This presentation covers key aspects of Dual Track Agile and provides real-world examples and case studies. It also gives some background on the Discovery and Framing framework and is meant for practitioners who have been using Lean-Agile methodology for at least a year. While the slides do not describe UCD (User-Centered Design), Pair Programming, TDD (Test Driven Development), or DDD (Domain Driven Development), these concepts are assumed in the approach. That's how VMware Pivotal builds great products. The approach described here is only ideal for Lean-Agile methodology.

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Dual-Track Agile
How to experiment at scale
Soumeya Benghanem
Nov, 2020

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Agenda
2
Speaker Introduction
Logistics
What is Dual Agile?
What is Discovery & Framing?
The Dual Agile Approach
Staying Focused
Case Studies

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Soumeya Benghanem
Currently at VMware Pivotal Labs
● 18 years of product management experience
● Startups and Fortune 500 companies
● B2C, B2B, SaaS
● Non-linear product management path: SE, Analyst, Project
Manager, Manager, Director, VP, Co-Founder, EVP, Staff PM
Speaker Introduction

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Ask questions as you think of them, use the chat area. I will try to answer them
before moving to the next section
All participants are muted until we reach the questions section
If you have any follow-ups reach out to me at sbenghanem@vmware.com
Logistics

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A framework that allows product teams to do two things
concurrently:
1. Start building software on day 1
2. Discover the problem and frame the solution that delivers the
most value
What is Dual Agile?
Lean Agile
Define Build &
Validat
e
iterate
Dual Agile
Define Build &
Validat
e
iterate
Build &
Validat
e

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1. When time is an important factor
2. When you have important stakeholders who are
“experimentation” skeptics
3. When the value stream is complex and no one on the team is
an expert in the domain or domains it crosses
4. When you need to deliver outcomes at scale
5. When you are one lean agile team working within a
pathological or bureaucratic culture that you need to
cooperate or bridge with
6. When validating the “path-to-prod” is a high priority
assumption
When To Use Dual Agile?

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Why build software on day 1?
Buy-in: getting valuable
software faster into the hands
of skeptical users is the best
way to get buy in
Morale: delivering valuable
software faster to customers
who appreciate it is the most
effective morale booster
Experimentation: early and
continuous engineering
experimentation to
validate/invalidate risky
assumptions
Buy-in, morale and attaining value
Product
Teams
Funding
Pressure

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Why we do discovery and framing in parallel?
Risk Management: validate the
riskiest assumptions early
Validate the problem: what is
the “right” problem(s) to solve
Validate the solution: user-
validation of lean pieces of the
solution will build into bigger
validations of the big solution
Validation of the problem and the solution
Problem
Statement
Product
Proposition
Uncertainty Clarity
Time

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Discovery and Framing Approach

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Dual Agile Approach
AcceleratedD&FDeliberateD&F
Ideas & Scope Kickoff Inception MLP/MVP
Assumption
Generation &
Prioritization
Top Problem
Solution
Generation &
Prioritization
Prioritized
Backlog
Build
&
Validate
Inform
Influence
&
Merge

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Dual Agile Time Dimension
Accelerated
D&F
DeliberateD&F
Ideas & Scope Kickoff Inception MLP/MVP
Assumption
Generation &
Prioritization
Top Problem
Solution
Generation &
Prioritization
Prioritized
Backlog
Build
&
Validate
1 Week
4-6 Weeks

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How to Stay Focused
● Everyone on the team, and stakeholders, are aligned on:
‐ The assumptions
‐ The need for experimentation, and what to do with its results
● Product designers focus 90% of their time and energy on the deliberate D&F
● Engineers focus 90% of their time and energy on the accelerated D&F
● Daily and weekly ceremonies for the balanced team
● Product managers constantly and ruthlessly prioritizing

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Case Study: Medical App

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Background
Large biopharmaceutical drug company launched a new drug to market in the last
few months
The company wants to build an online community around a valuable set of feature
for people who are likely to need immunosuppressive drugs
In 12 months, a competitor will be launching their own drug

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Kickoff
Identified 4 risky assumptions:
1. People with autoimmune conditions need a way to identify symptoms and
triggers and it is hard to do that without the use of technology
2. There are many online communities but no apps geared towards autoimmune
conditions
3. The launch of the competitor’s drug will create market pressure and a need to
differentiate beyond drug efficacy
4. Legal approvals of features and copy take multiple weeks if not months

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Staffing
6 engineers
2 product designers
2 content generators
2 product managers
Plus: data analysts, legal, marketing and other business stakeholders

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Multi-Agile Approach
Workstreams 1 and 2- Accelerated D&F
Build an app that has the following features:
1. Online forum
2. Integration with Fitbit, Apple Health Kit, Diabetes trackers
3. Content
Workstream 3- Deliberate D&F
1. Validate problems and solutions before and after using the drug

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Deliberate D&F Details
Service Blueprint
Since the company is
broken up by “business”
and “IT” functions we
started by creating a
business service
blueprint.
Output: Service Blueprint.
Event Storming
Used the input from the
service blueprint to start
then the extended
business and technology
team added more
details. Identified:
commands, aggregates,
constraints, timelines,
bounded contexts and
logical slices.
Output: Event Diagram.
Boris
Grouped activities and/or
slices into services that
interact and identified all
the communication
paths (data and people),
flow, api’s, scenarios,
and high level
architecture.
Output: Boris diagram.
Value Stream Map
Identified “problem
spots” such as excessive
lead-time or org
structures that can
impact the product’s
success.
Output: Value Stream
Map and baseline
metrics.
Due to the overall culture of the organization (bureaucratic and pathological) and the
complexity of the value-stream the D&F consisted of these key activities and
outputs”
Outcome: alignment
of the business
groups
Outcome: breaking down
complexity, ubiquitous language,
alignment of business and tech
Outcome: trouble spots
where optimization can
happen with or without
technology
Outcome: feature
backlog, notional
architecture
Because of organizational limitations
we had to start with a service
blueprint to “warm up” the business.
In most cases, you can just start with
an event storm.
8 Weeks

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Results
In 8 weeks the team was able to:
1. Launch a Minimum Loveable Product in the App Store
2. Validate designs and features with users across multiple segments and
personas
3. Obtain legal approval prior to launch

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Case Study: Support App

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Large Fortune 500 technology company wants to launch a new app during their annual user
conference in 2020 (e.g. Google I/O ).
The app should help users get support anywhere, anytime.
Currently, customers can receive support through web portals, email or phone calls.
This software company has hundreds of B2B products.
Background

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Kickoff Results
Identified the top 2 riskiest assumptions:
1. App must be ready before the 2020 conference
2. Do our customers need or want an app to get support anywhere and anytime?

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Staffing
1 Engineering Pair
1 Designer
1 Product manager
Plus: time from multiple SME’s with knowledge of existing systems and other
stakeholders

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Dual Agile Approach

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Results
In 5 weeks, the team learned the following:
Workstream 1:
● Gained an understanding of existing systems that we need to integrate with
● Built an MVP using React Native
Workstream 2:
● Determined through user interviews that a new app is not valuable
● Identified valuable features to be implemented in existing systems

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THANK YOU!
Any Questions?

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Appendix

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What is an experiment?
In an ideal experiment the tester separates an independent variable (the presumed
cause) from a dependent variable (the observed effect) while holding all other potential
causes constant, and then manipulates the former to study changes in the latter.

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Discovery
Objectives
● Understand what problem the product will solve
● Understand users, customers, domain
● Identify opportunities and constraints
● Ensure we solve the right problems
Example Activities
● Conducting ethnographic research
● Competitive/market analysis
● Defining user personas
● Synthesizing insights
● Exploring the product proposition

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Framing
Objectives
● Validate the riskiest assumptions early
● Establish models and frame solutions
● Remove enough uncertainty so we can begin
development and be confident we are heading
in the right direction
● Reduce risk through constant user validation
Example Activities
● Shape high level experience framework
● Technical spikes
● Service blueprints
● Develop workflows
● Scenario mapping
● Prioritise MVP features