What is agile product management
In order to understand how the agile philosophy applies to product management, let’s first consider what product management involves. Product management focuses on the lifecycle of a product. This includes every step including market research, product testing, product design, through to customer feedback. Product managers are typically responsible for ensuring that a product meets the needs of a business’s customers.
Agile product management involves taking product management and applying the agile philosophy to it. The original agile manifesto was developed in 2001 in order to respond to challenges in the software industry. Since, it has been adopted by many other industries thanks to its wide applicability. The manifesto contains the following key principles:
- Individuals and interactions over processes and tools;
- Working software over comprehensive documentation;
- Customer collaboration over contract negotiation;
- Responding to change over following a plan.
When we consider agile product management, then, it involves prioritising customer feedback and satisfaction. It involves continuously reassessing how a product responds to customer needs. Agile product management also means responding to any major changes in the market no matter what stage of development the product is at. The argument here is that in a hyper-competitive, fast-paced and consumer-driven market, the agile philosophy can help businesses stay relevant.
Agile strategy
When first taking an agile approach to a project, it can be useful for businesses to gather their teams together in order to talk about project vision. Finding a unifying starting point can be a good way to ensure that teams all understand how they’re working towards the same ambitions. Using visual collaboration tools, consider outlining the business plan, target customer base, market, product concept and visual direction.
Lean approach
Another key term to know in agile is ‘lean’. Not all agile approaches incorporate what is known as a lean approach, however, it is one interpretation of the philosophy. Lean agile approaches involve narrowing down the team’s focus to the most essential details of a project. It involves working out how quickly they can achieve these tasks. This can be a great approach as it means getting the product onto the market as quickly as possible. The product therefore remains competitive and cutting-edge as the technology and product specifications are up-to-date.
How to make the different stages of product management agile
As product management comprises many different stages, it can be a great idea to consider first how you can look at them from an agile perspective.
Requirement analysis
You can take an agile approach to requirement analysis, for instance. One of the benefits of doing so is that it can speed up this process. This can be very useful as it can help businesses to remain competitive and up-to-date in their market. Customer requirements may be constantly shifting.
With an agile requirement analysis, businesses take a more collaborative approach to designing product specifications. While requirements analysis typically involves allowing customers and stakeholders to provide feedback on product prototypes, agile requirement analysis means that stakeholders take a more active role in product development.
Agile requirement analysis can also help speed up this process. Consider asking teams to prioritise product requirements and implement them according to their priority. Teams can also use what’s known as ‘model storming’ to quickly develop responses to new requirements as they arise.
Model storming
Model storming is a common term in software development. It usually means responding to a new issue by quickly developing a response. Usually, model storming involves working with a few staff who are available to ‘model’ various different approaches using quick whiteboard or on-screen sketches. This can help teams respond to issues that arise quickly, rather than waiting for the whole team to discuss the issue during the next meeting.
Product delivery
Agile philosophy can also be used during the product delivery stage. To speed up the process, agile delivery can involve breaking down the delivery roadmap into small, manageable chunks. Agile delivery focuses on prioritising customers needs at the forefront of the delivery process.
Product managers themselves can be agile
Agile product managers still tend to supervise day-to-day tasks relating to their team. However, they can also be key facilitators for change, instigating new processes and working with team feedback. They also help teams to see the bigger picture so that they can adapt to and overcome challenges. Therefore, an agile project manager is usually flexible and a strong problem-solver. An agile project manager may also have the following skills and traits:
- Sees teams as more of a flat hierarchy and is open to collaboration;
- Changes management skills;
- Quick to learn new processes, models and technology;
- Good at conflict management;
- Persuasive and diplomatic communicator;
- People-focused.
While some businesses recruit specifically for managers who have agile experience, they may not. Instead, they may choose to train staff in agile. This is because agile philosophy is a broad church and by training them in their own approach, there may be less conflict in terms of understanding. However, some employers may think it’s useful to bring in managers with a different approach to agile as they can bring new skills and ideas with them.
Is agile product management complex?
While agile product management has a reputation as being challenging, this can sometimes arise from a lack of understanding of what it involves. Agility requires a different approach to communication, product management and project management that may be challenging for teams to adjust to at first.
It therefore can be important to communicate what it entails clearly to teams first so that they are fully on-board and understand what it means. To help them get to grips with agile philosophy, employers could involve their staff in agile training days, workshops, seminars or discussions. This can help employees to smoothly transition to this new approach. A team that is fully on board with agile philosophy can potentially work much more effectively together.
While agile product management might seem complex at first, the principles are simple. However, using this approach may require the collaboration of the entire team, as well as an understanding of what agile means. Agile product management can be a great way to develop products faster and keep them relevant in a competitive industry.
