Beyond Agile — Becoming a great product organization.pdf

© 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential 1
Beyond Agile:
Becoming a great
product
organization

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© 2023 Thoughtworks
Tarang Baxi
Principal Product Manager,
Thoughtworks
Andy Birds
UK and Global Product Community
Leader, Thoughtworks
Sapna Maheswari
Head of CX, Product & Design
UK/Europe, Thoughtworks
Speakers
3

© 2023 Thoughtworks | Confidential
What we’re going to cover
What is a great product organization and why to become one
Project model vs. product model
The evolution to becoming a great product organization (poll)
How to become a great product organization
Identifying where to start
Evolutionary, not revolutionary
Indicators of success
Pitfalls when transforming to a great product organization (poll)
Making sure you’re ready
Summary and next steps
Questions
4

What is a great product organization
and why to become one
5

Organisations that
create differentiated
customer experiences
increase brand equity,
grow market share, and
are better positioned to
weather shifts.
of customers say the
best brands exceed
expectations across
the customer journey.
– Wunderman via Adobe
63%
of respondents said that it is
very or extremely important
for their organization to
deliver industry-leading
customer experiences to
be successful.
– 2022 survey by Harvard Business
Review and Thoughtworks
94%

Digital natives have
dominated their
markets and continue
to outperform.

A lot has been written about them

91%
It's no secret that 2022 was a huge year for
product-led growth. 91% of companies have
increased their investment, and a further 47%
plan to double down.
— Gainsight
9
527 %
One study reported that companies with
best-in-class product and customer experience
management practices recorded a 527% YoY
profit margin spike compared to peers.
— The product-led organization by Todd Olson: Aberdeen & SAP

What sets
these successful
businesses apart?
They operate using a
‘product model’ rather
than a ‘project model’.
They are great product
organizations!

Short-lived teams Long-lived teams
Restricted by technology Enabled by technology
Data is difficult to access Data informed
Output orientated Outcome-oriented
“Throw it over the wall” mentality Highly collaborative
Reactive Proactive
Internally focused Customer-centric
Project model Product model

Great product organizations focus on creating
amazing customer experiences that deliver
impact for the business.
12

The evolution to becoming a great product
organization
13

Collaboration — start & finish together
From waterfall projects to product teams
Analysis & Design Development QA / Test Release Operate
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Inspired by: John Cutler
Waterfall
(sequential)
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Team boundary External hand-off Internal hand-off
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Key:
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
“WAgile”
Agile development
Business analyst
and/or UX designer
part of the team
Continuous Delivery
capability
DevOps
Design and
developer
collaboration
Product manager and
development team
Product team
Every handoff is a point of friction which slows delivery of customer and business value. The aim is to remove friction and
get through the loop as quickly as possible.

Collaboration — start & finish together
From waterfall projects to product teams
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Inspired by: John Cutler
Waterfall
(sequential)
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Team boundary External hand-off Internal hand-off
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Key:
Reqs Planning
Discovery
Ideation
Target
state
“WAgile”
Agile development
Business analyst
and/or UX designer
part of the team
Continuous Delivery
capability
DevOps
Design and
developer
collaboration
Product manager and
development team
Product team
Every handoff is a point of friction which slows delivery of customer and business value. The aim is to remove friction and
get through the loop as quickly as possible.
Waterfall project / component teams
Agile delivery teams
Feature teams
Product focused teams
Empowered product teams

The ‘project model’ to ‘product model’ evolution
Waterfall project /
component teams
Great product organization
Feature teams
Customer-centric. Tech at core. Strategy, organization, processes and
tools optimised to achieve business impact
Temporary team to deliver business requirements
Adopting agile practices, such as short iterations, daily stand-ups, or
continuous integration – on top of a waterfall model
Focused on output e.g. features delivered, story points
Adoption of a more product-based ideologies e.g. aligned to business
objectives — OKRs
Empowered to solve problems in ways that delight customers, and also
work for the business
16

Evolution to becoming a great product organization
Waterfall project /
component teams
Feature teams
Customer-centric. Tech at core. Strategy, organization, processes and
tools optimised to achieve business impact
Temporary team to deliver business requirements
Adopting agile practices, such as short iterations, daily stand-ups, or
continuous integration – on top of a waterfall model
Focused on output e.g. features delivered, story points
Adoption of a more product-based ideologies e.g. aligned to business
objectives — OKRs
Empowered to solve problems in ways that delight customers, and also
work for the business
17

Great product organizations are
filled with empowered product teams.
NOT delivery or feature teams.
18

Project model vs. product model
Waterfall project /
component teams
Feature teams
Project
model
Product model

Frameworks, methods and practices
Waterfall project /
component teams
Feature teams
Agile
and Lean
Design
thinking Product
thinking
Waterfall
DevOps

Moving from hierarchy to networks
Waterfall project /
component teams
Feature teams
Centralised
— mandated
Decentralise
— autonomy
Directive
leadership
— command and
control
Servant / humble
leadership
— mission
command

Moving from outputs to outcomes
Waterfall project /
component teams
Feature teams
Output-
orientated
Outcome-
orientated
Mercenaries
Missionaries
Serve
“the business”
Part of
“the business”

Where are you
on this journey?
Waterfall project /
component teams
Feature teams

How to become a great
product organization
24

Identifying
where to start
Becoming a great product
organization requires a holistic
mindset shift.
It’s much more than new titles, or
a restructure of departments,
functions and teams.
It requires multifaceted,
thoughtful and intentional
change.
People and
skills
Data and
insights
Technology
and tooling
Strategy and
alignment
Structure Process and
techniques
Product
organization
wheel
(POW)
Product
team
capability
Product
and design
leadership
capability
Incentives
Vision and
strategy
Governance
Innovation
Funding
Goals and
metrics
Product
development
approach
Testing,
deployment
and release
management
Architecture
Tools and
frameworks
Market
insights
Customer
and user
insights
Data and
analytics
Product
team
composition
organization
design
Product
and team
topology
25
Culture

Time
Performance
(EBITDA)
Current state
Big Bang
approach
Desired future state
Incremental
approach
Period of disruption
Requires orchestration and lightweight governance
What
stakeholders
expect
Evolutionary, not revolutionary
Source: Adapted from David Viney, the J Curve effect observed in change and Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, the Change Curve
26
Success is achieved by taking incremental steps towards the future state

Incremental changes with a mix of vertical thin-slice work and horizontal initiatives
27
Slitrix - make this journey evolutionary and targeted
Strategy and alignment
Process and techniques
Technology and tooling
Data and insights
Structure
People and skills
Exemplar
OKRs
Training
Culture
Exemplar

Process and techniques
Technology and tooling
Data and insights
Structure
People and skills
Intentional development of your org capabilities
Time
Strategy and alignment
28
People before process, and process before tooling.
80% of your efforts should be on culture change, 20% on process and tooling.

Value focused
Percentage of feature work that is born from an outcome based OKR, rather than
features or initiatives being defined first, and then retrospectively aligned to OKRs.
3
5
29
Minimal dependencies
How much work needs to leave the team to be completed. This measures the
amount of autonomy and control a team has.
1
Product success
Increase in the product goals and targets (product health metrics, KPIs and/or
OKRs) being met and succeeded.
2 Customer-centric
Percentage of goals/OKRs that start from customer behavior.
4
Discovery-driven
How much work stops, or changes based on new knowledge. Not everything will
work, so if this number is zero you are not learning anything
7
29
Data informed
Percentage of key decisions that are made using data — not just based on intuition.
6
Responsiveness
End-to-end lead time; lead time is the period between a new idea and its first
revenue, and end-to-end cycle time; when somebody is actually working on it.
7 indicators
of a great
product
organization

Pitfalls when transforming to a great
product organization
30

Relabeling
people roles,
without
capability
uplift and
complementary
recruitment
of talent
31
Not clearly
defining the
products and the
product team(s)
boundaries
Transforming
in silos
(local
optimisation)
Changing
everything
at once
Top 10
pitfalls No clear
business
imperative
to change —
“the why”
Failure from the
top — lack of a
united and
committed
leadership team
Leadership
struggles to
renounce their
power —
leadership vs.
management
Struggling to
embrace the
unknown —
little time
discovering.
Failure are
frowned upon.
Silver bullet
expectations
Fixation or,
an over-focus
on roles and
responsibilities,
or processes,
rather than
the outcomes

Making sure you’re ready
32

Failure is not tolerated — failure is hidden, everything
is ‘green’ unless it’s on fire.
Making sure
you’re ready
We have observed many cultural
patterns, which signal that a project
model may be better suited to these
organizations.
Some organizations might not be
ready to transition to becoming a great
product organization.
33
Success theater — people play the system by claiming
success i.e. project complete, when actually they cut
corner
Date-driven — perception that committing to a date
to deliver a feature or project is more important than
the metric change the feature or project delivers.
White knights are adored — individual heroes are
rewarded rather than teams.
Functional fiefdoms — functions are departments are
driven by increasing their headcount and budget, there
is a reluctance to collaborate.
Using a ‘follower’ or ‘me too’ strategy — no desire
to be truly differentiated; a ‘me too’ strategy prevails.
A feature factory may work best in this situation.

Summary and next steps
34

A product model enables organizations to focus on outcomes and
quickly respond to market changes, competitive pressures and
changing customer expectations.
1
2
3
4
5
‘Product’ is a culture, a way of thinking and working that focuses on
balancing fast and continuous delivery of value for the customer, and
for the business.
Great product organizations focus on creating amazing customer
experiences that deliver impact for the business.
Great product organizations are filled with empowered product teams.
NOT delivery or feature teams.
Becoming a great product organization requires a holistic mindset shift.
It’s much more than new titles, or a restructure of departments,
functions and teams. It requires multifaceted, thoughtful and
intentional change.
Summary
A great product
organization is a
a high performing
organization.

Align with
stakeholders from
across the
organization to
discuss the need to
embark on this
journey together.
1.
Define the product
transformation
vision, and the
incremental steps
in moving in that
direction based on
your current reality.
2.
Prioritise 2-3 areas
to focus on, for
example a broad
initiatives such as
education and one
or two thin slices
such as a product,
and the team(s) that
manage and
develop it.
3.
A good place to
start is by ensuring
you are measuring
the outcomes of
product
developments e.g
feature usage.
4.
© 2022 Thoughtworks
What could you do from here?
Think big about everything you want to change, but start small.

Next steps with
Thoughtworks
37
Complimentary workshop to rapidly
assess your maturity using the
product organization wheel (POW).
If you are on the journey to becoming
a great product organization and
would like some support getting there,
then reach out to Thoughtworks via
uk@thoughtworks.com (subject to
Thoughtworks qualification).
37
© 2022 Thoughtworks 37
Data and
insights
Technology
and tooling
Strategy and
alignment
techniques
Product
team
capability
Incentives
Vision and
strategy
Governance
Innovation
Funding
Goals and
metrics
Product
development
approach
Testing,
deployment
and release
management
Architecture
Tools and
frameworks
Market
insights
Customer
and user
insights
Data and
analytics
Product
team
composition
organization
design
Product
and team
topology
Culture
People and
skills
Data and
insights
Technology
and tooling
Strategy and
alignment
techniques
Product
organization
wheel
(POW)
Product
team
capability
Product
and design
leadership
capability
Incentives
Vision and
strategy
Governance
Innovation
Funding
Goals and
metrics
Product
development
approach
Testing,
deployment
and release
management
Architecture
Tools and
frameworks
Market
insights
Customer
and user
insights
Data and
analytics
Product
team
composition
organization
design
Product
and team
topology
37
Culture

Thank you

Beyond Agile — Becoming a great product organization.pdf

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