Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops Many of my middle-management and senior leadership clients want certainty about future work. However, I don't do long consulting contracts—by design. But most of my business focuses on coaching, workshops, or consulting. Does that sound like an agile team to you?

Agile 95

Agile Product Research Feedback Loop Consulting 95

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 16, 2019

Is it possible to balance the product innovation and feedback we need, with the commitment our management wants? When does it make sense to ask for more feedback instead? How about when it does make sense to create small or larger estimates for the product? Let's start with the need for very fast product feedback.

Product Research 58

Product Research Feedback Loop User Testing Customer Feedback 58

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 16, 2019

Many of my clients are trying to use short feedback loops in agile approaches. High Need for Product Innovation and Change. The more need for product innovation and change, the shorter the feedback loops need to be. I wrote about this in Create Your Successful Agile Project.)

Product Research 60

Product Research Feedback Loop User Testing Customer Feedback 60

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 21, 2024

I started this series by discussing why managers didn't perceive the value of agile coaches and Scrum Masters in Part 1, resulting in layoffs.) Then, in Part 2 , I asked those unemployed agilists to review their functional skills, the skills people need to do a product development job well. Especially, Agile is Not a Silver Bullet.

Software Review 95

Software Review Agile Product Research Feedback Loop 95

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 16, 2019

In that case, you have a low need for product innovation. Your planning feedback loops can be longer. We need short feedback loops in the project/program to see where we are and make small adjustments. Low Need for Product Innovation and Change. I have not worked on many of these products over my career.

Product Research 60

Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software User Testing 60

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 6, 2024

In Effective Agility Requires Cultural Changes: Part 1 , I said that real agile approaches require cultural change to focus on flow efficiency , where we watch the flow of the work , not the people doing tasks. Can you create an agile culture for your team even if you can't change how the organization works? 1,2 and so on.

Agile 80

Agile Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software 80

Johanna Rothman

JULY 25, 2018

I’m working on my roadmapping talk for Agile 2018. I finally had the transforming idea about how to position the talk: Roadmapping and product planning are about feedback loops. The shorter the feedback loop, the faster and more often we can learn. See the post about Double-Loop Learning.)

Product Research 41

Product Research Feedback Loop User Testing Customer Feedback 41

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 16, 2019

Moderate Need for Product Innovation and Change. When the team can plan—and not need to change its plans—for a couple of weeks at a time, the product has a moderate need for innovation and change. Then, the people who manage the product strategy, the product manager/product value team change what the team does next.

Product Research 56

Product Research Feedback Loop Agile Consulting 56

Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

I have a new book: Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility. I wrote it because I'm concerned about what I see in too many supposedly agile teams: Crazy-long backlogs and roadmaps. See Manage Unplanned Feedback Loops to Reduce Risks and Create Successful Products.)

Customer Experience 83

Customer Experience Agile Product Research Feedback Loop 83

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Do you need feedback loops so you can: Cancel the project at any time (to manage schedule and cost risks. Maybe you want to use this project as a way to integrate a team into a new product or a new domain. Maybe you want to use this project as a way to integrate a team into a new product or a new domain.

User Testing 100

User Testing Product Research Agile Feedback Loop 100

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 2, 2023

” It depends on how your lifecycle manages feedback loops and learning, how collaborative the team is, and how much WIP the team has. Each Lifecycle Manages Feedback Loops Differently Brooks wrote the original version of The Mythical Man-Month in 1975, based on the 1960s IBM 360 project. That's why there's feedback.

Product Research 93

Product Research Customer Feedback Feedback Loop Feedback Software 93

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 18, 2021

They think that the agile tools they use, such as boards, offer a strategic advantage. However, they adopt or “install” an agile framework or process without customization. Instead, agile organizations need flexibility, not rigidity. Commodity businesses don't need agility for product development.

Feedback Software 116

Feedback Software Agile Product Research Feedback Loop 116

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Once the team completes that highest priority feature(s), the team can release the product. Of course, there are feedback loops here, too: Notice that we expect feedback from later features back to the previous features. When we release, we can regroup and figure out what to do next for this product.

User Testing 111

User Testing Product Research Agile Feedback Loop 111

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 6, 2023

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops About 20 years ago, I taught a project management workshop to IT people. Their products and services did not ship outside the building—their products and services enabled the organization to make money. Show them your feedback loops and your cycle time.

Product Research 123

Product Research Feedback Loop Workshop User Testing 123

Johanna Rothman

MAY 11, 2022

However, the more often we deliver in short feedback loops, the more often we can make strategic decisions. Finishing a story creates a new decision point, for both the product and the corporate strategy. The more often we iterate strategically, the more we exhibit business agility. Here's an example. You can change.

Product Research 95

Product Research Feedback Loop Strategy User Testing 95

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 26, 2024

In innovative products, the interdependencies can change any day. I suspect their teams hide their feedback loops. If your product does not need much innovation, you can plan for longer and know you will meet that plan. Those are the kinds of products that do not require much, if any, innovation. As for the date?

Data Visualization 69

Data Visualization Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software 69

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 18, 2024

Remember this: If your customers want to use your product, make it easy for them to do so. Because product problems cause several other problems: The customers have to decide if the aggravation of using this product outweighs the defects. Customers will not wait forever for you to fix problems in your product.

Product Research 71

Product Research Feedback Loop Data Visualization Reporting Tools 71

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 31, 2024

In Effective Agility Requires Cultural Changes: Part 1 , I said that real agile approaches require cultural change to focus on flow efficiency, where we focus on watching the work, not the people. If you and your team have been practicing real agility, you might say these ideas barely show any agility at all.

Agile 69

Agile Product Research Demo User Testing 69

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 27, 2024

For years, managers have been trying to find ways to make software product development faster and easier. “Agile” as a way to do much more work in much less time. (NO! AI to take the place of humans in product development. There is one silver bullet for product development—the speed of team learning time.

Product Research 82

Product Research Software Review Feedback Software Feedback Loop 82

Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 10, 2023

No one cares about a team's agility—with the possible exception of the team itself. But managers and customers do care about better products. The managers care when the team can release those products—that's why managers use capitalization metrics. And the customers care about the value those products offer.

Product Research 60

Product Research Feedback Loop Customer Experience Agile 60

Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops. We change the feedback loops. Instead of teams being responsible for delivering product, the managers are responsible for explaining when the managers want to decide. That's the point of all those feedback loops in the image above.). Or finish a project.)

Product Research 104

Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software Agile 104

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 9, 2021

I said that when we focus on individual achievements and deliverables, we ignore the agile system of work. Worse, when we reward individual achievements we prevent an agile culture. That's because agile teams learn together as they create the product. Agile Behaviors for Learning and Working Together. Adaptability.

Agile 69

Agile Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software 69

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 6, 2020

Are you trying to make an agile framework or approach work? Maybe you've received a mandate to “go agile.” Or, maybe you're trying to fit an agile framework into your current processes—and you've got a mess. I've seen plenty of problems when people try to adopt “agile” wholesale.

Agile 110

Agile Product Research Feedback Software Feedback Loop 110

Johanna Rothman

JULY 22, 2021

Worse, many of these managers also want business agility. Business agility requires change. Product strategy, to define the value the products offer to the product's users/customers. In addition, you might need these product strategies too: Product architecture, to shepherd the technical value of a product.

Differentiation 133

Differentiation Product Research Roadmap Strategy 133

Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 2, 2024

Given our current staffing, we can afford to fund these specific projects for some amount of time before those projects release their products and services. Too often, very large organizations have divisions or departments that do not coalesce around a single coherent product. See Consider Product Options with Minimum Outcomes.

Product Research 85

Product Research Strategy Feedback Loop Agile 85

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 10, 2020

Your product mostly works. If you only have one tester, the team collaborates to test when that one tester is busy. This is any lifecycle, not just an agile approach.). Shorten Feedback Loops. Next, I suggested that the team find ways to shorten their feedback loops , in Part 2. You can release.

Product Research 84

Product Research Technical Review Systems Review Feedback Loop 84

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 20, 2020

The original signatories of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development wanted to solve these specific problems: How can we: Bring more adaptability to software development? Especially since teams now had these levers, from the iterative and incremental approaches: Prototype something for fast feedback. Womack and Daniel T.

User Testing 66

User Testing Software Review Agile Product Research 66

Johanna Rothman

JUNE 24, 2021

He thought agile approaches would work to “meet” and “enforce” deadlines. I asked Brad these questions: Do you have product or feature teams that are cross-functional and can release alone? ( Component teams create interdependencies and take much more time to finish work.). Why do you have deadlines?

Agile 84

Agile Product Research Feedback Loop Government 84

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 16, 2022

The managers need to “deliver” more projects, products, and features. The problem is that the feedback loops are too long because the WIP (Work in Progress) is too high. Managers pressure both the teams for faster blue feedback loops, and pressure the product people for faster red feedback loops.

Product Research 112

Product Research Feedback Loop Feedback Software Technical Review 112

Mind the Product

NOVEMBER 24, 2020

Matt Walton was one of the founders of FutureLearn, where he scaled the product team and organisation from nothing to the significant player in online education that it is today. Along the way, he learned a lot about continuous improvement of both the product and the processes for building it – including the use of [.].

Product Research 93

Product Research Feedback Software Feedback Loop Technical Review 93

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

More of my clients say they want business agility. Yet, we don't share a common definition of business agility. Those actions show that managers change their actions in the face of new information or feedback. Those actions show that managers change their actions in the face of new information or feedback.

Agile 88

Agile Feedback Software Product Research Feedback Loop 88

Johanna Rothman

DECEMBER 4, 2023

That's a minimum of four weeks for each team's feedback loop. See Multiple Short Feedback Loops Support Innovation for how all the feedback loops work together.) If you told your managers that you could somehow release one product a year and it would cost you $270 Million to do that, what would they say?

Product Research 72

Product Research Feedback Loop Systems Review Feedback Software 72

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Isn't every iterative and incremental approach an agile approach? We often hear agile approaches are a mindset. An agile approach requires a change in culture at the team level, at the portfolio level, and in management. Agile approaches change what we discuss, how we work together, and what we reward. Release trains.

User Testing 70

User Testing Agile Product Research Weak Development Team 70

Agile Velocity

MAY 14, 2020

Did you know you can maximize your chances of achieving desired business outcomes by combining DevOps with an Agile transformation? When you hear “Business Outcomes,” “DevOps,” and/or Agile transformation” – what comes to mind? Agile Transformation. Agile transformations and DevOps initiatives are complementary.

Feedback Software 98

Feedback Software Agile Analytic Tools Data Visualization 98

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 11, 2021

Worse, most career ladders assume we can assess what a person can do, not on their contributions to an agile team. That means most career ladders don't fit agile teams or an agile culture. Instead of individual achievements, we can reward the types of agile leadership we want to see in agile teams. Ask for help.

Agile 94

Agile Product Research Feedback Loop Leadership 94

Johanna Rothman

MAY 16, 2019

I suggested ways to think about more agile budgeting in part 1. I evaluate the plan—my products, services, and clients—on a regular basis. My feedback loop is one month at the outside. ” Annual budgeting constrains the project portfolio ideas and work to a one-year feedback loop.

Data Visualization 60

Data Visualization Agile Product Research Feedback Loop 60

Product Innovation Educators

JANUARY 3, 2022

How product managers can use the Modified Agile for Hardware Development Framework. Many teams have tried adopting Scrum for developing hardware products, not always successfully. Dorian has a deep background in product development, starting in engineering and then moving to business leadership roles.?

Agile 112

Agile Development Feedback Software User Testing 112