Agile Product Development

Traditional "management", even most software product management, is Industrial-Age Command-and-Control thinking that is net-negative for managing creatives. We need a re-framing of Agile Software Development with a business-building software Product Development mindset. Rapidly Iterative based on FeedBack. A bit post-Lean-Startup. Product-Led, Customer-Driven.

Related pages: (note they overlap and aren't fully consistent, I have to do some refactoring!)

• pre-Product-Market Fit: Adding Product To Your Startup Team, Product Management from MVP to Product-Market Fit
• Project-oriented Roadmaps are counter-productive for Software Product Teams
• Agility, Context, and Team Agency
• Agile Software Development, Extreme Programming
• Strategic Context
• Quadruple-Loop Product Management, Data-Informed Product Management
• Whole Team, Product Team: Product Team Members Report To The Team Leader
• Gardening Your Product Process
• Growing Your Startup Tech Product Team,
• My Product Development Process
• Pair-Product-Managing
• Co-Creating a Mid-Sized Product Org Change
• case-study: Building a User Success Legibility Funnel
• cf Org Writing Practices
• (2022-10-12) Accidental Learnings of a Journeyman Product Manager

Context/disclaimer: this focuses on internet-software products. I'm confident it scales up to 10 teams, I'm not as confident above that. Most pages are a better fit post-Product-Market Fit.

Short version

• execs create/maintain coherent strategic context
• execs design product boundaries/charters; set OKRs
• execs create product teams with agency, each having a single leader
• expect Teams to create north star metrics, continuous discovery, continuous delivery based on thinking in bets

I sometimes frame this as Flow-based Product Development.

• But that's not like Principles Of Product Development Flow, more about maximizing Flow State. Trying to create momentum, compounding.
• Though there's a risk of being biased toward incrementalism within a mis-designed product strategy (congruence bias).
• So it has to be reflective, iterative (reflective thinker).
• Maybe a Bottleneck framing integrates those perspectives?

Mindset/worldview

Agility, Context, and Team Agency

CheckList/Manifesto

mimic Agile Manifesto in structure/format

• congruent multi-layered strategic context over planning theater (hand-waving and wishful thinking)
• compelling customer pains over complicated solutions
• incremental/iterative continuous discovery/thinking in bets over roadmaps and market research
• whole teams with agency over matrixed committees

inspired mainly by

• Martin Cagan: posts on top-down pre-requisites (Agility, Context, and Team Agency); sources of failure (2015-06-05) Cagan Product Fail
• Ron Jeffries: esp Nature Of Software Development and (2019-09-16) Jeffries Twelve Talk
• Clarke Ching (scope-splitting on bottleneck, see Rolling Rocks Downhill)
• Teresa Torres: Opportunity Solution Tree, Continuous Discovery
• John Cutler: general pragmatic/human-centered product management
• Ash Maurya's Running Lean
• SciFi for Product People :)

The bits below which I've structured as Patterns (or Anti-Patterns) are in bold.

Positive

Strategic Context: Mission/Vision/Lean Canvas -> Product Vision/Product Strategy (Market Segment) -> OKR

• Quadruple-loop Product Management, Data-Informed Product Management for Thinking in Bets
• Continuous Discovery for OODA for Compounding value.

Product Team Members Report to the Team Leader.

Development Queue driven by BottleNeck-oriented OpportunitySolutionTree.

Lesstimating

Agility: Every team can deploy multiple times per week. Near-Continuous Delivery.

Negative (Product Management Theater)

RoadMap: Project-oriented Roadmaps are counter-productive for Software Product Teams

Big Projects ("Product Projects should be Cattle, not Pets") (hah note "Pet Project" AntiPattern)

Sprints, Velocity

Matrix management

Gantt Chart