Yes, I do mean the TV show “The Block”, the reality renovation competition where teams compete against each other to renovate and sell an apartment for the highest price.
Each week, every team renovates and reveals a room. Starting from scratch, they design, renovate, furnish and style the room. The teams work to achieve a common goal, deal with blockers and think on their feet to solve problems. Deadlines don’t move – each week the next room is revealed, judged and (hopefully) celebrated.
This approach is just like an agile “sprint” – a one-week time limit with a usable product delivered at the end of the week (a completed room). Whilst you couldn’t live in the apartment yet, you can test it out – assess its style, layout, try it on for size and get a feel for the end product (the completed apartment). The teams are delivering the product incrementally, room by room. They get immediate feedback from their customers (the judges). They get to improve their process and immediately “course correct” as they work to deliver the next room.
The weekly opportunity to understand the customer’s needs increases engagement and collaboration. It enables user-centred design and ensures the team delivers the most valuable features first. Just like agile software development.
Best of all? With a more complete product being released each week, the team gets to delight their customer more and more often!