Category Archives: Quality

Becoming Agile – It’s No Longer Optional

Posted on May 21, 2017 | Leave a comment

Most companies deliver software products by using dozens of teams focused on different stages of the product development lifecycle.  And today’s competitive pressure to deliver products faster means that most firms are experimenting with agile development techniques.  They often they settle on one of the many flavors of agile – Scrum being the default choice.  Typically, they start with a proof of concept using a few Scrum teams, achieve some noticeable measure of success, then start to scale agile across the enterprise.

And that’s when the problems start.

Enterprise agile – versus team-level agile – requires a different organizational mindset along with new roles and practices.  There are several enterprise agile frameworks available (Scrum, SAFe, LeSS and XP) that can provide a blueprint for development activities, but switching to these frameworks isn’t the biggest challenge.  Enterprise agile is a radical change from how most organizations think about their product development work.

As a consultant who helps firms on their agile transformation journey, it’s clear that agile is now vital to long-term product success.

AgileCraft CEO, Steve Elliott, predicts that those Fortune 1000 companies who have resisted agile transformation will now jump on board. Steve writes that every large enterprise will sooner or later realize “…every company is now a software company…” And I’ll add to Steve’s prediction; those firms who are already on the agile transformation path will experience significant competitive advantage over the laggard adopters.

In 2014, Faisal Hoque wrote in Fast Company (“Adapt or Die, Your Business’s Only Option in an Evolving Economy”) companies require four qualities to effectively respond to market change.

1. RESILIENCE – Able to bounce back from setbacks.

2. INNOVATION – Able to develop new products that advance beyond the competition.

3. AGILITY – Able to act nimbly to seize opportunities faster than the competition.

4. ADAPTABILITY – Able to sustain innovation through repeatable processes versus happenstance.

Today’s business economy is fast and dynamic and the principal challenge facing management is the ability to quickly respond to changing market conditions. Companies that are adaptable, agile and resilient will be best equipped to experience sustained success.

Most technology companies won’t survive the next decade. Research shows that those with the highest frequency of new products deployed have a much better chance. Using agile techniques, along with continuous integration / delivery, provide the greatest chance of long-term success as compared to traditional SDLC approaches.

Product innovation excellence can’t be purchased — it’s created from three areas of development focus; 1) an adaptable organizational culture, 2) use of an agile framework and, 3) a product research program that provides higher reward development opportunities.

All three focus areas are needed, and an agile framework is good place to start.

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Posted in Development Process, Product Management, Quality

Everyone has an opinion… which is precisely the problem.

Posted on April 7, 2009 | 2 comments

Successful product innovation is always based on the voice of the customer. Of course, the trick is to make sure that product managers hear the Right customer voices. With participatory requirement gathering techniques, it’s never obvious which of your current customer’s product needs should drive future product direction.

Think about the creation of the automobile…

If Henry Ford’s product decisions had been directed via a customer focus group on transportation, he would have never created the automobile. He would have merely bred a more reliable horse.

Social media technologies are providing product managers with the opportunity for more authentic conversations with product consumers – methods that allow greater collaboration.

However, these less structured, “opt-in” approaches to customer collaboration don’t come without issues. Research at McKinsey has suggested that Web 2.0 technologies may actually give less meaningful results unless managed.

There are countless product innovation attempts where companies have tried to generate new product ideas by tapping suggestions from visitors to corporate websites. Many companies concluded that participants didn’t have the background, the skill nor the knowledge to contribute to meaningful product innovation ideas… and so the quality and yield of new product ideas proved to be very low.

Recently, I had a similar experience when I wanted to purchase new headphones for my iPod. To help select the best product for my needs, I thought it would be smart to research consumer reviews for the new Apple in-ear product. (After all, these are people who opted-in… a Tribe for Apple ear buds! )

The first customer review from Toronto was entitled, “Awesome headphones Apple!” The second review from “JB” is Brooklyn headlined… “A shocking miss for Apple.”

And the product reviews continued in a similar fashion… ping-ponging back and forth between joyous raves to complete trashing. I walked away wondering if these people were actually using the same product! What I realized was that the variability in the reviews wasn’t due to product… it was that the consumers weren’t using the same set of criteria as measurement. So it was impossible to get an effective read of how well the product actually performed against a set of quality metrics.

I think that social media companies like Communispace [Go HERE to their website] have the right approach to data collection for product innovation. Their approach is to create private communities where users are selected based on pre-established criteria and then invited to join the community. And like any community, people are allowed to opt-in and participate whenever they have interest in the current conversation.

The difference with a private community is that much of the outlier noise has been pre-filtered by making sure that the voice of the customer is one that has the highest probability of value creation. Without the proper selection of participants, Web 2.0 technologies may offer feedback that is no more effective than any other methods.

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Posted in Product Management, Quality

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If I had a hammer

Posted on February 14, 2009 | 3 comments

Comedian Kathleen Madigan has a routine where she describes the objects that a single woman has in her household toolbox. As you might imagine (since it’s a comedy routine) there’s nothing in the toolbox used for the purpose it was orginally designed. The “hammer,” for example, is a man’s shoe.

This might be humorous to many people but to my product manager sensibilities Madigan’s comedy routine is closer to a horror show… like the scene in Psycho where Anthony Perkins cuts short Janet Leigh’s shower. (eeet!..eet!..eeet!!)

I’m quite sure that some commission-oriented salesman thought it was, well, “okay” to sell a shoe for a purpose it wasn’t designed. In product speak – the salesman sold the product outside of its target market segment.

What’s wrong with selling outside the target market segment?

hammer2
Selling to consumers who intend to use a product in ways it wasn’t intended to be used creates a very scary scene.

Let’s fast forward to a client conference where shoe consumers attend a voice-of-the-customer session to provide feedback on which features should be modified or added. So, what does the toolbox owner request for new product features for her “hammer”? New leathers, or colors or perhaps softer soles? Unfortunately, no.

She feels that her product needs a handle so it would be easier to grasp… a metal insert on the heel so it would drive the nail with more force… and the laces should be removed completely since they don’t have any function. Of course, all this makes complete sense because she is using the product outside the segment for which it was designed.

There are very good reasons why markets are segmented in product management. Customer market segments define product features which in turn drives the product design for that segment.

All products are designed for a specific target market – a specific set of users who have similar product requirements and who use the product in a similar manner. Selling a product outside of the defined segment boundaries is dangerous… and is guaranteed to create a horror scene for product managers. (eeet!…eet!…eeet!)

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Posted in Product Management, Quality

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How Sticky are your Products?

Posted on January 31, 2009 | 1 comment

Why do some ideas succeed while others fail?

Stanford professor Chip Heath has spent the last 10 years asking that very question. I just finished his book (co-authored with his brother Dan who owns a business that specializes in innovation) in which Heath published his findings.

The ability to create winning products (note: products are manifestations of IDEAS) may sometimes feel like dumb luck but there are patterns in why some are more successful than others. Heath’s book, Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die, identifies six traits that help ideas endure.

Jack Welch is renown for communicating ideas that inspire and yet other business leaders are often frustrated that their ideas are too soon forgotten.

What is a “sticky” idea?

A sticky idea is one that everyone understands when they hear it… is memorable… and changes some fundamental concept. While sticky is a straightforward concept, it doesn’t happen too often. (Think back to the last presentation you saw… How much do you remember? Did it change your behavior in any way? Probably not.)

I liked Heath’s example of an abstract message “employees should maximize shareholder value.” ( Okay, we’re all on board… that sounds like a good thing for employees to do.) But what specific behaviors should employees change to respond to this message?

Contrast the message statement above to an example of a FedEx driver who couldn’t open one of his pickup boxes since the key was back at the office. His deadline was tight and he knew that he wouldn’t have time to go back to the office and return with the key to make the deadline for the plane. So he got a wrench, unbolted the whole box and slid it into the truck. He knew he’d be able to unlock it back at the office.

Telling FedEx drivers to “maximize shareholder value” just leaves them hanging. But a story gives them a visualization of what the message really means.

Here are Heath’s six traits for sticky ideas:

1. SIMPLE – Messages are most memorable if they are short and thoughtful. Proverbs are short but also deep enough to guide behavior.

2. UNEXPECTED – An idea that sounds like basic common sense won’t stick… it must be unique.

3. CONCRETE – Anything abstract doesn’t leave sensory impressions… only concrete images do. Compare “get an American on the moon in this decade” with “seize leadership in the space race through targeted technology initiatives and enhanced team-based routines.”

4. CREDIBLE – Will it sell in Toledo? Trying to convey an idea which is outside the listener’s realm of experience won’t stick… even if experts are used to validate the idea.

5. EMOTIONAL – Case studies that involve people are sticky. Heath says that we are wired to identify with people… but yet have no emotional attachment to ideas.

6. REPEATABLE – We use stories every day to convey ideas. Why? Heath says that rehearsing a situation helps us perform better. Stories that are easily repeated act like a mental flight simulator, preparing us to respond more quickly and effectively.

As you develop your products, try using these concepts. It just might help make them a bit more sticky.

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Posted in Innovation, Quality

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