Drivers of Agile Software Development:Honing in on Product Managers
Sarara Maeda
Agile software development often draws attention to its iterative process and speedy operation. Yet, what is equally unique yet often unknown outside of Silicon Valley is the distinct roles and team structure utilized in agile software development. This article will first examine the role of a product manager in an agile software development team. Since there are also various types of product managers depending on the software product being developed, we will outline product management archetypes in a spectrum. Finally, we will review how these roles are structured into a development team which is optimal for out-of-the box software solution development.
Product Manager: the mini CEO
In simplest terms, Product Managers can be understood as a “mini-CEO” for a particular software product that is being developed. They are responsible for answering business questions such as “What is our business goal and KPI?”, “What is our business priority?” and “What is our go to market strategy?”. Simultaneously, product managers must understand the technology behind the product that is being developed and communicate directions to architects and developers. Also, since UI/UX is critical to the success of most software products, product managers need to have a well developed right brain to make product design decisions. In short, product managers sit at the core of development, marketing and design to oversee the overall direction of the product output.
Due to the cross-functional nature of the role, product managers need a balance of left brain logic and technology capabilities coupled with right brain creative talent. Furthermore, they need to be excellent communicators since they are at the frontline representing the customer throughout the entire product development process. Understanding customer and end user needs, identifying the highest value opportunities to transforming those needs into product features, then providing directions to the development team to execute requires a high level of communication proficiency.
The acronym of “PM” can cause some confusion since there are three roles which all use the acronym of PM. First is the product manager (Prod. Mgr) who is responsible for building the right product. Second is the project manager (Proj Mgr) who is responsible for building the product on-time, on-budget and on-scope. Third is the program manager who is responsible for building the entire ecosystem for the new product, ensuring an alignment with other product development initiatives. In smaller scale 3-4 team member projects such as an early phase technology Proof of Concepts (POCs), Program Managers (Prog Mgr) are not yet needed and the Product manager and Project management role may be merged into one. However, as the product scales, project and product management roles tend to be split off with clearer delineation of the roles and responsibilities.
Product Manager Archetypes:
Just as there are a wide spectrum of software product types, there is also a spectrum of product manager types that matches the products being developed. Product development in the start-up world often requires innovation of a new product from scratch. Such products require a “0 to 1” product manager that can empathetically listen to the user and customer needs to extract features from their feedback. They tend to have a broad set of technology capability to find the best product market fit. Many serial entrepreneurs fall into this archetype. On the opposite side of the spectrum, specialized product managers are utilized for more established organizations or larger start-ups that are in the scale-out phase of growth. Specialized product managers hone in on optimizing for growth of the product by hyper-analyzing the performance data of the product. Example would be a product manager that optimizes post-ride rating system of Uber to increase rider retention and satisfaction.
Regardless of the product manager types, the execution strategy that is applied by all product managers across the spectrum is speed. “Try quick, Fail quick, Learn quick, Win quick” This mindset enables the innovation team to execute their vision by refining features with a larger margin of error that is acceptable to users up-front and win big. The key is aligning with stakeholders that the product will not be perfect from the onset. Product managers typically apply a user adoption strategy by targeting innovators and early adopters. This approach enables features to be fine tuned quickly through the iterative feedback cycles in the early stages. As the product matures along the product roadmap, adoption will naturally spread downstream organically, pushing the users to early and late majority, and laggard cohorts.
Ideal Team Structure:
In order to operate quickly in an environment that fosters creative thinking, it is imperative to assemble the ideal team that is lean but also highly effective. Throwing more people into a team often results in slowing down the speed by increasing the complexity of communication and decision making. Amazon’s CEO, Jeff Bezos has famously quoted that “if you cannot feed a team with two pizzas, the team is too large”. This is to say the ideal team ranges between 6 to 8 top talent individuals where it is most conducive for brainstorming ideas openly and communicating between team members. Core team mostly starts out with a product manager, technical architect and designer in the early ideation and scoping phase. Then as the project moves into the development phase, front, back end and systems engineers (in cases the project requires system integration), and Quality Assurance (QA) engineers are incorporated into the team. Specific Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are brought in when leveraging some cutting edge technology in addition to the core team.
In Conclusion:
“Leaders of companies that go from good to great start not with “where” but with “who.” They start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats.” ---Jim Collins “Good to Great”
There is a tendency to place an excessive emphasis on the innovation strategic roadmap (the “What”) and agile development methodology (the “How”) when it comes to software solution innovation. The “Who” is an equally vital factor in achieving success which often becomes an afterthought. That needs to change where the right team structure with the right resources are put in place to enable agile methodology to work its magic. When applying agile development methodology, the product manager plays a critical role at the core of development, marketing and design domain. But not all product managers are created equal and the right product manager archetype should be assigned for a particular product being developed. And lastly, keep the team structure lean to ensure simple communication and decision making so that agile development truly remains agile. In essence, getting the “Who” right, should always be a forethought in agile software development.