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Hearing the Customer’s Voice: The Product Champion Approach
The product champion approach is an effective way to engage representatives of specific user classes in the requirements process.
Some software development approaches advocate that every project needs a full-time, on-site customer who sits with the development team and works closely with them. The rationale is sound. Only a knowledgeable, empowered customer representative can answer questions and flesh out high-level requirements. Without timely input, developers must make their best guesses about what they think customers want. The right customer can quickly clarify points of confusion and resolve conflicting requirements and priorities.
I fully endorse the value of close, ongoing engagement of appropriate customer reps, and other stakeholders, on software projects. However, rarely is a single individual available who has sufficient knowledge, expertise, and authority to make requirements decisions for the entire user community. The product owner often is expected to fill this role on an agile project.
The product champion approach is a more effective way to find the literal voice of the customer and engage suitable customer representatives. My software team came up with this approach in 1985. It works!
