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Product Roadmap, Planning and Launch in an Agile Environment

Product Roadmap, Planning and Launch in an Agile Environment. Agile Practitioners 2013. Jan. 30, 2013 Eilon Reshef / VP Products and R&D / Co-Founder. Introduction. The Webcollage Solution. A SaaS platform for managing and publishing rich product information.

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Product Roadmap, Planning and Launch in an Agile Environment

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  1. Product Roadmap, Planning and Launch in an Agile Environment Agile Practitioners 2013 Jan. 30, 2013 Eilon Reshef / VP Products and R&D / Co-Founder

  2. Introduction

  3. The Webcollage Solution • A SaaS platform for managing and publishing rich product information

  4. SaaS Product Content Management

  5. Customers: Large Brands

  6. Subscribers: Large Retailers

  7. Webcollage: Some More Context • Software-as-a-Service • A.k.a., On Demand • Large Customers • B2B • Continuous Delivery • 2-week cycles, Kanban-like • Web Content Management and Delivery • Established Startup • 70 people • $10m-$20m revenue • Profitable, growing • >10 years

  8. Agile Principles and Product Management

  9. Historical vs. Modern Development Cycles • Old-Style Development Cycle • Modern Development Cycle Release 4.0 Release 48 Release 3.0 Release 36

  10. Old-Style vs. Modern Product Cycles How does the product “cycle” look like in an agile environment?

  11. The Easy, but Wrong Answer • Use old-style product cycles but a modern developmentcycles • Makes developers feel good (“we have dailies”) but misses key benefits in agile cycles • Mostly, no real customer feedback until too late • A product manager is not a customer • Points for consideration • Software vs. construction • SaaS vs. on-premise software Release 4.0 Release 3.0

  12. Modern Cycles: Planning Challenges • No defined period for planning • Limited visibility into release schedule becomes more evident • Hard to predict effort • Hard to predict scope • Depth rightfully decided along the way • What does a roadmap look like? ? Release 48 Release 36

  13. Modern Cycles: Launch Challenges • No defined period for, launch • The product is working, but the documentation is not yet complete… do we launch now? • It’s working, but so many customers mentioned they need X • When do we incorporate customer feedback? ? Release 48 Release 36

  14. Modern Cycles: Opportunities • Agile enables experiments • Many names • Proof of Concept • Minimum Viable Product • Minimum Sellable Product • … ? Release 48 Release 36

  15. Planning

  16. Planning: Roadmaps • Fact 1: Hard customer commitments reduce agility • Corollary 1 • If you’ve committed to customers on the content of most of your bandwidth, you’re back to old-style cycles Degree of Freedom Degree of Freedom Commitment 2 Commitment 1

  17. Planning at Webcollage • We meet annually to decide on high level priorities for the year • Involves budget, hiring, sales planning, business development, … • We create a “straw man” framework • What we think will more or less happen on a quarterly basis • We keep tons of slack • Slack grows as the year proceeds • Our crystal ball distorts from far away

  18. External Roadmaps at Webcollage • We have high-level roadmap presentations that show what we’re planning for the year • We are not committing that particular features will actually be developed • We are not committing to particular timelines • We are doing a lot to make our customers happy, and they know it • When we have to give hard commitments, we do it but it rarely happens • This needs to be part of the corporate culture • Is it possible to avoid hard commitments • Well, Webcollage does work with the largest brands out there… 1 2 3 4 5

  19. Internal Planning (Cont.) • We meet each quarter to review priorities and new learnings • We recreate straw man plans for the upcoming quarter • We keep slack at ~50% • Quarterly plans are generally kept internal • Not shared with customers • Day to day planning happens in a relatively standard fashion • Wish List, Backlog, “In Play” (sprint equivalent)

  20. Launch

  21. Product Launch • When do you “launch”? Release 48 Release 36

  22. Internal Communication at Webcollage • Two-week development cycles • We hold broad weekly meetings • Products, R&D, Professional Services, Pre-Sales, Product Marketing, Operations, Technical Services, Technical Support • Not sales • Up to one hour • Discussion • Noteworthy features in last iteration • Noteworthy features in upcoming iteration • Tasks • Create decks, communicate further • Bi-weekly “what’s new” e-mail • (We found out that information doesn’t bubble well enough)

  23. What’s Coming Dashboard (Pre-Launch)

  24. Last Version Dashboard

  25. Rollout Approach: Gradual Rollout • Very rarely can large features be ready 360° out of the gate • Training • Online demos • Key Approach: Feature Flag • Turns Feature on or off • Globally (configuration) • For individual customers • Common Scenario • Feature flag off: internal users only on • Feature flag off by default: select customers on • “Alpha”/“Beta” • “Canary Installation” • Feature flag on by default: off for select customers • Data migration • “Release Candidate” • On for all • Applicable to large features, not to bug fixes

  26. Key Communication Techniques • In-application announcements • Controllable at a customer (tenant) level • E-Mails, Webinars, Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly Meetings • Press Releases

  27. Beta Wording (weak)

  28. Feedback Loop: Closed vs. Open Iterations • Closed Iterations (Committed Content) [Scrum] • Open Iterations (Flexible Content) [Kanban] Feedback Feedback Feedback Feedback Feedback Feedback

  29. Agile Opportunities • Proof of Concepts • Launch, Listen, Learn • MVP, MSP • Not (really) available in old-style product cycles • With Agile, gambling is not required

  30. Feature Depth • Traditional Approach • Agile Approach • Define “depth” based on multiple criteria • Type and number of planned users • Extent of planned use • Visibility of new feature • “User Stories” are just, well, fairy tales Use Sell Compete

  31. Defining Feature Depth • Can and should iterate on depth • Settling down mid way is common, and fine Robustness Finesse Feature Completeness

  32. Not covered here… :-) • A/B and multivariate testing • Very strong concepts, but mostly applicable to B2C • Pre-launch “traps” • Also mostly a B2C concept • Less suitable for an established company • Marketing and support automation • E-mail communication, surveys • Marketo/Eloqua/Hubspot/… • Help desk, online chat, automated feedback, suggestion boards • … • Applicable to all web applications, regarding of Agile

  33. Thank You

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