solution or to help define the problem). When you submit an idea for consideration, it will
be assigned to a coach who will give you feedback and help you continue to develop the
problem. In some cases, you might be asked to work with someone else who has a similar
interest or has submitted something similar.

The coaches will select the final problems to be included in the X10 agenda, and will work
with the submitters to develop materials for use at the X10 Meeting workshop.

Submissions may be made individually or jointly by two or three team members. Groups
of larger than three must select representative(s) to champion the submission. All
submissions should be emailed to rdandrea@itx.com.

Submissions can be started at any time, but must be finished by November 25. The
sooner you get it submitted the sooner you’ll be working with a coach to get it polished
and submitted for consideration in the program. If everyone waits until the last minute,
we might not have the coaching resources to handle them all.

INVITATION PROCESS
Obviously, everyone at ITX won’t be able to attend the X10 Meeting. The number of
participants will be a budgetary decision that has not yet been made. We are trying to find
the right balance between cost and participation. Certainly we’ll have to make some
difficult choices, and we ask for your patience and understanding as we make these
decisions.

INVITATIONS WILL BE MADE IN LATE NOVEMBER . THE INVITATIONS WILL BE MADE PRIMARILY
BASED ON PARTICIPATION , THAT IS , THOSE THAT PARTICIPATE IN THE SUBMISSION AND
DEVELOPMENT OF X10 PROBLEMS . THOSE WHO DO NOT MAKE A SUBMISSION WILL NOT
LIKELY BE INVITED . HOWEVER , IF YOU MAKE A SUBMISSION , YOU CAN BE INVITED TO ATTEND
EVEN IF YOUR IDEA IS NOT SELECTED FOR INCLUSION IN THE X10 MEETING AGENDA .

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

Please watch for updates on the Meeting plans in the monthly ITX Newsletter.

For questions about scheduling or logistics, please contact Deana Yoakum.

Email: dyoakum@itx.com
Phone: +1(360)314-3094
Skype: itxdyoakum
For questions about submissions or invitations, please contact Ralph Dandrea.

Email: rdandrea@itx.com
Phone: +1(585)899-4801
Skype: itxRalph

Thank you for considering your participation in our program!