@GoAgileCamp

#AgileCamp2017

2017

Product Development

Shaun Childers

Effective Practices for Building Great Products and High-Performing Teams

@childershaun

Product Development Leader

2

We’ve lost sight of Agile along the way

• Was Agile invited to the party?

• Doing Agile (aka, following the rules) has become the thing

• Frameworks have become:• Safe place to hide; roles for everyone

• Accountability mitigation tools

• More important than Agile

• Values-based Agile has taken a backseat to profit-based “Agile” (frameworks, consulting, certifications)

• Today’s “Agile” mimics the subway and we shouldn’t need a map

Our new normal:“Process Theatre”• Point normalization so we can predict across teams, orgs, “trains”

• CoEs resembling PMOs

• Top-down, process-heavy, prescriptive rules

• Recorded demos to watch with no ability for direct feedback

• Business is good, it’s an IT problem

• Made-up roles (Conway’s Law)

• Fake customers

• Managing cross-team dependencies instead of removing them

• One-size-fits-all frameworks

• Development teams work in bubbles (no idea what real-world software is)

• Organization design problems ignored while “scaling” problems explored

• Agile “health” checks

• Hundreds of books with hundreds and hundreds of pages to describe the 17.5 page Scrum Guide; Manifesto is 4 values, 12 principles

3

A tale of perspectives, are they both right?

4

VersionOne 11th Annual State of Agile Survey (2017)

• At some point some of those claiming how great Agile is will become obsolete (and part of the statistic).

• It doesn’t matter how Agile you are, but if you don’t take a holistic perspective to understand and manage your company’s products and their position in the marketplace, you won’t survive.

ValuesPrinciples

Self-Organizing TeamsPrioritized Backlogs

User StoriesFeedback Loops

InspectionTransparency

Adaptation

BottlenecksVisualize work (kanban)

Remove wasteWork In-Process Limits

Pull SystemValue Stream

Customer valueSystem Optimization

Level FlowLead/Cycle time

Continuous Improvement

+Agile LeanProduct

Development

Explore the ProblemProducts

ExperiencesPersonas & Journey MapsCustomer Development

Customer FeedbackMarketsIndustry

Gap AnalysisCompetitor Analysis

Investment MixHypotheses

Continuous Discovery

+

Agile alone can’t make you great

BUILD DELIVER VALUE

5

Agile alone can’t make you great

6

• Understand where you are in the product life cycle

• Achieving PMF is great, but those ideas have to come from somewhere and at some point we still have to manage a declining product

Are Low-code Platforms the Holy Grail?

7

• IT disappearing act…shadow IT no more

• Futile to invest in IT/teams being “Agile”?

• Justify investments holistically - remove battles for limited funds across competing interests

• When you remove IT, does Agile (and big, fancy frameworks with excess process) go away?

• How fast can you get feedback? Accelerate learning…

• Junk in = Junk out (going fast is only beneficial if you’re delivering value)

• Slay your bottlenecks, including DevOps (Theory of Constraints)

• Focus on organizational agility (not on making IT/Engineering “Agile”)

• Continuous discovery (more ideas = more chances to win)

8

“Our designs are only important if they make (or support making) money via customer happiness (implied value). Making money only happens if we can convert our designs into value faster than our competitors can. The ability of a design to make money is affected by time.”

– Don Reinertsen

“The only sustainable competitive advantage is your organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.”

– Peter Senge

8

#1 Competitive Factor: Time

LeanAgile

CustomerExperience

ProductIdeas

HypothesesDiscovery

. . .

• Stop trying to redefine Agile, Lean, etc.

• Stop waiting on “requirements” to show up at your (IT) doorstep - seek them out

• Business and IT should be on the same team, focused on market needs

• Embrace products and product development to exploit your opportunities

We’re in an age of opportunity{ }

9

1

2

How to optimize product development

10

Centralized coordination in support of decentralized executionBecome product-centric

Assemble a product management team

Create 1..n cross-functional product teams

Push decision-making down to those closest to the work

Maximize high upside potential while minimizing high downside riskMaximize the value of your product, product line, and product portfolio

Focus on 5Cs

Diversify your investments

Adopt practices to align strategic management and tactical execution

(and the ability to exploit opportunities)

1

Become product-centric

Centralized coordination in support of decentralized execution

Assemble a product management team

Create 1..n cross-functional product

teams

Push decision-making down to those closest

to the workProduct Portfolio

Product Line 1

Product Line 2

ProductProduct

• Containing all skills to deliver value without handoffs

• Multi-skilled (T-shaped)• Maximum throughput via

many routes• Modelled after the Internet

and packet routing

• Remove the need for approval

• Trust your teams know best• The speed of movement

necessary to adapt while still achieving overall objective

• Modelled after the military

11

• Organization• Taxonomy• Funding• Master Library

2

Maximize the value of your product

portfolio

Maximize high upside potentialwhile minimizing high downside risk

Situation Analysis: Focus on 5Cs

Diversify yourinvestments

Align strategic management and tactical execution

• New versus existing• Balance number of initiatives• Mix of innovation types• Mix of risk types

Long-term, short-termHigh risk, low risk

• Balance initiatives against resource availability

• Vision• Strategy• Demand Management:

Demand PlanningCapacity PlanningBalancingReview

• Product Review• Product Portfolio Review

• Company• Customers• Competitors• Collaborators• Climate

• (Re)Align priorities against strategic objectives

• Assess ROI of initiatives• Holistic picture

DemandCapacityFundingPrioritiesMarketValue

• Product performance data• Ensure proper funding levels

12

Align strategic management and tactical execution

13

PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

EXECUTIONMANAGEMENT

STRATEGY

DEMAND MANAGEMENT

INPUTS:

Customer FeedbackCTO -> Technology DirectionCompetitive LandscapeIndustry TrendsCorporate StrategyData

…

PRODUCT BACKLOG

AGILE TEAM(S)

PRODUCT RELEASES

Customer(user)

Customer(influencer)

Company

Company

Bank Insurance Financial Services

Infrastructure

Operations

Suppliers

MonitorDBBuild Deploy

Product Organization

Cloud App Server

Infrastructure

Tools Frameworks Pipelines

ProductPortfolio

Solutions

ProductLines

Products

Head of Product

= Product Manager

Vision

Biz Logic +UI

Biz Logic +UI

Deploy

(Months+)

(Minutes)

App Server

Cloud

Market Share:

4%INTRO

Market Share:

96%DECLILNE

• Focus on your market and value• Operate like a venture capitalist

• Establish a product taxonomy• Maximize the value of the portfolio

• Organize around products (persistent)• Run your product org like a company

IT IT IT

14

= Roadmap

Tact

ical

Stra

tegi

cProduct Review

CRM (Focus Group)SRM

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

Demand Management:• Demand Planning• Capacity Planning• Balancing• Review

Product Portfolio ReviewCRM (CAB)

Additional ongoing activities:• Marketing/Communications• CTO• Market Analysis• Competitor Analysis• Financial Analysis• Support• Professional Services

Strategic Planning

15

16

Key TakeawaysDon’t become a victim of “process theatre”

Recognize Agile for what it is, nothing more; aim for agility

Your biggest competitive advantage is time

Become product-centric and optimize product development

Exploit market opportunities

Diversify risks across the product portfolio (act like a venture capitalist)

Start now, continuously improve, and build great products

Disclaimer: No Agile coaches or consultants were harmed in the making of this presentation.