The goal of the Product Owner/ Manager is to ensure we are building the right product. User Stories support Agile delivery, but in today’s world, we need to be more focused on Product Discovery over Efficient Delivery. Industry studies show more than half of the features we build are rarely or never used. Wouldn’t you like to know much earlier which features are not going to be valued by your market? In this session at PCA20, David Hawks explored the weaknesses of the current standard Epic/User Story process and discover some new practices to ensure organizations are building the right features through quick market validation. He also proposed a new approach you can try to replace the musty old stale User Story method.

1. Evolve past User Stories to
Experiment Driven Development

2. Sponsors
Advocates
In Kind
Supporters

3. David Hawks
Agile Trainer and Coach
CEO of Agile Velocity
@austinagile
david@agilevelocity.com
AgileVelocity.com
Accelerate Agility
Transformation | Training | Coaching

4. © Copyright Agile Velocity, LLC All Rights Reserved
Sources
• Gothelf, Jeff (2013-02-22). Lean UX: Applying
Lean Principles to Improve User Experience (p.
20). O'Reilly Media
• Moves the Needle, Brant Cooper

5. Agile = Shorten the Feedback Loop
But, to Who?

6. Delivery Focus
• Agile
• Scrum
• Predictability
• Velocity
• Test Automation
• Continuous Integration
• User Stories

7. Build
Feedback?
Idea
Product

8. Build
Feedback?
Idea
Product
How do you
know you are
building the
right thing?

9. Build
Feedback?
Idea
Product
When do you
find out if you
are right?

10. How long is the
Release cycle?
(From Concept to
Customer)
How many features
are released
together?
How is success
determined?
Your
Product
Today

11. It is a
Requirement
Dammit!

12. 64% of the
features we build in
the software
industry are Rarely
or Never Used!

13. © Copyright Agile Velocity, LLC All Rights Reserved

14. © Copyright Agile Velocity, LLC All Rights Reserved
Objective
Objective: _____________________
• Key Result 1: ________________
• Key Result 2: ________________
• Key Result 3: ________________

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Objective
Drive more Revenue from Frequent Flyers
• Increase Revenue from frequent flyers by 20%
• 30% of frequent flyers rebook with us within 90 days
• We increase the number of frequent flyer customers by
25%

16. Experimentation
Objective
Explore baked-in assumptions and
define them as testable hypotheses
• “10% of all free version users will convert to paid.”
• “If we provide this feature, then 25% more will buy our service.”
• “Non-gluten recipes take more than 30 minutes to find.”
• “90% of parents want an easy way to share photos.”
Experiments
Design smallest
experiment(s) to test
the highest-priority
hypothesis
Hypotheses
Define the
Objective
PD-5

17. Discovery
• Lean Startup
• User Story Mapping
• Design Thinking
• Lean UX
• Experiment Driven

18. Turn your Requirement
into a Hypothesis
If we do X then Y% of customers will
behave in way Z

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Hypothesis
If we make the rebooking process easier,
then 30% of customers
will rebook 10% of flights within 90 days

20. Decision:
• Pivot - to a new/modified hypothesis
• Persevere - run more experiments, test next highest priority hypothesis
Running Experiments to Test a Hypothesis
BML Loop
MVPe
PD-6

21. AGILE VELOCITY PROPRIETARYCopyright © 2016 Agile Velocity, LLC. All Rights Reserved. AGILE VELOCITY PROPRIETARY
6
Risk that we are Wrong
Prioritize based on Risk of Assumptions
ImpactofGettingitWrong
1
2
3
4
8
5
7

22. Types of Experiments
ACTIVITY: Match the experiment type with a description and picture
MVP
Concierge MVP
Sprint PSPI
User Observation
A/B Test
Wizard of Oz
Paper Prototype
PD-8

23. Paper Prototyping

24. Explainer Video

25. Facade

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Experiment
Build the absolute minimum required to test your hypothesis, as fast as
possible
• Measure real behavior
• Don’t just confirm, learn
• Include ways to capture surprises

27. © Copyright Agile Velocity, LLC All Rights Reserved
Experiment
We believe that [doing this/building this feature/creating this
experience]
for [these people/personas]
will achieve [this outcome].
We will know this is true when we see [this market feedback,
quantitative measure, or qualitative insight]

28. Practice
Round
ACTIVITY: Each table is given a sheet containing a question or scenario.
• Collaborate and achieve consensus on an answer.
• Write down your answer in your workbook for the debrief.
After 3 minutes, shift to next table where a new sheet awaits.
PD-9

29. DeliveryDiscovery

30. Sponsors
Advocates
In Kind
Supporters