How do you know your product works ?

How do you know that your product works?

Consultant www.crisp.se

Colombo Agile Conf, June 2014

Henrik Kniberg

Father

henrik.kniberg@crisp.se @HenrikKniberg

Agile & Lean coach Author

Todo

Henrik Kniberg

?

Doing

Done

Where’s my product?

Todo

Doing

Code committed

I’m done!

Henrik Kniberg

Developer

User

Where’s my product?

Code Tested committed

We’re Done!

Henrik Kniberg

Developer

User

In Code Tested committed production

We’re Done!

100% completed requirements No reported defects

Henrik Kniberg

Wait... is anyone actually using it?

People In Code Tested committed production actually use it NOW we’re surely done!

100% completed requirements No reported defects

Henrik Kniberg

Aren’t we?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWTtcOQjOXI

Henrik Kniberg

Code Tested committed

People In production actually

100% completed requirements No reported defects

Henrik Kniberg

use it

Code Tested committed

People In production actually

100% completed requirements No reported defects

Henrik Kniberg

use it

Solves the user’s problem

Henrik Kniberg

Value of your solution

Henrik Kniberg

Value of Value of old your solution solution

Relative gain

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Value of Value of old your solution solution

Relative Relative Pain/Cost Gain Henrik Kniberg

Code Tested committed

People In production actually use it

Relative Relative Pain/Cost Gain Henrik Kniberg

Solves the user’s problem

... in a way that is better than before

Code Tested committed

People In production actually use it

Solves the user’s problem

... in a way that is better than before

People use it willingly

Relative Relative Pain/Cost Gain Henrik Kniberg

... and recommend it to others

All products start with a Great Idea!

Henrik Kniberg

Risk

Business risk

Technical risk Social risk Cost & schedule risk Henrik Kniberg

Google Buzz

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Google Wave

Google Answers

Assume you are building the WRONG thing!

Suppose we’re building the wrong thing....

How can we find out as quickly as possible?

• List your hypotheses • Build an MVP to validate/invalidate it • ”Minimum Viable Product” – the fastest & cheapest thing you can build to field-test your hypothesis Henrik Kniberg

Example: Hypotheses 1. File sync is a problem for people

2. Our product will solve the problem

3. People will want to use our product

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Demo video

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Dropbox MVP

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Dropbox MVP

It drove hundreds of thousands of people to the website.

Our beta waiting list went from 5,000 people to 75,000 people literally overnight.

Henrik Kniberg

Drew

It totally blew us away.

Paper Prototyping = Lo-tech MVP

Credit: Ariel Waldman, on Interaction Design/ Rachel Ilan http://chiefdisruptionofficer.com/helpful-rapid-prototyping-methods-and-tools-to-bring-digital-ideas-to-life-fast/

AARRR!

Pirate metrics

Do people come?

Aquisition Activation Retention Referral Revenue Henrik Kniberg

Do they use the product?

Do they come back?

Do they recommend it to others?

Do they pay?

Big Bang = Big Risk

Cumulative RISK Value Henrik Kniberg

Big Projects usually fail. Regardless of process. ”The secret to project success is to strongly recommend and enforce limits on size and complexity.” ”These two factors trump all other factors.”

< $1 million

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> $1 million

Agile = Iterative + Incremental Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t try to get it all right from the beginning

cost

RISK

Henrik Kniberg

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t build it all at once

value

cost value

Release must be REALLY easy!

Release = Drama!

Release!

Req

Release seldom

Code

Release is big

Test

Release is hard Release = Routine

Release often Henrik Kniberg

Release is small

Release is simple

Fastest learner wins!

Delivery frequency = Speed of learning Stakeholders, Users

Feedback, Requests, Data

Demos, Releases

Development team

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Improving the Value Curve RISK Big Bang

Big increments

Value

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Effort

Small increments

Highest value first

Not like this....

1

2

4

3

Like this!

1

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2

3

4

5

Maximize Value, not Output

High Output

High Value

Henrik Kniberg

Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t focus on maximizing speed

Focus on Minimizing distance

MVP

Henrik Kniberg

Idea/Problem “Radio you can save!”

Narrative & Prototypes & Metrics

“Follow your favorite artist”

A/B stats

Build MVP Deploy

Tweak Analyze data Henrik Kniberg

Product User Feedback

Henrik Kniberg

ensure

How do you know that your product works?

Who are the stakeholders?

1. Understand the problem

What need do they have, that we want to solve?

How will we know when we’ve solved it?

How will we know if we’re moving in the right direction?

2. Iterate until you’ve solved it Henrik Kniberg

Minimize the distance to MVP Deliver, measure, adjust continuously