Why has SAFe 5 got me excited?

SAFe 5.0 is a massive step in the overall scheme of the SAFe Framework towards Enterprise Level Agility.

The First thing that excited me is the intense focus on Customer centricity and Design thinking. Customer Experience (CX) has become one of the most important focuses of any Business, most specifically in the services industry. Hence Putting the customer in the centre of everything ensure that the overall customer requirements are closely monitored while having the customer in the overall journey of product development.

Design thinking is a non-linear, iterative process which seeks to understand users, challenge assumptions, redefine problems and create innovative solutions to prototype and test. The method consists of 5 phases—Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test and is most useful when tackling problems that are ill-defined or unknown. (https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/topics/design-thinking)

Of all the important Phases of design thinking, Empathising is the most important phase. It highlights the most significant advantage of using design thinking to define efficient customer requirements and develop effective solutions.

With the focus on customer centricity and the concept of Empathic design, you are working and connecting with your customer at a different level alltoghet. Instead of using preconceived ideas and designing a solution based on the preconceived idea, you are putting yourself in the customer's shoes and seeing the solution from the customer's point of view.  For Example, having Gemba Walk sessions allows you to see the working of an overall Business Process and gives you an understanding of how a business process is followed in the real world. It also allows you to understand the environmental factors which are impacting the overall working of a system, hence giving a clear picture of the scenarios and requirements of a To-be Solution.

The other most exciting aspect of SAFe 5.0 is the work put into the Lean Portfolio Management Core Competency. I have always been a firm belief that the organisation culture flows from top to bottom, hence putting a lot of emphasis on LPM is an excellent step towards Enterprise level agility and business agility. Much focus on Portfolio vision and objectives and key results (OKRs) has been introduced as part of LPM.

All said and done, I believe SAFe 5.0 is a great Framework for Organisation transformation and will be a great operating model for any enterprise in the world.

Welcome to SAFe 5.0 !!!