Comments on: We didn’t build it because the business didn’t prioritise it http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/2010/01/25/we-didnt-build-it-because-the-business-didnt-prioritise-it/ For more than a decade Marc has been a passionate advocate of placing the customer at the heart of business, working with clients in finance, retail, government and entertainment sectors, helping them craft compelling cross channel customer experiences. Marc champions lean and agile approaches for making customer driven innovation happen. He brings design thinking and creativity to clients, engaging across the organisation with a focus on delivery as well as ideas. He is currently writing a book on Agile Experience Design to be published this Autumn. Sun, 25 Sep 2011 23:33:07 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Prashant http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/2010/01/25/we-didnt-build-it-because-the-business-didnt-prioritise-it/comment-page-1/#comment-138098 Prashant Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:01:47 +0000 http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/?p=825#comment-138098 Oh and having lived in UK and Indian democracy, its a tough job convincing me that Democracy != populism. Democracy ultimately degenerates into one because it treats all voters as equals. Oh and having lived in UK and Indian democracy, its a tough job convincing me that Democracy != populism. Democracy ultimately degenerates into one because it treats all voters as equals.

]]> By: Prashant http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/2010/01/25/we-didnt-build-it-because-the-business-didnt-prioritise-it/comment-page-1/#comment-138096 Prashant Tue, 26 Jan 2010 15:28:40 +0000 http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/?p=825#comment-138096 Agile != blindly do whatever the customer asks you to do That is a problem. What tools exactly does Agile have to understand and appreciate future innovation when the benefits are not immediately quantifiable ? More often than not, the pushback/ argument for not doing something is based on old world thinking about business value. It requires a leap of faith to follow the insights of someone with vision. I dont think either Lean or Agile philosophies explicitly value that. Twitter or Apple Ipod or Youtube would never have been born with that mindset. Agile != blindly do whatever the customer asks you to do

That is a problem. What tools exactly does Agile have to understand and appreciate future innovation when the benefits are not immediately quantifiable ? More often than not, the pushback/ argument for not doing something is based on old world thinking about business value.

It requires a leap of faith to follow the insights of someone with vision. I dont think either Lean or Agile philosophies explicitly value that. Twitter or Apple Ipod or Youtube would never have been born with that mindset.

]]> By: Jason Yip http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/2010/01/25/we-didnt-build-it-because-the-business-didnt-prioritise-it/comment-page-1/#comment-138090 Jason Yip Tue, 26 Jan 2010 13:01:59 +0000 http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/?p=825#comment-138090 Democracy != populism like Agile != blindly do whatever the customer asks you to do Democracy != populism like Agile != blindly do whatever the customer asks you to do

]]> By: Prashant http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/2010/01/25/we-didnt-build-it-because-the-business-didnt-prioritise-it/comment-page-1/#comment-138059 Prashant Mon, 25 Jan 2010 16:22:20 +0000 http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/?p=825#comment-138059 Hmmm.. but do the product owners or end users always know ? As Henry Ford said " If I had asked my customers what they want, they would have asked for faster horses". Democracy will always draw upon the least common denominator not the insight. Hmmm.. but do the product owners or end users always know ? As Henry Ford said ” If I had asked my customers what they want, they would have asked for faster horses”.

Democracy will always draw upon the least common denominator not the insight.

]]> By: mattmc http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/2010/01/25/we-didnt-build-it-because-the-business-didnt-prioritise-it/comment-page-1/#comment-138056 mattmc Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:21:43 +0000 http://www.dancingmango.com/blog/?p=825#comment-138056 Interesting point about missing the user perspective. I feel some people go overboard in internal SW development with the whole idea of it being bad to build anything the customer didn't ask for. This is often a problem if the customer is management and they build a system that is literally painful for their employees who are, for example, forced to put up with a literal implementation of processing rules they weren't following tot he letter before that result in situations where documents can't be processed if someone that is the official approver isn't the office that day. Steve Blank's Customer Development model is one approach to this, but the basic concept is that you have to experiment. Building something for customers outside of your organization puts the assumption that the scrum product owner or XP customer has all the answers into even more questionable territory. Interesting point about missing the user perspective. I feel some people go overboard in internal SW development with the whole idea of it being bad to build anything the customer didn’t ask for. This is often a problem if the customer is management and they build a system that is literally painful for their employees who are, for example, forced to put up with a literal implementation of processing rules they weren’t following tot he letter before that result in situations where documents can’t be processed if someone that is the official approver isn’t the office that day.

Steve Blank’s Customer Development model is one approach to this, but the basic concept is that you have to experiment. Building something for customers outside of your organization puts the assumption that the scrum product owner or XP customer has all the answers into even more questionable territory.

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