Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Incorporating Change at Every Level of Product Planning
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The document discusses the integration of agile and lean methodologies into product roadmapping, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and continuous feedback in planning. It highlights the shortcomings of traditional long-term planning and the advantages of a rolling wave approach, which focuses on feature sets rather than fixed commitments. Additionally, it offers strategies for managing customer expectations and optimizing product value through iterative processes.
Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Incorporating Change at Every Level of Product Planning
- 1. Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Incorporating Change at Every Level of Product Planning Johanna Rothman @johannarothman www.jrothman.com jr@jrothman.com 781-641-4046
- 2. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Why Bother Planning • Innovation? • Delivery? • Solve a customer’s problem? • Impact? • Discussion! 2
- 3. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Why Product Roadmaps? • Gain some perspective • What’s now? • What’s later? • Alternatives? • Experiments? 3
- 4. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Roadmap Becomes a Time-Based Wishlist 4
- 5. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Thinking in Quarters Helps Some People… • Can see the big picture: where the product is headed • More resilient than a yearly plan for deliverables and budget 5 Photo by Rainer Krienke on Unsplash
- 6. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Quarterly Roadmaps Similar to Triptiks • Overall destination doesn’t change • Local detours already defined • You don’t plan to take alternative side roads even though they are visible • The questions are: • How and when to get there (cost and schedule) 6 Image from: http://www.bbc.com/autos/story/ 20161007-why-paper-road-maps-wont-die
- 7. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Where’s the Feedback? 7
- 9. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Outcomes vs Outputs • Outcomes answer questions, inform future work • Outputs is finished work • Too often the roadmap is only about deliveries 9 https://unsplash.com/photos/-Cmz06-0btw
- 10. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman ConsiderYour Customer’s Problem andYour Agile Approach 10 Customer Problem Well-Understood (Keep the Lights On) Mostly Understood (Current Product Set) Vague or Unclear (Possible transforming Idea) Roadmap Duration As long as is reasonable: When do you want to EOL? Show MVPs in roadmap and limit to reasonable planning horizon Show Experiments, Demos, Big Ideas Reasons for an agile approach Feedback useful for knowing when to stop Feedback-Informed Based on fast feedback cycles
- 11. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Roadmap Assumptions • What the customer wants • When the customer wants it • Known feature sets all have the same value • New understanding (features) arrives on a regular cadence (organization, product, team) 11
- 12. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Reality of Features… • Some feature sets have more changes, more features • Arrival rate of changes/new features is unpredictable • Some features more valuable than others • Teams do not have perfect prediction • Result:“More! Change!” 12
- 13. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Estimation Problems for Long-Term Planning • We are not very good at estimating long and large efforts • Too often request for commitments instead of accurate estimates 13
- 14. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Misuse of Quarterly Planning • Start to prepare 6 weeks out (before we know enough) • “How much can we get into a quarter’s worth of plan?” • Can we get the project/ program to commit? • “Push” planning 14
- 15. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Problems with Larger Planning • Groupthink:“We can do this!” • “Commitments” create a committed plan instead of feedback informing later work • Larger planning creates less adaptability • Estimation uncertainty increases • Interdependency uncertainty increases 15
- 16. © 2017 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Seeing Interdependencies • Less frequently we plan, the more we tolerate curlicue features • Don’t deal with root cause of interdependencies 16
- 17. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman “The best way to predict your future is to create it” — Peter Drucker 17
- 18. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Change Words to Help See Largeness • Epic and themes are not standard across tools • Terms hide the complexity • Change “epic” and “theme” to “feature set” 18
- 19. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Quick Feature Set Workshop 1. (7 mins) Teams of three (dev/test/BA or PO) write cards together 2. (7 mins) Entire team: De-duplicate and see what you missed. 3. Check to see if you need to iterate on steps 1 and 2 4. (2 mins) Count the features. 5. (2 mins) Using historical cycle time, how long will this work take? If you don’t know, use three days and assume you will swarm/mob. 6. Count what a team can deliver in a quarter 7. Slot the various features or feature sets into one quarter or longer 19
- 20. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Counting Features is Not Estimating Tasks • Customers buy features, not tasks • Workshopping more small stories helps teams stick with features 20
- 21. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Rolling Wave Plan 21
- 22. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman One Month Rolling Wave 22
- 23. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman After One Week 23 All Changed
- 24. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman WhenYou Need Feedback • Uncertainty or experiments • Large efforts (programs) • Which problems to solve? • Which possible solutions might work? • How can we deliver? 24
- 25. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Adaptability and Resilience • Adaptability is about being able to manage change and continue • Resilience is about returning to a reasonable state 25
- 26. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Can We Encourage Planning Change? • When does the quarterly plan change? • Do you want to change more often than the teams can deliver something? • How can you build adaptability and resilience into your planning? 26
- 27. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Consider Words • Feature sets instead of epics/ themes and various minimums: • MinimumViable Experiment (learn fast) • MinimumViable Product (small product might be useful) • Minimum Marketable Feature (something a customer can use) • Minimum Adoptable Feature Set (what the customer needs to use it) 27
- 28. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Flow-Based Roadmap (Scope-Based Wishlist) 28
- 29. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Possible One QuarterView 29
- 30. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman The Big Black Line Helps Set Expectations • About what we need to deliver (not “all” of it) • What is enough • When we want to change • How feedback will inform the planning 30
- 31. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Roadmap vs. Portfolio • The product roadmap optimizes for this product’s capabilities • The project portfolio optimizes for the organization’s strategy • A given product release fulfills a part of the organization’s strategy 31
- 32. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman ProductValue Team Manages the Rolling Wave Plan • Do you still talk about “single wringable neck?” 32
- 33. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Agile Teams 33
- 34. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman ProductValue Team • Product Strategy • Product Tactics • Product Specifics 34
- 35. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Hierarchical PVT 35
- 36. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Agile ProductValue Team for a Program • Create a small world network that includes the customer • Product manager • Product Owners • With multiple feature teams, a PO for each team 36
- 37. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman How Often DoYour Teams Work withYour Customers? • Large changes • Risky changes • Need more feedback 37
- 38. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Why Managers Want Commitments • “How much” thinking is from serial planning and approaches: one delivery • Agile approaches encourage multiple deliveries • How little can we do to deliver value? • Instead of commitments, can we deliver and replan? 38
- 39. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman ProductValue Team Replans • What value has the program/project delivered? • What would provide more value if we changed the rank, added, or subtracted? • Are we done yet? (Have we provided enough value that we can stop?) 39
- 40. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Questions for you • Timebox or scope-box? • What minimums make sense? • Show experiments? • Feature sets instead of Huge Chunks of work? • Pull-planning instead of push-planning? 40 Fail Fast Learn Early
- 41. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Roadmaps Can Help… • What you don’t do • How small an experiment you can plan • Alternatives to consider 41
- 42. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Scaling is not about multiplying what you do for one team. Scaling is about removing extra steps as you grow. 42
- 43. © 2018 Johanna Rothman@johannarothman Let’s Stay in Touch • Pragmatic Manager: www.jrothman.com/ pragmaticmanager • Please link with me on LinkedIn • Look for the PO book and workshop in the fall 43