TL;DR: Projects ask teams do what is asked of them; Products ask teams to invent their work. This requires a different way of seeing the world, and not everyone can do it yet. Software is not an up-front investment that pays off over its use. Software is an ongoing concern, an intricate piece of a …
Read moreProject to Product asks more of our software, and more of us
Just now, Avdi had a miserable experience buying curtains. He went to pick up an order that he placed last night, but Lowe’s didn’t have it. The order was sent to the wrong store and it was a huge pain to figure out. Software is hard to get right. And every time we don’t, customers …
In software and in business, we don’t build up from specific subtasks. We build up from broader capabilities.
Here’s a lovely graphic from the folks at Intercom. It describes the difference between what companies sell and what people buy. We don’t want the tool, we want what we can do with the tool. Take it further – maybe what that skateboarder really wants is: the high fives at the end. Our accomplishments feel …
In Projects to Products, Mik Kersten divides flow items in software products in four: features, defects, risks, and debt. If you only count features added and bugs fixed – changes visible externally – then you neglect the other outcome of our work: the next version of the team+software. I prefer to think of “technical debt” …