Value Stream Mapping as the Swiss Knife for Business

Hey everyone, welcome back here to another Techstrong TV interview. My guest today is Markin Kakaha, and I don't know if I got that right, but I gave it my best try. Markin, welcome to Techstrong TV.

Thanks for being on. Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. So Markin, we were talking a little off-camera, but give people a sense of who you are and what you do, where you've been.

Sure. I'm 20 years in IT. Started from startups, being engineer, then moved into consulting, and this is what I'm doing now.

Then IT strategy, building operating models and topics related with how to connect, again, IT and business. Excellent. And where are you based?

Hey, I'm based in Gdansk, Poland. Very cool. And now I just want to make sure we got the name of your company in there, right?

It's Caterpillar Garden? Yeah, exactly. It's Caterpillar Garden.

See, there must be a story behind that name. What's the story? Yeah, there is a story.

I started my consulting when digital transformation is a very strong topic on the market, and Caterpillar Garden is kind of a metaphor that companies I started working with are like caterpillar, slow, a bit of big and ramshie, let's say. Mm-hmm. And the goal is to be early butterfly.

Then Caterpillar Garden is the place where you can transform. Metamorphosize, right? Metamorphosis.

Yeah, exactly. Very good. And so as part of your consulting in Caterpillar Garden, you're dealing a lot with value stream and mapping and so forth, flow.

Yeah, I use it to recognize what's really important in our discussions regarding different topics, right? And value stream is core backbone for talking about strategy. If the strategy really delivers what to drive value about right now, for example, digital sovereignty, and which services are really critical in your business and value generation, if they are sovereign, if you can improve it and start like this, right?

Then I use it as the main line to make sure- Got it ... that we concentrate on what matter, right? Understood.

And the reason I brought up the value stream is you're one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Flowtopia conference. We'll get into what your session's about in a second, but let's talk a little bit about the conference, the community, and what drew you to submit to speak there. Okay.

Yeah. I'm in community for two or three years right now, and then previously it was named Value Stream Management Consortium. Yes.

And then I started with a different name. What drive me there? I work a lot around DevOps topics, even previously before the consulting.

And it looks like natural extension. Like DevOps is about building processes, standardizing things, et cetera, and value stream management extend this topic. Then this is how I land there, then I change it a bit what I'm doing, and it still fit, right?

And the tools still fit. Then I live in this core community and kind of event right now work to give some value to the community itself. Excellent.

Is this your first time presenting at Flowtopia, though? Or have you presented before? Yeah, it's my first time on Flowtopia.

So what pushed you over the edge to submit to speak then? Oh, I have experience in speaking, but on technical topics in a lot of conferences, mostly in Poland. When I switched to the business and merging IT with business, I think that there is not too much conference on these topics, especially in my region or my area.

Then Flowtopia sounds like, okay, there is something that I can really give value because it sounds aligned with what I'm doing, right? I prefer to talk on topics where I really have years of experience, not on the topics that I just touched. Excellent.

All right. Let's dive into your session. What are you presenting on?

Yeah. I will talk about value stream mapping, that it can be kind of the Swiss knife for business. Because a lot of people think about value stream mapping as the tool for process mapping, for improving quality of processes.

But I found that actually it can be used much more widely, right? I have working with different types of companies, enterprises and startups in the same time, right? Then, for example, in startups, I have customer thatHave problem with process, but with process in the end, we recognize it's part of the sales process.

And we got from value stream mapping to value stream mapping that show you, forecast how much you can earn. Depends on waste is in this process, drops in the process, et cetera. And I understand that it becomes business framework, right?

Not only framework to improve processes in technology, right? Mm-hmm. And how have you prepared?

Because look, I've also spoken at a lot of conferences over the years. Sometimes I have a talk that I've given at multiple conferences. I change it, it evolves into everything else.

Other times I, really depending on the conference itself, and if it's something that really gets me, I'll make something up just for this conference with what I'm seeing right now. How about you for this? Is this something you've been working on a while, or is something you drew up just for Flowtopia?

This is totally for Flowtopia. I have also the topics that, with different twist, fit into multiple angles- Mm-hmm ... at conferences, but this is totally designed for Flowtopia.

" Then I bring it to the table, and I recognize actually before writing the abstract for the topic, that I have five or six examples I can show, and they are totally different for why people use visually. Then it sounds like really valuable presentation of how we can use this tool as universal, right? Yeah, absolutely.

If you could show five or six real-world examples, that's something people can learn from. Now, the event is virtual. It's been in person in years past, but it's virtual.

Does that affect-- Well, it's probably easier for you. You don't have to travel. When they had the event, it was out in Las Vegas.

From Poland, that's a far trip. So do you like doing the virtual events? There are pros and cons of virtual events.

Yeah. Sure. Of course, you have broader audience.

You can meet people from entire world. But from the second side, it's not the same as being able to speak with people around the coffee machine. Then I think it have benefits, and it have kind of the things that you cannot add this way, but it's valuable, as long as people get something from it.

Mm-hmm. I was on the previous Flowtopia as a person that watched it, and for me, 70% of talks are really valuable. I take thousands of notes from it.

Uh-huh. And I think, yeah, this is event that you should attend. Good.

All right. Last topic I want to cover with you. Of course, AI is changing everything, whether it's generative, agentics, agents, all of this.

How is AI kind of influencing what you're doing already or maybe will influence, you think, in the near future? Yeah, there is two sides of this topic for myself because it change how I work. This is the one side, of course.

I think it simplified being solo consulting, because I built agents that search informations for me, build reports, build fill the framework like SWOT analysis. Even right now, I built team of agents that do wargaming for myself, and I do wargaming sessions with them and improve test hypothesis, and it takes like, I don't know, five, six hours. Normally, wargaming is a couple of days and team of people.

Then from this side, I think it's easier right now to be small consulting company having AI. From the second side, it impact my customers. " Usually it start like that.

Usually they have ideas that are kind of marketed on the LinkedIn, et cetera. Then when we go deeper, we can understand that this is not a good place to put it, and I use here value stream mapping to show them, guys, you have problem in this part of the process. Adding AI here, it's not big benefit for yourself, right?

Excellent. Martin, besides your session, I'm sure you've looked at the agenda, some of the other sessions. What session are you really looking forward to attending?

Oh, this is a quite complex question because I have even problem to decide which one from two to go. I don't remember title, but one thing that I think it's my favorite, it's about how using value stream management change organizational culture, then the impact of the human side of the business. I think it's important because every time transformation is about people right in the end.

Absolutely. Then I think it's important topic. Excellent.

Well, Martin, I want to first of all thank you for coming on Techstrong TV. Wish you well with your session at Flowtopia and in your business. Maybe after the show, we can get a feedback from you how it went and what your thoughts were.

Sure. Excellent. Thanks for coming on.

Good luck. You're watching Techstrong TV. We'll be back in just a bit.