“The hardest part of building any software system is determining precisely what to build.” – Fredrick Brooks. Discovering exactly what customers, stakeholders, and sponsors want to create is often the most difficult part of product development. Getting everyone aligned can be fraught with misunderstanding and misinterpretation. Scrum starts with a product backlog, but how do you know that the development of the product supports the growth of your company? Getting off on the right foot when starting an agile initiative can set you up for success. This presentation will outline a basic flow of light touch Discovery workshops as a way to start your agile product development engine.

1. Lean Discovery
Chris Chan
Social Architect & Knowledge Work Artist
(Enterprise Agile Coach)

2. 2
Where does the backlog come from?
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

3. 3
Focus on the details too soon
Clear cause and effect from
work to outcomes
Disconnected “pile of leaves”;
Unclear relationships
Stories only get small and detailed just-in-time for delivery
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

4. 4
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

5. 5
No Alignment

6. 6
The Underpants Gnome approach
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

7. 7
No understanding of the business plan
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

8. 8
#1 Task in the process is to
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

9. 9
#1 Task (re-phrased):
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

10. 10
Where does the backlog come from?
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

11. 11
Discovery – the missing piece
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

12. 12
Discovery drives development
 Explore:
• Why are we here?
• What problem are we solving,
and for whom?
• What will customers value?
• Does the solution meet their
needs?
• Is it feasible to build with the
tools and time we have?
 Deliver:
• Describe and plan details
• Progressively refine backlog
into smaller details
• Design, develop and test
• Measure cycle time &
evaluate progress
• Evaluate quality
Adapted by Chris Chan (@c2reflexions) from Jeff Patton
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

13. 13
Product development is a team sport
Agile Manifesto
• Value – Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools
• Value – Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation
• Principal #4 - Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project
• Principal #5 - Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they
need, and trust them to get the job done.
• Principal #6 - The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a
development team is face-to-face conversation
• Principal #11 - The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams

14. 14
Discovery is about achieving shared understanding
and alignment
Adapted by Chris Chan (@c2reflexions) from images by Jonathan Rasmusson
“We are all in agreement then”
Visualise & model
“Oh!”
Collaboratively develop
vision for execution and
iteratively model
“What if we did this…”
Shared understanding &
common objectives“Ah ha!”

15. 15
Have the Three Amigos Represented

16. 16
Desirability
FeasibilityViability
Human (User/Customer Experience)
Do customers want this?
Technology (Development)
Do we have the capability to pursue this?
Does the technology exist today?
Business (Product Owner)
Can we afford it?
Is it valuable to the organisation?
Will it bring us financial benefits?
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

17. 17
Avoid assumptions on consensus
We get traction when we
leave Discovery:
1. Collective
understanding of the
vision and goals of the
product
2. Start to agree on how
we will work together
moving forward

18. 18
Collaboratively co-author  Top-down
approach
 Connect people
solving the problem
with the problem
space and why
 Increase your
ability to build the
right thing
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

19. 19
MVD
MINIMUM VIABLE DISCOVERY
Just enough to understand and get going
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

20. 20
5 Step Basic Discovery Flow
Frame
the
problem
Understand
the business/
customer
context
Frame
the
solution
Plan
the
work
Commit
to
success
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions
Collaborative Workshop

21. 21
FRAME THE PROBLEM

22. 22
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions Image: http://www.biography.com/people/tom-jones-21026065

23. 23
Vision
Pixar Pitch
1. Once upon a time there was …
2. Every day …
3. One day …
4. Because of that …
5. Because of that …
6. Until finally …
Twitter Pitch
<idea> #<benefit>
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions
Geoffry Moore Product Vision
For <target customer>
Who <statement of the need>
The <product name> is a <product category>
That <key benefit, compelling reason to buy>
Unlike <primary competitive alternative>
Our product <statement of primary differentiation>

24. 24
Pixar Pitch: The Plot of Finding Nemo
1. Once upon a time there was … a widowed fish, named Marlin,
who was extremely protective of his only son, Nemo.
2. Every day … Marlin warned Nemo of the ocean’s dangers and
implored him not to swim far away.
3. One day … in an act of defiance, Nemo ignores his father’s
warnings and swims into the open water.
4. Because of that … he is captured by a diver and ends up in the
fish tank of a dentist in Sydney.
5. Because of that … Marlin sets off on a journey to recover Nemo,
enlisting the help of other sea creatures along the way.
6. Until finally … Marlin and Nemo find each other, reunite and
learn that love depends on trust.

25. 25
Product Objectives and Success
Measures
 Business drivers
 What are the Success
Measures for the product?
• Revenue
• Market share
• New users
• Increased usage
• Increased customer
satisfaction (NPS)
• Other?
IRACIS Primary Driver Secondary Driver Tertiary Driver
Improve Revenue
Avoid Cost
Improve Service
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

26. 26
Roman Pichler
Start building the Roadmap
We will
come
back to
Features
later
 Is a high-level, strategic
plan
 Provides a longer-term
outlook on the product
 Creates a continuity of
purpose
 Sets expectations,
aligns stakeholders,
and facilitates
prioritisation
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions
http://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-roadmap/

27. 27
Trade-off sliders
What is “really important” to the stakeholders, what are they
prepared to trade-off
Fixed / Critical Flexible / Unimportant
User experience:
Feature completeness:
Quality:
Speed to market:
Security:
Minimise cost:
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

28. 28
UNDERSTAND THE
BUSINESS/CUSTOMER
CONTEXT

29. 29
Personas
 Makes users more tangible, less ambiguous, easier to envision, easier to
empathise with.
 Understand behaviours and user needs and goals.
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

30. 30
Empathy Map
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

31. 31
User Journeys
 User’s (persona) experience
 Key interactions
 Identify opportunities for
change and improvement
Interactions Pain points
Tasks Distractions
Emotions
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions
Channels

32. 33
FRAME THE SOLUTION

33. 34
Architecture Vision and Technical
Solution
 High level only
 Discuss and
validate
architectural
approach
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

34. 35
Story Mapping is
an approach to
Organising and
Prioritising user
stories
- Jeff Patton
Story Mapping is for telling bigger stories
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

35. 36
Create Story Map
Customer
Journey
End-to-end use
Necessity
UI details
Flexibility
….
Features
Business/User
Goals
Activity
Customer journey image from www.servicedesigntools.org

36. 37
Mockups / Sketching

37. 38
PLAN THE WORK

38. 39
Vision
Roadmap
Release
Iteration
Daily
Multi-level planning
Daily task planning by the individuals
Every iteration (1-4 weeks) by PO & Team
1-3 months by PO & Team
Quarterly by PO, Stakeholders & Team
Yearly by PO, Executives

39. 40
Vision
Roadmap
Release
Iteration
Daily
Multi-level planning
Daily task planning by the individuals
Every iteration (1-4 weeks) by Team & PO
1-3 months by Team & PO
Quarterly by Team, PO, Stakeholders
Yearly by PO, Stakeholders
Discovery

40. 41
Small Medium Large Triple
Shot!!
Guesstimation: Size the Work
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

41. 42
Prioritise and identify the MVPs
End-to-end use
MVP
MMF

42. 43
Slice releases from the story map
End-to-end use
First Release
Second Release
Third Release
MVP

43. 44
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions
Create the backlog
First ReleaseMVP Product Backlog

44. 45
MVP
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

45. 46
Roman Pichler
Update Product Roadmap
Update
Roadmap
based on what
we have
discovered
Add what
features are
needed from
Story Map

46. 47
http://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-roadmap/
Near term more
confident
Further out
details are more
vague
Roadmap is not
a fixed plan –
it will change!
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

47. 48
31 October February Q2 Q3
Version 1
Cheetah
Version 1.5
Mountain Lion
Version 2
Yosemite
Version 3
Kangaroo
Customer
Acquisition
Improved ordering
experience
Retention
Customer
Acquisition: new segment
• Basic catalog
• Pay using Paypal
• Facebook
integration
• Stock availability
• Multiple shipping
options
• Credit card
payments
100 new user
signups per day
20% of signups
make a purchase
Repeat
purchases
• Enhanced visual
design
• New products
• Promotions
• Mobile
New users
Referrals
A sample roadmap

48. 49
Risks
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

49. 50
COMMIT TO SUCCESS

50. 51
DISCOVERY
Are we all committed to this?
 The outcome is a team is prepared to execute and
able to adapt as they discover and learn more as they
move forward.
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions
Did we achieve the
workshop objectives?

51. 52
Considerations…
 Timebox Discovery to 1 day to
2 weeks
 Co-location is essential
 No digital tools!
 Avoid committing to too much detail early
 Involve the right people, including key stakeholders
 Facilitation skills
 Don’t be surprised to “discover” something new
Visualisation
is awesome!
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

52. 53
IMPERFECT
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

53. 54
Vision
Product Goals
& Outcomes
Personas
User Journeys
Wireframes
Technical Solution
Architecture Vision &
Design Principles#MVD
Minimum Viable Discovery
Product Roadmap
Story Map
R1
R2
R3
Deliver and deploy
Identify MVPs
and Releases
Product
Backlog
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

54. 55
The 3Ds - Discovery, Development and Delivery is ongoing
Deliver it
Frequently
and Validate
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

55. 56
At the end of the Discovery the team will
be ready to commence working
Chris Chan | @c2reflexions

56. 57
@c2reflexions
linkedin.com/in/chanchris
c2reflexions.com
chris.chan@objectconsulting.com.au
chris@c2reflexions.com
I hope to be a disruptive force
to those who think the way we
develop products and services is
just fine