Product Methodologies: Do they add or hinder value?

Product methodology defines how the details, such as the product requirements, architectural design, testing, and so forth will be produced (Turbit, 2005).

The main problem with Turbit’s definition is that it’s telling us what a methodology is and not what good looks like

Below we will discuss a couple of examples of good and bad aspects of product methodologies.

The Good – Agile and Lean Canvas

Lean canvas is a method of quickly understanding the product market fit, high level requirements and gaining approval to move to next stage of your process.

Lean canvas can include a number of areas but below are key:

Problem – included because several businesses do fail applying a lot of effort, financial resources and time to build the wrong product. It is therefore vital to understand the problem first and iterate.
Solution – once a problem has been recognised the next thing is to understand and document the solution to it. As such, delivering value in small the Minimum Viable Product “MVP” concept was included.
Key Metrics – Start ups and larger teams often work best when they can focus on one metric and build it. The solution metrics define the success criteria you will be judged on. It is therefore crucial that the right metric is identified because the wrong one could be a catastrophic waste of resource. Ever heard the phrase pivot!
Unfair Advantage – this is basically the competitive advantage. Teams should recognize whether or not it has an unfair advantage over others before you start building
Recommended – gaining approval from management as to next steps is crucial for buy-in and successful implementation.

The Great

A 5 stage process that is designed to move a team quickly (1 week) from concept to prototype.

Stages:

Understand the problem
Diverge – understand solutions
Decide – which solution the team chooses
Prototype – develop MVP
Test – with customers

Advantages:

Quickly design, prototype, and test the viability of an idea, product, or feature
Working as a team in a sprint is a shortcut to the endless debate cycle and a way to compress months of work into a single week.
The design sprint consists of 5 phases over typically, five days, starting with design thinking and ending with a user-tested prototype.

It’s not applicable for all teams but drives product to define a deliver that is small enough to be delivered E2E in one week and has meaningful value.

One of the reasons that starts-ups have had so much success in disrupting large legacy players in recent years is via implementing agile and design sprint methodologies.

Larger companies having such a complicated code base and architecture that they release at best twice a year. A disruptive new incumbent who can deliver real customer value in 1-2 weeks is a massive change changer.

At My Product Path we have developed a unique packaged solution that follows an agile framework and you are one click away from understanding what good now looks and feels like.

We are also super busy building a marketplace for product professionals so please review our training materials.