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Lean Startup Tools for Agile Product Teams

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The document summarizes a presentation about using Lean Startup tools for Agile product teams. The presentation covers topics like holistic discovery to identify risks, creating a risk-driven product backlog, conducting exploratory sprints to test assumptions without coding, using data from experiments to drive pivot/persevere decisions, and validating product increments. The goal is to integrate Lean principles into Agile delivery through techniques like concierge simulations, prototyping, A/B testing, and metrics to learn from customers and guide development.

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Lean Startup Tools for Agile Product Teams Lean+Agile DC, Feb. 11, 2014
Meet the Presenter Arlen Bankston • Co-Founder of LitheSpeed, LLC • User experience & product development background • 15 years of Agile experience • Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt • Lately 40% training, 20% each of coaching, product development & management 2
Agenda • Agile & The Lean Startup Movement • Holistic Discovery • Risk-driven Product Backlog • Exploratory Sprints • Data-driven Sprint Review • Validating Product Increment 3
Agile & The Lean Startup Movement
Risks of Agile 1. Backlog items are not always validated against true end-user needs 2. Critical reliance on a fallible Product Owner 3. Lack of clear advice on how and when to “pivot” 4. IT bias… fall back on what we know: build, build, build 5
Lean Startup Movement – A Brief History • Steve Blank coined “customer discovery” in the book “Four Steps to the Epiphany” • Steve funded Eric Ries’s startup company IMVU in 2004 • In 2010, Alex Osterwalder wrote “Business Model Generation” • In 2011, Eric wrote “The Lean Startup” 6
Lean Discovery + Agile Delivery Illustrated Holistic Discovery List Market, Customer, Product risks Illustrate business model/case Risk-driven Product Backlog Prioritize by riskiest assumption Include validation mechanisms Exploratory Sprints Team intercepts users Team helps design experiments Data-driven Sprint Review Review experiment results Pivot, Persevere, Punt Scan for new opportunities Validating Product Increment Measure key usage patterns Focus MVP on early adopters DISCOVER Y
Holistic Discovery Assessing key customers, problems & markets Holistic Discovery List Market, Customer, Product risks Illustrate business model/case Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment
Iterative Risk Management • Are we solving a substantial problem? • What are our technical challenges? Product Risk • Who are our ideal customers? • Do we understand their needs? Customer Risk • Do we have a viable market niche? • Are we better than the competition? Market Risk 9
Problem Interview Talk with early adopters to learn whether they share your perception of the problem. This is a sample interview script to validate & rank problems with users. 10 Thanks to Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean for this format: http://www.runningleanhq.com/
Test Your Riskiest Assumption We are envisioning a monthly studio panel of users and experts discussing prioritized topics related to Lean and Agile methods. Our Riskiest Assumption… People will pay ~$50/month for content that is often available for free, if the quality and delivery channels are sufficiently appealing. Would you?
Discovering Customer Needs [In]validate your assumptions by: 12 • Interviewing users • Observing users in their native environments • Manually simulating your system (“concierge”) • Rapid usability testing • Tracking behavior of customer cohorts (related groups)
Validation Board for Experimentation 13 https://www.leanstartupmachine.com/validationboard/ Plan and track experiments to test your assumptions about customers, problems & solutions. Pivot based upon the results that you see.
Adjusting the Plan Based on what you learn, you might: • Stick to the plan • Target another customer group • Target a different need • Expand or contract feature focus • Change platforms or architecture • Change channels • Kill the idea entirely Persevere, pivot or punt. 14
Lean Canvas to draft your Business Model Thanks to Ash Maurya, Leanstack.com15 Draft your business case in a simple, single-page format, and adjust based upon the results of your interviews, prototypes and releases.
Example Lean Canvas for Sensei Sensei is an Agile retrospective tool by LitheSpeed. www.senseitool.com
Risk-Driven Product Backlog Challenging & testing your assumptions Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Prioritize by riskiest assumption Include validation mechanisms Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment
The MVP A “Minimum Viable Product” might be: • Learning: Onsite observation, fake menus, ads • Pitching: Preorders, comparisons, joint design • Experiencing: Concierge, prototypes Early releases focus on quickly & cheaply testing ideas. Later releases focus on scaling. 18
Unbounce for Landing Pages You can create dynamic landing pages that help you tune your pitch and garner pre-orders with tools like Unbounce.
MVP Pivot Key Differentiators Flexibility & Safety Scaling & Optimization Story A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 C1 C2 C3 D1 D1 D2 B3 Epic 1 Epic 2 Key Activity Major Component Plan Releases & Pivots with a Story Map 20
Exploratory Sprints Quick, cheap ways to validate your approach Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Team intercepts users Team helps design experiments Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment
Concierge to Test without Coding A manual simulation of your product or service.
Balsamiq Mockups for Low-Fi Prototyping http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/ Test layouts and flows without coding or graphic design.
Data-Driven Sprint Review Using data to drive decisions Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Review experiment results Pivot, Persevere, Punt Scan for new opportunities Validating Product Increment
Lean Canvas as Dynamic Dashboard 25 Think of your project as a set of small experiments. The results of these experiments should be simply stated and reviewed regularly to guide decisions about product direction. Thanks to Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean: http://www.runningleanhq.com/
“Pirate” Metrics & Customer Funnels 26 Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue Referral How many users are interested and find you? Preorders, signups, ad responses How is their experience when they do? Successful runs through key use case Do they stick around for the long run? 30, 60, 90 day retention by cohort Do they pay? Ratio of paying users or ROI Do they tell their friends? Successful recommendations Thanks to Dave McClure http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-long-version
Testing the Pitch We originally interviewed 9 people, and 8/9 (89%) said they were very interested, but that they would greatly prefer a corporate plan to personal investment. How well did you predict your peers’ opinions?
Validating Product Increment Analyzing & evolving your production system Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment Measure key usage patterns Focus MVP on early adopters
Quantitative A/B & Multivariate Testing Split (A/B) testing randomly presents users with competing versions of specific application pages and features. • See what works best by running parallel experiments • Choose the winning option after appropriate time Header Sign up form Demo movie Story Header Sign up form Demo movie Story 58% of visitors signed up 35% of visitors signed up A B
A/B Testing Sensei with Optimizely We found a 60% increase in registrations just from adding the term “distributed teams” to our landing page.
Zopim Live Chat We envisioned live chat to be largely a help tool, but it ended up connecting us with our most passionate early adopters.
Thank You!
Additional Learning Opportunities • Lean Startup in the Enterprise Meetup Monthly at LitheSpeed office in Herndon, VA • Lean Startup Machine Travels nationwide • Lean Startup Conference Annually in San Francisco • Lean + Agile Practitioner’s Forum Coming soon!
Reading List – Lean & Agile Innovation • Running Lean – Maurya • Essential Scrum – Rubin • The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development – Vlaskovits • The Lean Startup – Ries • Discover to Deliver – Gottesdiener • The Other Side of Innovation – Govindarajan • Four Steps to the Ephiphany – Blank • Business Model Generation – Osterwalder
Contact Us for Further Information 35 Arlen Bankston Managing Partner, LitheSpeed Arlen.Bankston@lithespeed.com On the Web: http://www.lithespeed.com http://www.sanjivaugustine.com "I only wish I had read this book when I started my career in software product management, or even better yet, when I was given my first project to manage. In addition to providing an excellent handbook for managing with agile software development methodologies, Managing Agile Projects offers a guide to more effective project management in many business settings." John P. Barnes, former Vice President of Product Management at Emergis, Inc.

More Related Content

Lean Startup Tools for Agile Product Teams

  • 1. Lean Startup Tools for Agile Product Teams Lean+Agile DC, Feb. 11, 2014
  • 2. Meet the Presenter Arlen Bankston • Co-Founder of LitheSpeed, LLC • User experience & product development background • 15 years of Agile experience • Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt • Lately 40% training, 20% each of coaching, product development & management 2
  • 3. Agenda • Agile & The Lean Startup Movement • Holistic Discovery • Risk-driven Product Backlog • Exploratory Sprints • Data-driven Sprint Review • Validating Product Increment 3
  • 4. Agile & The Lean Startup Movement
  • 5. Risks of Agile 1. Backlog items are not always validated against true end-user needs 2. Critical reliance on a fallible Product Owner 3. Lack of clear advice on how and when to “pivot” 4. IT bias… fall back on what we know: build, build, build 5
  • 6. Lean Startup Movement – A Brief History • Steve Blank coined “customer discovery” in the book “Four Steps to the Epiphany” • Steve funded Eric Ries’s startup company IMVU in 2004 • In 2010, Alex Osterwalder wrote “Business Model Generation” • In 2011, Eric wrote “The Lean Startup” 6
  • 7. Lean Discovery + Agile Delivery Illustrated Holistic Discovery List Market, Customer, Product risks Illustrate business model/case Risk-driven Product Backlog Prioritize by riskiest assumption Include validation mechanisms Exploratory Sprints Team intercepts users Team helps design experiments Data-driven Sprint Review Review experiment results Pivot, Persevere, Punt Scan for new opportunities Validating Product Increment Measure key usage patterns Focus MVP on early adopters DISCOVER Y
  • 8. Holistic Discovery Assessing key customers, problems & markets Holistic Discovery List Market, Customer, Product risks Illustrate business model/case Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment
  • 9. Iterative Risk Management • Are we solving a substantial problem? • What are our technical challenges? Product Risk • Who are our ideal customers? • Do we understand their needs? Customer Risk • Do we have a viable market niche? • Are we better than the competition? Market Risk 9
  • 10. Problem Interview Talk with early adopters to learn whether they share your perception of the problem. This is a sample interview script to validate & rank problems with users. 10 Thanks to Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean for this format: http://www.runningleanhq.com/
  • 11. Test Your Riskiest Assumption We are envisioning a monthly studio panel of users and experts discussing prioritized topics related to Lean and Agile methods. Our Riskiest Assumption… People will pay ~$50/month for content that is often available for free, if the quality and delivery channels are sufficiently appealing. Would you?
  • 12. Discovering Customer Needs [In]validate your assumptions by: 12 • Interviewing users • Observing users in their native environments • Manually simulating your system (“concierge”) • Rapid usability testing • Tracking behavior of customer cohorts (related groups)
  • 13. Validation Board for Experimentation 13 https://www.leanstartupmachine.com/validationboard/ Plan and track experiments to test your assumptions about customers, problems & solutions. Pivot based upon the results that you see.
  • 14. Adjusting the Plan Based on what you learn, you might: • Stick to the plan • Target another customer group • Target a different need • Expand or contract feature focus • Change platforms or architecture • Change channels • Kill the idea entirely Persevere, pivot or punt. 14
  • 15. Lean Canvas to draft your Business Model Thanks to Ash Maurya, Leanstack.com15 Draft your business case in a simple, single-page format, and adjust based upon the results of your interviews, prototypes and releases.
  • 16. Example Lean Canvas for Sensei Sensei is an Agile retrospective tool by LitheSpeed. www.senseitool.com
  • 17. Risk-Driven Product Backlog Challenging & testing your assumptions Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Prioritize by riskiest assumption Include validation mechanisms Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment
  • 18. The MVP A “Minimum Viable Product” might be: • Learning: Onsite observation, fake menus, ads • Pitching: Preorders, comparisons, joint design • Experiencing: Concierge, prototypes Early releases focus on quickly & cheaply testing ideas. Later releases focus on scaling. 18
  • 19. Unbounce for Landing Pages You can create dynamic landing pages that help you tune your pitch and garner pre-orders with tools like Unbounce.
  • 20. MVP Pivot Key Differentiators Flexibility & Safety Scaling & Optimization Story A1 A2 A3 B1 B2 C1 C2 C3 D1 D1 D2 B3 Epic 1 Epic 2 Key Activity Major Component Plan Releases & Pivots with a Story Map 20
  • 21. Exploratory Sprints Quick, cheap ways to validate your approach Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Team intercepts users Team helps design experiments Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment
  • 22. Concierge to Test without Coding A manual simulation of your product or service.
  • 23. Balsamiq Mockups for Low-Fi Prototyping http://balsamiq.com/products/mockups/ Test layouts and flows without coding or graphic design.
  • 24. Data-Driven Sprint Review Using data to drive decisions Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Review experiment results Pivot, Persevere, Punt Scan for new opportunities Validating Product Increment
  • 25. Lean Canvas as Dynamic Dashboard 25 Think of your project as a set of small experiments. The results of these experiments should be simply stated and reviewed regularly to guide decisions about product direction. Thanks to Ash Maurya, author of Running Lean: http://www.runningleanhq.com/
  • 26. “Pirate” Metrics & Customer Funnels 26 Acquisition Activation Retention Revenue Referral How many users are interested and find you? Preorders, signups, ad responses How is their experience when they do? Successful runs through key use case Do they stick around for the long run? 30, 60, 90 day retention by cohort Do they pay? Ratio of paying users or ROI Do they tell their friends? Successful recommendations Thanks to Dave McClure http://www.slideshare.net/dmc500hats/startup-metrics-for-pirates-long-version
  • 27. Testing the Pitch We originally interviewed 9 people, and 8/9 (89%) said they were very interested, but that they would greatly prefer a corporate plan to personal investment. How well did you predict your peers’ opinions?
  • 28. Validating Product Increment Analyzing & evolving your production system Holistic Discovery Risk-driven Product Backlog Exploratory Sprints Data-driven Sprint Review Validating Product Increment Measure key usage patterns Focus MVP on early adopters
  • 29. Quantitative A/B & Multivariate Testing Split (A/B) testing randomly presents users with competing versions of specific application pages and features. • See what works best by running parallel experiments • Choose the winning option after appropriate time Header Sign up form Demo movie Story Header Sign up form Demo movie Story 58% of visitors signed up 35% of visitors signed up A B
  • 30. A/B Testing Sensei with Optimizely We found a 60% increase in registrations just from adding the term “distributed teams” to our landing page.
  • 31. Zopim Live Chat We envisioned live chat to be largely a help tool, but it ended up connecting us with our most passionate early adopters.
  • 33. Additional Learning Opportunities • Lean Startup in the Enterprise Meetup Monthly at LitheSpeed office in Herndon, VA • Lean Startup Machine Travels nationwide • Lean Startup Conference Annually in San Francisco • Lean + Agile Practitioner’s Forum Coming soon!
  • 34. Reading List – Lean & Agile Innovation • Running Lean – Maurya • Essential Scrum – Rubin • The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development – Vlaskovits • The Lean Startup – Ries • Discover to Deliver – Gottesdiener • The Other Side of Innovation – Govindarajan • Four Steps to the Ephiphany – Blank • Business Model Generation – Osterwalder
  • 35. Contact Us for Further Information 35 Arlen Bankston Managing Partner, LitheSpeed Arlen.Bankston@lithespeed.com On the Web: http://www.lithespeed.com http://www.sanjivaugustine.com "I only wish I had read this book when I started my career in software product management, or even better yet, when I was given my first project to manage. In addition to providing an excellent handbook for managing with agile software development methodologies, Managing Agile Projects offers a guide to more effective project management in many business settings." John P. Barnes, former Vice President of Product Management at Emergis, Inc.