I apologize for getting wound up about this, it’s just that we’ve made so much progress with agile & sdlc but everything else is seems to be lagging behind.

Product needs to catch up, and I’m glad you are a fellow LSC Google Group member

Keep the posts coming!

I am part of the Lean Startup Google Group and am entirely in alignment with you regarding empirical data with customer feedback loops. The fact of the matter is that many companies that we currently consult with or develop software for are not ready for even monthly, or sometimes quarterly, releases, let alone continuous flow to customers. Also, there are some industries and projects that the continuous flow model does not work well, at least as of yet. For a product company that is evolving their strategy, I believe this is probably the best option and I would have to be convinced otherwise by those who might care about my opinion that continuous flow won’t work for them.

For now, the information posted in this article is to help those just trying to get a hold on their current context and product delivery needs. As we progress towards incremental funding and continuous flow of delivery, I am sure that the tools we need as an industry will evolve, as well.

We need to help the other pieces of the puzzle evolve with agile, and bake in customer feedback loops with our continuous integration solutions. Product decisions made using A/B splits and empirical data are much more grounded in reality.

I could go on for hours about this, but instead I recommend joining the Lean Startup Google Group with me.

I once asked a product owner team, which had recently tackled the job of developing a vision statement at Product Owner training, to write down what the vision statement was, in their own words. There was very little similarity between them.

It’s imperative that the team /agree/ on the vision. As you suggest, it’s a very good idea to check on that agreement.

More interestingly, the Chief Product Owner offered the “official” vision statement. It was full of leverage and synergy, but it gave me absolutely no idea about what the product actually did.

A vision statement is not just a marketing sound bite. It must have a degree of concreteness that makes it real. It must not depend on implicit assumptions about the vision or goal, as these implicit assumptions are likely to /not/ be held in agreement throughout the team–and the fact that they’re implicit makes it very hard to check for agreement.

I will be helping a new team get started on a new product in two weeks. Defining and instilling the product vision will be a great part of the first planning meeting!