Teams that don't make customer facing work still work on "products" and have "customers." This article explains how to think about this kind of work - from HR, Legal, Finance et al - in a new light.
Why does every project have to be Agile these days?
Truly agile teams enjoy the ability, desire and safety to respond to change over following a plan.
The top 10 rebuttals to: “Agile is great. But it won’t work here.”
At this point in its lifecycle, Agile is in the mass adoption phase. Whenever I’m in front of an audience or teaching a workshop and I ask, “How many of you work using Agile processes?” 100% of the hands in the room go up. The honest people in the room will still hold their hand … Continue reading The top 10 rebuttals to: “Agile is great. But it won’t work here.”
5 Rules for Integrating UX with Agile Scrum
After more than a year of work, I’m thrilled to announce the launch of this joint effort between Scrum.org, Josh Seiden and myself. The Professional Scrum with UX certified class starts to answer the questions scrum practitioners from all disciplines have been asking. How does design work fit into sprints? What does “done” mean for … Continue reading 5 Rules for Integrating UX with Agile Scrum
Fixed time, fixed scope projects always end in 1 of 3 ways. None of them good.
Late last month, after a particularly frustrating meeting I posted the following tweet: It turned out, not surprisingly, that I wasn’t the only one dealing with this failed project management approach. Many people reached out with virtual “high 5’s” and, more importantly, questions about how this could be so obvious to those of us who … Continue reading Fixed time, fixed scope projects always end in 1 of 3 ways. None of them good.
Defining value: the most ambiguous word in product development
One of my favourite questions to ask any new client is, “How do you measure success?” I pose this question to product teams, discipline heads and executives to understand what the organisation values and what they reward. One hundred percent of the time the initial response is, “That’s a great question.” After giving it some … Continue reading Defining value: the most ambiguous word in product development
NPS is a waste of time. Use these metrics instead.
Ask any executive what the top 3 metrics they watch in their company are and you’ll get some combination of revenue and sales metrics and, of course, the company’s NPS. Net Promoter Score, a measure of customer satisfaction and loyalty, is so widespread and common that over two-thirds of the Fortune 1000 claim to use … Continue reading NPS is a waste of time. Use these metrics instead.
What does an agile product roadmap look like?
One of the biggest challenges in product management is planning the work in a linear, visual way. Sure, we’ve had “roadmaps” for a long time but they betray the true nature of software development. Digital product development is not linear. It is iterative. We build some things. We ship them. We see how they impact … Continue reading What does an agile product roadmap look like?
Here is how UX Design Integrates with Agile and Scrum
(Part 2 of this post can be found here.) Despite having co-written an award-winning book on the topic and lecturing, teaching and coaching on the topic for nearly 10 years now, I still get many questions — mostly from product managers, executive leaders, and technical managers — on how to integrate UX and Design into the scrum process. It’s … Continue reading Here is how UX Design Integrates with Agile and Scrum
What if “the way we’ve always done things” is the fastest way to agility?
One of the biggest obstacles in changing the way your company works is undoing the years, often decades, of institutionalised inertia of “the way things have always been done.” There’s comfort in doing things the same way. It made us successful. It made us big! And, perhaps the most persuasive argument: no one ever got … Continue reading What if “the way we’ve always done things” is the fastest way to agility?