Agile Killed Product Management

I’ve been around for a while.?I’ve seen development tools and methods come and go like the wind.?Over the past decade, agile development has sucked the air out of complex corporations while agile business models have hypnotized executives.?Why? Because anything that can increase time to market or time to money has got to be good for the bottom line, right? ?Anything that can hasten communication, collaboration, and decision-making has got to be good. Of course it does!

Mind you, I’m an ardent advocate for building a competitive, profit-making enterprise. But when the agile movement began, it was basically driven out of frustration by developers, not by product managers and businesspeople.?Software developers and engineers wanted more predictability, and they didn’t want to work for a year or more on a product that would ultimately require a lot of changes. ?Listen, I don’t think that’s such a good thing either. Yet, as web-based apps proliferated, especially those produced by smaller companies, it made sense to do things quickly.?It still does. And rapid releases still make sense for web and mobile apps from big and small companies alike, especially when changes are imperceptible and result in needed improvements.?

While I do want to make this rant as brief as possible, I have to talk about the manifesto.?First, it wasn’t written by product managers; it was written by software engineers.?It all seems to make sense -- if you’re a small software company. But complex companies do have processes to define roles and responsibilities.?They can’t run without them.?They also have to write things down, and document work because no one stays long enough and there is not enough corporate memory unless there are the right artifacts and documentation. Next, change can cause a team to get out of control when there’s no strategic anchor and a solid business case.?Yes, plans do change, as strategies should adapt to business and market conditions, but you cannot move a complex company like a school of fish. Strategy matters. ?Lastly, customer collaboration is good – if you can get customers to collaborate and work with you. Most customers don’t want to be in your R&D posse.?They just want the product to solve the problem and deliver exceptional value. Based on my less-than-satisfyied experience as a user of a lot of apps, there’s work to be done.

For more complex enterprise-class organizations with complicated interconnected systems, there are too many gears that are spinning, too many interfaces, and too much that can go wrong. Even if you break down projects into small pieces, the supervision and administrative overhead are too much for a product manager. ?And you can’t delegate product management to a product owner; they just don’t know enough about the business of the product. ?The gears have to be properly synchronized to balance the need for speed, the management of expenses, the attainment of quality, and the delivery of value to customers.?

What I’m talking about here is the use of what's right for the business to develop what needs to be developed based on market requirements, customer needs, current product business performance, and strategic intent. ?Businesses require businesspeople, and product managers are businesspeople, who strategize their way forward, who understand how the business works from a holistic perspective, and who deliver results at the end of the day.?How stuff gets built and shipped depends on the company’s business model. You can’t force-fit speed, just like you can’t have a train going 150 mph around a curve on tracks designed for 60 mph.

I could rant further, but I just need to put this out there. This is beyond feather rustling; this is rocking the boat.?And I’d urge others who feel this way to contribute. And if you can make the case otherwise, let’s hear it. ??