My development is Agile, and yet my product is muddy… Why?
A few years ago, I was heading up Product Management at a larger company. On my first day on the job, I was shown the backlog — a spreadsheet with over 500 rows. I was informed this document was incomplete and it was my job to manage this backlog.
How had the company gotten here?
In effect, the Agile methodology for product development had been repurposed into a proxy for product management. Feature requests from customers and executives went into the backlog, and every 2 weeks sprint plans would be created based on the most urgent customer needs. The product was being dragged along by momentary customer demands and executive ideas, not led by a coherent product strategy. This led to a frustrated engineering team, who saw a constant change of product direction and never got a sense of where the product was going.
Agile is at its best when it is used to iteratively explore and execute on the most effective way to solve a specific customer problem. When Agile is used to define the problem to be solved, however, you’re effectively doing a “micro-pivot” every sprint based on what features bubble to the top as most urgent.
Both Agile (and Lean) are processes for smart, feedback-driven execution, but can never make up for a lack of product strategy.
Is your company using Agile as a replacement for product strategy? Here are 5 symptoms that can help you diagnose whether you need to revive/ find your product strategy:
- Untamable backlog
Without a clear vision and strategy, all your product features look equally valid and useful. Backlog prioritization is always arduous, with a long list of features to prioritize among. And, even when prioritized, the decisions on priorities seem arbitrary. - Customer-reactive development
Every sprint seems to service the loudest customers. This reactive approach is labeled as “customer-driven” — but really, nobody is driving.There is no long term vision on where the product needs to be, and thus your product is at risk of becoming a muddled mess of contradictory features and functionality. - Building features without moving the needle
You’ve developed a lot of the features your customers asked for, and yet it doesn’t seem like the product is getting anywhere. It seems like you’re stuck at a “local maximum”, perhaps by servicing a few happy customers, but you’re not getting any closer to market domination. Acquiring each new customer requires adding new custom features. - Your PM has become a backlog administrator
The product manager’s strategic role has turned secretarial. She spends all her time organizing the backlog and holding grooming meetings. Good PM talent will find this role immensely frustrating and wasteful, and so will their teams. - Disenfranchised team
Without clear rules and principles for prioritization, the team begins to feel less empowered. They don’t know if they (or you) are ever making the right call on what to do next. You might hear them express frustration that they don’t understand the point of what they’re building. This makes it especially challenging to create a solid technical foundation that makes adding new features easier in the long run.
So, what can you do about it?
Start with aligning on the vision for your team
You likely have some kind of vision for the product in your head, shared (more or less) among the team. It’s time to get it out of your head and into the world. We recommend starting with the Vision Worksheet exercise from the Radical Product Toolkit, with each member of the product team filling out a worksheet independently, and then comparing notes. You will be able to jointly craft a vision you can all get behind.
Remember, don’t worry too much about the exact wording of the vision. Consider it your Vision “source code” — your Marketing team would typically “compile” this source code into a more polished form for specific media and audiences. We highly recommend this vision exercise for every product team.
Develop and clarify your product strategy
After aligning on your vision, we recommend working through the Toolkit’s RDCL Strategy canvas, capturing your existing product strategy and filling in any blanks that have not yet been discussed (most often this is the Logistics section).
You will want to refer back to your Vision Worksheet as you work on your RDCL Strategy to determine which items would be considered Vision Debt, and which represent Vision Investment. This will let you speak the language of “vision and sustainability” when you talk to your team about prioritizing features.
You can also use this framework to evaluate new opportunities against existing opportunities. Consider whether the opportunity brings you closer to your vision and closer to sustainability, or whether it moves you in the wrong direction on one (or both!) of these dimensions. This way of thinking creates a common terminology and alignment on an prioritization and evaluation process,even influencing decisions that you might not have a direct say on (say for example, technology development decisions).
Craft a cross-functional strategic plan
Once you have the above, then you can use the Radical Product Toolkit to create a strategic plan of activities (a cross-functional roadmap at a higher level than the features in your backlog). Your Agile development backlog should be a result of this strategic plan.
Remember that these are all living documents. You should plan to review and modify your RDCL Strategy on a quarterly basis, and your roadmap and measurement strategy every month or so.
Share your stories and experiences as you use the Radical Product toolkit to guide your Agile execution. We look forward to hearing from you!
