The term MVP (Minimum Viable Product) is a common term in product management and organizations. What if instead of MVP, the focus was on MVF (Minimum Viable Feedback)? Roman Pichler states, “The minimum viable product (MVP), as originally defined by Eric Ries, is a learning vehicle. It allows you to test an idea by exposing an early … Read more Minimum Viable Feedback
Have you ever delivered working software not knowing what the key performance indicators (KPI’s) were before and after? As a product owner, it’s easy to get caught up in constantly delivering items and not putting enough emphasis on the why and what. In my previous blog post, I discussed using the scientific method approach to … Read more Defining Key Performance Indicators
Are you rushing to solutions? Are you not using data to help make decisions? Are you not clearly defining the why and what before the how? Many organizations and people operate this way. It is something I have struggled with myself in multiple positions and industries throughout my career. So how do you change this … Read more Using the Scientific Method for Problem Solving
Is anyone at your organization able to communicate the vision for your product? Having a vision for a product is very important. When there isn’t a vision, I have found that it is easy to get stuck in the day to day short term thinking of features and user stories that don’t roll up to … Read more Creating a Product Vision
Are your business people involved directly in your development process? Do they give feedback directly to the development team? One of the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto is “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project” In other words, developers should ideally have a direct channel of communication to their business … Read more Developer and Business People Engagement
Do you find that it takes months to years to deliver your organization’s products and features? Does your organization try to get all the product scope complete before shipping value to the customer? In the Agile Principles, one of the principles is “Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work not done–is essential.” This means what … Read more The Art of Simplicity
I often have many ideas in different places that pertain to a specific product or project. This makes it hard to see all of your ideas as well as be able to prioritize which ones are the most important. I have found great value in having one backlog to store all of these ideas. I first … Read more One Product, One Backlog
Do you know your customer’s pain points? Do you understand how they currently do their job? Do you know how to make their jobs more efficient through better products and design? Do you have empathy for them? These are all questions that I have asked myself throughout my career. An ideal way to find the … Read more Customer Empathy
Change is hard for humans in many situations. When talking about an organizational change such as agility the combination of alignment and a unified vision as an organizational whole becomes very important. What is the plan for the future? How will the organization be planning throughout to inspect and adapt to the overall vision? For … Read more Importance of a Unified Vision