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Continuous Value Delivery

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Below are concepts that are needed to be understood in order to fully grasp Assignments within the Continuous Value Delivery playbook

As of February 2024, I’m working with the team at CareerPlug to design the Discovery/Shaping Assignments

Opportunity Tree anatomy

First, we must get clear on the tree metaphor.

  • The Seeds aka Company Strategy
    • When we ask “How might we achieve our company mission/vision” it results in…
    • The 1-3 year outlook; Exec team accountable, everyone responsible
  • The Forest aka Product Strategy
    • When we ask “How might we achieve our company strategy” it results in…
    • The viability and value impact measures the Betting Table sets annually; VP Product accountable, everyone in Product responsible
  • The Tree(s) aka the annual OKRs
    • When we ask “How might we achieve our product strategy” it results in…
    • The primary objectives and key results a squad devises in response to the annual strategy (lagging indicators)
  • The Branches aka the Opportunities
    • When we ask “How might we achieve the annual OKRs”
    • The 1 - 2 big-bet-cycle sized needs, wants, desires, and/or problems represented by leading indicator desired outcomes
  • The Leaves aka the Solutions
    • When we ask “How might we achieve the outcomes defined in the opportunities given to us within the appetite set” – this is called Shaping…
    • When we ask “How might we deliver the value hypothesized by the shaped work” – this is called Launching…
    • When we ask “How might we sense and respond to what was launched and help us iterate to achieve the value we set out to achieve” – this we refer to as Continuous Learning
    • Ultimately, Leaves are the things we build that we hope deliver value to clients that works for the business
  • The Fruit aka the Client Results
    • If all goes according to plan, the Leaves will bear fruit that clients/partners love! This will give us more nourishment which feeds the roots and produces more seeds

Continuous Value Delivery Crew

The following are the collection of 9 key Assignments needed for continuous value delivery. Though many other Assignments are necessary, the following are the skeleton of any ProdDev initiative.

Opportunities

  1. Listen
  2. Excavate
  3. Prioritize and Appetite-ify Opportunities

Solutions

  1. Hypothesize
  2. Shape to Learn
  3. Iterate to Learn

Deliver

  1. Build
  2. Launch
  3. Learn

Decompose & Sequence Assumptions

As you can see, this is a trio of trios. The first trio… the Opportunist…

1. Actively listen to clients, partners, and stakeholders…

  • “Those who are closest to the customer, will win” – Product Fact
  • Insight Excavators seek out, dig for clarity via inquiry (or excavate 😎), synthesize, and log (via snapshots)
    • Their primary workspace is the Insights tab on ProductBoard

2. Convert the raw excavated Insights into refined Opportunities

  • Opportunities come in a few shapes and sizes. From small Value Enhancements to Big Bet Oppty Canvases. It is the responsibility of the Insight to Opportunity Alchemists to perform the wizardry necessary to do this conversion. They are responsible for ensuring the Oppties are clear, have evidence, and a desired outcome.
    • Their primary workbench is the Features tab in ProductBoard (taking Insights on the Insights tab and connecting them to products, components, features, and sub-features)

3. Prioritize and appetite-ify the Opportunities

  • Opportunity Tree Caretaker‘s primary *Given they are the deciders, the Caretaker’s primary workbench is the “Top 7” on the roadmap tab in ProductBoard (pulled from the products, components, features, and sub-features on the features tab)

We’ve met the Opportunist, now let’s meet the Solutionists…

4. Hypothesize

  • Decompose and sequence the assumptions. Best way to tackle big things is to break them down into smaller things.
  • It is usually best to start with the riskiest assumption
  • Ultimately, this will likely be the Opportunity Tree Caretaker working closely with the Value Shapers to state the assumptions and formulate a set of measures to use for us to know if we are meeting the objective inherent in the opportunity.

5. Shape to Learn

Shape solutions that may result in the desired outcome at the center of the Opportunities

  • Value Shapers design, prioritize, decompose and sequence… what we call Shape… what is built
    • Their primary workbench are the Oppty Canvases, specifically the project brief / guided tour within them

6. Iterate to Learn

Here is where we experiment. Where we put things in the Lab for the sole purpose to learn. Where we seek value as defined by a true change in human behavior. There isn’t a specific Assignment for this, but Assignments like Self-Serve Scientist or Discovery Engineer. The goal here is to learn as much as possible, as quickly as possible. There is no doubt that this is a form of building. But, I call it out because so many folks skip this part and are overly confident in their own decisions.

We’ve met the Opportunist that ensure the Why is clear, and the Solutionists that gives us confidence we are building the right What, now let’s meet the Deliverers…

7. Build the solution

  • There are too many Assignments involved in building to list here. The Value Shapers are expected to be the leaders ensuring the value is built well.

8. Launch the Value

  • Launch Coordinators are the air traffic controllers of all launches. Their primary job is to ensure all teammates (strongly) agree: “I was prepared to not only serve our clients at an expert level, but I am able to bring excitement to our clients about the changes we’ve made to our product.”
    • Their primary workbench is the Portal tab of ProductBoard, where we showcase what we’ve launched (as well as the internal roadmaps, which will include launch effectiveness measures where appropriate)

9. We launch to learn

  • Launching is but a single step in the endless flow of continuous value delivery that the CP Product team subscribes to. We are not a feature factory, but instead we aspire to be a true Product team. If we aren’t learning (what works, what doesn’t, and how it impacts client results and business outcomes), then we are not doing our job. Data Analysts ensure we are learning from every launch. Taking those learnings and converting them into Insights (and the continuous flow starts all over again… if done well it is like fission, where it never stops and gets more and more powerful over time).

This sequence starts with clear company goals and strategy that lead to clear product/squad goals and strategy. The responsibility of ensuring the goals and strategies at that level are clear falls to Opportunity Forest Groundskeepers.