Agile Start Me Up - Using the Minimum Viable Discovery (MVD)

Agile - Start Me Up

Chris Chan

Using the Minimum Viable Discovery (MVD)

Where does the backlog come from?

Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

Focus on the details too soon

Clear cause and effect from

work to outcomesDisconnected “pile of leaves”;

Unclear relationships

Stories only get small and detailed just-in-time for delivery


No Alignment

The Underpants Gnome approach


No understanding of the business plan


#1 Task in the process is to


Who is this guy famous for?

Stephen Covey

#1 Task (re-phrased):


Where does the backlog come from?


Discovery – the missing piece


Discovery drives development

• Explore:

• Why are we here?

• What problem are we solving, and for whom?

• What will customers value?

• Does the solution meet their needs?

• Is it feasible to build with the tools and time we have?

• Deliver:

• Describe and plan details

• Progressively refine backlog into smaller details

• Design, develop and test

• Measure cycle time & evaluate progress

• Evaluate quality

Adapted by Chris Chan (@c2reflexions) from Jeff Patton


Product development is a team sport

Agile Manifesto• Value – Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools

• Value – Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation

• Principal #4 - Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project

• Principal #5 - Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need,

and trust them to get the job done.

• Principal #6 - The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team

is face-to-face conversation

• Principal #11 - The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

Discovery is about achieving shared understanding and alignment

Adapted by Chris Chan (@c2reflexions) from images by Jonathan Rasmusson

“We are all in agreement then”

Visualise & model

“Oh!”Collaboratively develop

vision for execution and

iteratively model

“What if we did this…”

Shared understanding &

common objectives“Ah ha!”

Avoid assumptions on consensus

We get traction when we

leave Discovery:

1. Collective

understanding of the

vision and goals of the

product

2. Start to agree on how

we will work together

moving forward


Collaboratively co-author• Top-down approach

• Connect people solving the problem with the problem space and why

• Increase your ability to build the right thing


MVDMINIMUM VIABLE DISCOVERY

Just enough to understand and get going


5 Step Basic Discovery Flow

Frame the

problem

Understand

the business/

customer

context

Frame the

solution

Plan

the

work

Commit

to

success

Collaborative Workshop


FRAME THE PROBLEM

Chris Chan | @c2reflexions Image: http://www.biography.com/people/tom-jones-21026065

Vision

Pixar Pitch

1. Once upon a time there was …

2. Every day …

3. One day …

4. Because of that …

5. Because of that …

6. Until finally …

Twitter Pitch

<idea> #<benefit>


Geoffrey Moore Product Vision

For <target customer>

Who <statement of the need>

The <product name> is a <product category>

That <key benefit, compelling reason to buy>

Unlike <primary competitive alternative>

Our product <statement of primary differentiation>

Product Objectives and Success Measures

• Business drivers

• What are the Success Measures for the product?

• Revenue

• Market share

• New users

• Increased usage

• Increased customer satisfaction (NPS)

• Other?

IRACISPrimary

Driver

Secondary

Driver

Tertiary

Driver

Improve Revenue

Avoid Cost

Improve Service


Roman Pichler

Start building the Roadmap

We will

come

back to

Features

later

• Is a high-level, strategic plan

• Provides a longer-term outlook on the product

• Creates a continuity of purpose

• Sets expectations, aligns stakeholders, and facilitates prioritisation

Chris Chan | @c2reflexions http://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-roadmap/

Trade-off sliders

What is “really important” to the stakeholders, what are they

prepared to trade-off

Fixed / Critical Flexible / Unimportant

User experience:

Feature completeness:

Quality:

Speed to market:

Security:

Minimise cost:


UNDERSTAND THE

BUSINESS/CUSTOMER

CONTEXT

Personas

• Makes users more tangible, less ambiguous, easier to envision, easier to empathise with.

• Understand behaviours and user needs and goals.


User Journeys

• User’s (persona) experience

• Key interactions

• Identify opportunities for change and improvement

Interactions Pain points

Tasks Distractions

Emotions


Channels

FRAME THE SOLUTION

Architecture Vision and Technical Solution

• High level only

• Discuss and validate architectural approach


Story Mapping is an approach to

Organising and Prioritising user

stories

- Jeff Patton

Story Mapping is for telling bigger stories


Create Story Map

Customer

Journey

End-to-end use

Necessity

UI details

Flexibility

….

Features

Business/User

Goals

Activity

Customer journey image from www.servicedesigntools.org Adapted by Chris Chan (@c2reflexions) from Jeff Patton

Mockups / Wireframes

PLAN THE WORK

Vision

Roadmap

Release

Iteration

Daily

Multi-level planning

Daily task planning by the individuals

Every iteration (1-4 weeks) by Team & PO

1-3 months by Team & PO

Quarterly by Team, PO, Stakeholders

Yearly by PO, Stakeholders

Vision

Roadmap

Release

Iteration

Daily

Multi-level planning

Daily task planning by the individuals

Every iteration (1-4 weeks) by Team & PO

1-3 months by Team & PO

Quarterly by Team, PO, Stakeholders

Yearly by PO, Stakeholders

Discovery

Small Medium Large TripleShot!!

Guesstimation: How much caffeine does the team need?


Prioritise and identify the MVP

End-to-end use

MVP

MMF


Slice releases from the story map

End-to-end use

MVP First Release

Second Release

Third Release


Create the backlog

First ReleaseMVP Product Backlog

Roman Pichler

Update Product Roadmap

Update

Roadmap

based on what

we have

discoveredAdd what

features are

needed from

Story Map

http://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-roadmap/

Near term

more confident

Further out

details are more

vague

Roadmap is not a

fixed plan –

it will change!

31 October February Q2 Q3

Version 1Cheetah

Version 1.5Mountain Lion

Version 2Yosemite

Version 3Kangaroo

CustomerAcquisition

Improved orderingexperience

RetentionCustomerAcquisition: new segment

• Basic catalog• Pay using Paypal• Facebook

integration

• Stock availability• Multiple shipping

options• Credit card

payments

100 new user signups per day

20% of signups make a purchase

Repeat purchases

• Enhanced visual design

• New products

• Promotions• Mobile

New users

A sample roadmap

COMMIT TO SUCCESS

DISCOVERY

Are we all committed to this?

• The outcome is a team is prepared to execute and able to adapt as they discover and learn more as they move forward.

Did we achieve the

workshop objectives?Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

Fist-to-Five: getting to commitment

• Everyone votes at once

• 0 to 2: Explore concerns and ask what is needed to get their vote to a ‘3’?


Final words…

• Timebox Discovery

• Couple of days to 1 or 2 weeks for a 3-6 month timeframe

• Co-locate

• No digital tools!

• Avoid committing to too much detail early

• Involve the right people, including key stakeholders

• Facilitation skills

Visualisation is awesome!


IMPERFECT


Vision

Product Goals &

Outcomes

Personas

User Journeys

Wireframes

Technical Solution

Architecture Vision &

Design Principles

Product Roadmap

Story Map

R1

R2

R3

Identify MVPs

and Releases

Product

Backlog

Minimum Viable Discovery

Chris Chan | @c2reflexionsDeliver and deploy

The 3Ds - Discovery, Development and Delivery is ongoing


- Bruce Lee


At the end of the Discovery the team will be ready to commence working


@c2reflexions

linkedin.com/in/chanchris

c2reflexions.com

[email protected]

I hope to be a disruptive force to

those who think the way we

develop products and services is

just fine

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Agile Start Me Up - Using the Minimum Viable Discovery (MVD)

Software

Transcript of Agile Start Me Up - Using the Minimum Viable Discovery (MVD)