Agile IQ® revolutionizes business agility by harnessing the power of AI and machine learning, empowering business leaders to navigate their transformation journey with unparalleled insights. With a rich database built on over a decade of data from successful business transformations, the platform provides leaders with the tools to optimize their approach, offering valuable product benchmarking and strategic guidance along the way.
Using Agile IQ®’s powerful impact, flow, and capability metrics, executives can streamline their agile transformation, reducing costs, and improving lead time and throughput. Its 32 behavioral metrics, including team effectiveness, psychological safety, and agile leadership, help teams foster a culture of continuous improvement and self-organization.
Agile IQ®’s AI offers over 200+ curated learning and intervention actions, providing teams with the insights they need to improve the success of product and service delivery, and increase alignment with industry best practice. The platform’s visualizations of learning actions across teams improves transparency, allowing leaders to set clear goals for growth.
The Visionaries
Agile IQ® was co-founded by Matthew Hodgson and Mia Horrigan, two visionary leaders in the field of business agility. Matthew, the CEO, brings over 30 years of invaluable expertise to the table. As an enterprise transformation coach, author, psych enthusiast, and international speaker, he has established himself as a renowned authority in the industry. Matthew’s professional journey began in the 1990s, where he pioneered online communication strategies for major corporates and Australian Federal Government agencies. His deep understanding of organizational psychology, change management, design thinking, and agile product management forms the foundation of his multi-disciplinary approach. By embracing a holistic and value-centric “systems thinking” mindset, Matthew empowers executives to tackle complex programs, propelling them towards successful business transformations.
Meanwhile, Mia Horrigan, a seasoned executive product manager, embarked on her remarkable career journey as a product manager at Roche in the 1990s. With an impressive 30 years of experience under her belt, she has emerged as a trusted leader in driving and executing intricate business transformations. Mia specializes in designing enterprise-level operating models that encompass both business and product development, working closely with notable public and private sector organizations across the APAC region. Her relentless dedication to redefining executive practices has paved the way for a new era of company management.
With over two decades of experience as thought leaders and practitioners of agile product management and lean frameworks, Matthew and Mia have significantly contributed to the agile industry. They have worked with Australian Federal Government agencies such as the Australian Taxation Office, Department of Defense, Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Clean Energy Regulator, and Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre, as well as corporates like Metcash, Nestlé, SuperChoice, and AusNet Services. They have also made substantial contributions through their writing and international speaking engagements.
Their work has played a critical role in helping organizations transform their operating models to become more agile. They have achieved remarkable results, including reducing time to market from over 220 days to as little as 4 weeks, creating operational cost savings of over $30M+ AUD per year, doubling the throughput of many teams, and improving the quality of digital products. They have worked with clients in a wide range of industries, including finance, utilities, government, and healthcare, and have helped them successfully navigate the key risks of business transformation and adopt agile operating models, from Scrum to Lean.
Matthew and Mia’s focus is on helping organizations through the psychology of change. They create a tailored approach backed with science and an approach that is repeatable and scalable to all contexts. Specifically, their methods for transformation take into consideration the ecosystem of people, process and tools to support leaders to identify data-driven goals specific to their context, culture, and organizational dynamics. By doing so, they deliver real business outcomes for their clients – measurable improvements in product management and service delivery, and the flow of value.
Matthew and Mia’s contributions to the agile industry go beyond their work with organizations. They have also co-authored several whitepapers on agile, including “Measuring Enterprise Agility” with international certification body Scrum.org™, “Agile Governance and Audit”, “Agile Product Management with Scrum”, and “Leading Agile Transformation”. Their writing provides valuable insights and experiences that are shared with others in the agile community through international speaking engagements at events such as Gartner, Agile India, Agile NZ, and Agile Alliance USA. They discuss what works, what doesn’t, and how to avoid common pitfalls to ensure that the entire company’s culture is focused on customer outcomes through networks of teams that can quickly pivot to disruptive changes and reduce waste.
Their contribution to the agile industry has been significant, and their work with Agile IQ® has helped shape how organizations use AI with data-driven insights from machine learning to approach business transformations with agility. As respected thought leaders in the agile community, their insights and experiences continue to inspire and guide others on their agile journeys.
Innovative AI-based Platform for Agile Capability Audits within Enterprises
Agile IQ® stands as a pioneering platform that harnesses the power of artificial intelligence, including machine learning, to conduct comprehensive audits of enterprise agile capability maturity. To train the AI, Matthew and his team meticulously curated over 10 years of longitudinal observational data encompassing diverse industries such as healthcare, government, IT, manufacturing, law, finance and accounting, HR, and marketing. Notably, they avoided the pitfall of relying on self-reported agile practices, which often lead to biased and inaccurate data due to individuals exaggerating strengths or downplaying challenges. Their meticulous approach ensures Agile IQ® provides a reliable and unbiased assessment of capability maturity. In contrast to competitors who merely offer benchmarks or industry averages per question, Agile IQ® provides a holistic perspective, capturing the intricate patterns of behaviors that drive business impacts, such as a culture of continuous improvement and enhanced value delivery to customers. By offering this comprehensive view of both agile mindset and associated behaviors, Agile IQ® empowers organizations to pinpoint areas for improvement and construct targeted plans for continuous capability growth and development.
Agile IQ® employs a distinctive and effective approach to evaluate agile behaviors. Utilizing its advanced AI capabilities, the platform conducts a thorough analysis of response patterns derived from an extensive inventory of up to 80 carefully crafted questions. By discerning these patterns, the AI can accurately assess the strength of essential agile behaviors relative to other companies that are in a similar stage of their agile journey, providing a benchmark that is practical and directly applicable for comparison. What sets Agile IQ® apart is its ability to generate benchmarks for flow metrics, encompassing both cost reduction and customer outcomes. This includes metrics that measure the accelerated delivery of value to the market, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation of agile performance. Furthermore, through its machine learning algorithms, Agile IQ® leverages insights gained from previous interventions in diverse organizations, enabling it to offer tailored recommendations to enhance outcomes and maximize impacts. By continuously learning from successful interventions in other organizations, Agile IQ® continuously refines its recommendations, ensuring organizations receive the most relevant and effective guidance for their own transformational journey.
Agile IQ® continues to evolve and learn rapidly from the data it consumes, enabling it to identify the critical factors help leaders succeed to drive business agility.
Recognition for Excellence in Digital Transformation and Agile Consulting
Agile IQ® has been honored with a number of prestigious awards over the years, demonstrating its excellence in the field of business transformation. In 2022, Agile IQ®’s founders were recognized in the top 10 digital transformation specialists by CIO Times and CIO Review. In 2020, Agile IQ® was awarded the ICON Award by the Canberra Innovation Network Innovation Connect Grant, and it has consistently won the Corporate Excellence Award from CV Magazine between 2019-2021. Additionally, Agile IQ® has been recognized as a top Agile Solution Provider by APAC CIO Magazine from 2018 to 2021. These accolades attest to Agile IQ®‘s success in the industry and its ability to provide innovative and effective solutions to its clients.
Valuable advice for entrepreneurs
Matthew and Mia have offered some valuable advice for entrepreneurs looking to implement agile as part of their business transformation. Here are some key points to keep in mind:
- Embrace the understanding that agile extends beyond teams and functions as a comprehensive operating model for the entire organization. It is imperative for leaders to actively engage and exemplify the behaviors they wish to see in their teams. It is crucial to acknowledge that more than 50% of business transformations falter due to insufficient involvement from leaders within the company.
- Avoid the misconception of perceiving agile solely as a project management framework. It is, in fact, a product management framework that necessitates proper training and experience for successful implementation. To thrive in applying agile practices, begin with small-scale endeavors and embrace an iterative approach that embraces both successes and failures as valuable learning opportunities. By doing so, you will expedite your learning process and progressively refine your agile operating model, continuously improving and adapting over time.
- Understand the agile mindset and principles by studying the Agile Manifesto and Principles with the help of an agile business coach. “This will help you to appreciate the value of agile and how it can help you and your company to work more effectively.”
- Establish impact and outcome-driven goals, such as cost reduction and customer usage index, and ensure regular tracking of progress. Avoid relying solely on task-driven metrics and milestones. An effective agile operating model should prioritize clear and transparent impact, achieved through enhanced throughput and waste reduction. Set this overarching goal and consistently assess progress on a monthly basis. Notably, Agile IQ® and its AI capabilities offer leaders a distinct competitive edge by providing valuable insights and actionable intelligence to support the achievement of these goals.
- Learn from agile experts and practitioners to gain a deeper understanding of agile and its implementation in real-world scenarios. “A real expert has certifications that include, for example, Professional Scrum Trainer (PST) by Scrum.org. This isn’t a certification you get in a 2-day course. People seeking this certification are expected to have more than 10 years of hands-on experience which is reviewed by a panel of peers.”
- Embrace continuous improvement by encouraging reflection and feedback at all levels – from teams to the portfolio – and make incremental changes over time supported with data.
By following these guidelines, entrepreneurs can successfully embark on a business transformation journey and achieve great things with agile.
Leadership and Motivation Can Transform Business Excellence
Matthew and Mia find inspiration in TikTok videos shared by international thought leaders, who offer concise yet impactful insights on transformation, business excellence, and leadership. One such influential figure is Simon Sinek, whose unique perspective on leadership, motivation, and human behavior draws from the fields of neuroscience and biology. His foundation in scientific understanding adds depth and scalability to his advice, making it highly compelling for Matthew and Mia in their pursuit of continuous improvement tin business agility. Sinek’s contributions provide them with practical insights in psychology and change, shedding light on the reasons behind people’s behaviors, and offering guidance on how to inspire and motivate executives to reach their business objectives. In today’s world, where many individuals grapple with questions of purpose, meaning, and motivation, Matthew and Mia find Sinek’s ideas hold particular relevance. Through his TikTok videos, he imparts practical advice and serves as a source of inspiration to them, offering valuable insights to navigate these challenges and achieve desired goals.
Commitment to Continuous Improvement and Customized Solutions
The Agile IQ® platform remains committed to staying abreast of the dynamic needs of executives, organizations, and agile teams in the industry. A core aspect of Agile IQ®‘s focus lies in deepening its understanding of organizations and their agile behaviors through data. To achieve this, Agile IQ® continuously harnesses cutting-edge technologies in AI and machine learning, empowering it to deliver advanced analytics and real-time insights. By leveraging these capabilities, Agile IQ® not only provides valuable recommendations for enhancing performance and productivity but also enables the prediction of delivery outcomes. Furthermore, Agile IQ® identifies novel areas for improvement, ensuring that organizations are constantly evolving and refining their agile practices to achieve optimal results.
Leveraging its extensive data of behavior and agile frameworks, Agile IQ® stands as a driving force in fueling innovation within the agile industry and delivering substantial contributions to the success of agile organizations in the years to come. Unwavering in its dedication to empowering organizations to transform their ways of working, Agile IQ® is resolute in its mission. As the industry evolves, Agile IQ® remains agile itself, continuously learning, evolving, and adapting to meet the ever-changing needs of organizations. With an unwavering commitment to excellence, Agile IQ® is poised to play a pivotal role in shaping the future of agile practices and supporting organizations in achieving their transformation goals.
