What You Really Need to Know to Build High-Performing Digital Product Teams

By Jeff Gothelf

Lean Startup posits that every project you take on is an experiment. The question that experiment seeks to answer is not, “Can we build it?” it’s, “Should we build it?” And, if the answer is yes, “Can we build a sustainable business model around it?”

The MVP was designed as a tool of Lean Startup to help teams answer two questions:

1. What’s the most important thing we need to lear first on our project?

2. What’s the least amount of work we need to do to learn that?

(Gothelf 2017, 19-20)

Agile helps us deliver work in regular cadences. Lean Startup helps us determine what to focus on. How, then, do we determine whether we’re actually working on something of value? Enter Design Thinking.

(Gothelf 2017, 23)

Work in short cycles. … Assuming you know exactly how people will respond to change is the same as assuming you can predict the end state of a piece of software – impossible. Agile transformations are often taken as wholesale, top-to-bottom initiatives. Since you cannot predict how people will react to this change, this approach is highly risky. To reduce the risk of implementing sweeping process changes that fail, take small steps.

Hold regular retrospectives. Retrospectives are the heart of continuous improvement. They are a regular opportunity for the team to consider their current practice, evaluate its efficacy, and determine how to progress.

(Gothelf 2017, 28-29)

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References

Gothelf, Jeff. 2017. Lean Vs. Agile Vs. Design Thinking: What You Really Need to Know to Build High-Performing Digital Product Teams. N.p.: Sense & Respond Press.

ISBN 9780999476918