[Dolf]

If you want to start really easy/low tech but still want a good-looking product I know Patboard.com has very versatile items you can stick on glass or on other smooth surfaces.

Also, just gridding a couple of regular whiteboards and start working from there gets you started quite fast, it’s a proven method I guess. You can get these magnetic A4 frames (coloured: red for bad, green for good) from any office supplies store and this structures your initial set up quite easily.

And I would start from proven formats and templates (like for example the EPIC template in the library on this website). It is such an easy scale up from just using post-its only and the information content is usually 100 x better. Also it makes it look good quite fast and in my opinion that is very important to have people buy into the process.

I am not a fan of brown paper myself (I am not really objective as we have a company called Agilewalls.nl mind you ). But in my experience it doesn’t look so pretty and often it starts falling off after it’s been used for a while. All the energy people have put in then disappears like snow in the sun. Plus sticky notes don’t seem to last on there for a long time either.

I like this discussion subject, I am really curious about what other people are using!!!

[Roy]

In the beginning, I try to avoid bought in setups. The obeya (team spot) is about the team first, they need to go through the learning process of defining what is important to them.

Bought in setups are great, but people tend to want to fill them and make them look pretty, this means they become window dressing from the beginning.

Too often a standard layout is regarded as standardisation – but it’s really just a uniform.

“The uniform does not make the person, the person makes the uniform.”

The aims are to:

1- be very functional, 2- allow for change, 3- create a team activity (the obeya is not for the manager), get everyone involved, 4- understand what Stupid Simple means for your team (KISS = keep it stupid simple).

A magnetic white board (with magnets) and a box of 3mm electricians tape is generally where I start.

Once they know what is important and how to make the obeya/ team spot work for them, then the team will naturally use it to achieve their deliverables.

Key concept:

If everything is given to you, you expect everything to be given to you, and you don’t take ownership for your own needs.

The obeya is all about making ownership visual.