Agile selling retail

 

Yet another adoption of Agile outside of software development presents itself again with this article on how a retail outlet called "Oddyssea" based in Half Moon Bay, CA, used Agile development principles to deploy their retail operations:

On July 14, 2012, Oddyssea, a first-of-its-kind retailer, opened in Half Moon Bay, Calif. Equal parts science, nature, games, magic and furnishings, with a generous dash of whimsy, Oddyssea thematically is dedicated to exploring, creating and discovering. What’s most interesting about the Oddyssea retail experience is it was conceptualized, designed, implemented and continues to operate using Agile. The Agile software engineering model.  But Agile is unrelated to the store’s point of sale, inventory management or financial systems. Rather, it’s completely focused on defining the retail experience... to build a retail operation that was flexible and open to customers, collaborative with his target market and, most importantly, change ready.

Leveraging the principles of Agile from software development, they customized the methods for:

• Quicker conceptualization of new retailing ideas
• Design implementation based on those ideas
• Development of a working prototype
• Testing and tweaking of the prototype based on customer feedback 
• Creating a culture of continuous improvements by making each iteration better than the last and delighting their customers

I recommend reading the article if you are interested in seeing how Agile is crossing over the boundaries of software development to the development now of retail outlets!