Facilitator’s Notes - Rollback

This Agile Decision Game, Rollback, simply takes its name from restoring a change back to its previous state. Typically, this is done as part of recovering from an error in a technical sense. For this case, though, participants are challenged to see just how far back they will reverse their strategy, vision, and direction for the product.

This case focuses on the complexities of handling public backlash and internal pressures in the aftermath of a major product redesign. It provides a decision point for participants to work through decision-making under uncertainty, stakeholder engagement, transparent communication, and navigating challenges under pressure. The scenario highlights the importance of data-driven decision-making, strategic alignment, and effective communication in an Agile environment.

Depending on if it's a full rollback, partial rollback, or standing their ground, what should be the communication plan to stakeholders or users? What steps can you take to reassure users and regain their trust? For example, would in-app tutorials, a blog post explaining the redesign, or an AMA with the design team help? How will you address short-term churn and mitigate negative sentiment while waiting for the redesign to demonstrate its value?

The Product Owner also has to recalibrate their internal alignment with leadership. How can you persuade leadership to maintain their stance despite external backlash? What metrics or comparisons would you emphasize to strengthen your case? They’re not only looking to you for answers but they are looking for confidence in those answers.

There are several key themes to highlight in this scenario:

Balancing short-term and long-term goals. Agile encourages responsiveness to change, but some changes demand resilience to achieve long-term benefits. How can the Product Owner stay aligned with the product vision amid immediate negative feedback? When should the team hold steady versus pivoting in response to user or stakeholder concerns?

Data-driven decision making. The PO must rely on both qualitative and quantitative data to justify decisions. How can usability data, such as a 25% improvement in task completion time, support the case for maintaining the redesign? How can comparisons to competitors’ similar redesign experiences help build confidence in the strategy?

Stakeholder management. Managing leadership’s concerns is as critical as managing the team. How can the PO use metrics, projections, and roadmaps to address leadership’s reservations? How can empathy be demonstrated while redirecting focus toward long-term benefits? Has this incident caused a gap in your credibility and how do you claw back your reputation?

User communication and engagement. Vocal negativity requires transparent and empathetic communication. What tools, such as blog posts, AMAs, or in-app tutorials, can be used to educate users and rebuild trust? How can storytelling reshape the narrative around the redesign?

Risk management. Change introduces risk, but proactive measures can mitigate it. How can immediate churn and viral negativity be addressed without undermining the redesign? What ongoing feedback mechanisms can be implemented to monitor and respond effectively? Even more to the point, why didn’t anyone see this bad outcome as a possibility?

Product Owners must maintain confidence in their decisions, leveraging data and research to justify actions while empathizing with stakeholders. Clear and transparent messaging is essential for guiding both users and leadership through uncertainty.

Agile emphasizes learning and adapting rather than achieving perfection on the first try. Redesigns can evolve through continued feedback. Effective product ownership requires balancing immediate needs with the product’s long-term trajectory.

This Agile Decision Game wasn’t based on an actual scenario, so there is no real world decision to describe.

This scenario can play out over 30 minutes with a group.?

Avoid calling on anyone in a more experienced Developer role for some of the initial responses. If similar solutions are being suggested, try to prompt further discussion using these questions:

• How do you manage leadership expectations during times of public criticism?
• How much does your confidence and credibility matter in this situation?
• Are you relying too much on data or not enough?
• What has influenced their decisions the most?
• What if leadership insisted on a rollback?
• How might they preempt similar issues in future launches?

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.