Envisioning a project outcome sometimes comes as an epiphany, but other times requires some method, even though you cannot legislate imagination
Module 2—Objectives
• Define envisioning in the agile context
• Explain the use of the Kano chart in the agile context • Explain the wicked problem in the context of envisioning
Envisioning
In the same way you cannot legislate imagination, you cannot precisely mandate how to envision a product goal. Transforming visionary ideas into goals—real end-states that are achievable—is a work of art, a bit of process,
and a dose of applied leadership. The story usually begins: “I had this idea one day....” However, imagination is but the first step.
Envisioning is an investment in ideas. The common understanding is that
an unformed or immature idea is given richness and detail, conformed to the value system of the enterprise, and made actionable by a project team. A filled-in business case is the capture vehicle for envisioning.
Recall from Chapter 2 that in the business case, a high-level business story describes the need. A product vision is offered. A concept of opera- tions, albeit at low fidelity, identifies the community of users and those who support them by roles and their needed features and functions. Value is given specificity by investment budget and milestones.
To envision beyond the business case, add depth and breadth to the busi- ness story. Consider these three steps:
1. Assemble the agile team and interview the visionary. Begin building
executive and customer relationships. Involve everyone on the team to leverage multifunctional experiences. Get as much of a picture, in any and several forms, as possible—verbal, written, and the un- spoken gesture. Take advantage of a person-to-person encounter to absorb the fullness of being present together—environment, respon- siveness, and attitude; establish credibility with probing questions; be open to novel ideas and compelling motivations.3
Search for the beginning. The big idea may have come as an epiph- any, but more likely it evolved over time by means of many informal conversations, and then was shaped by influences from media, mar- ket, and friends. The opportunity may be the fortunate confluence of technology availability and market receptiveness. Perhaps the idea is a reaction to successful competitors, external threats, or some other push. It may be a consequence of public policy that unleashes opportunity and creativity. Or, there could be a great national im- perative that demands innovation.
In his book, Winning at New Products, Robert G. Cooper writes “the game is won in the first few plays.... The seeds of disaster [are] often sown in the early phases...[arising from] poor homework, lack of customer orientation, and poor quality of execution....”4 Cooper goes on to list eleven ways to get and absorb good ideas, but the first three are the most helpful:
1. Identify a focal point to bring all the ideas, information, and interviews together. 2. List all the contributing sources that could add value to the idea formulation. 3. Engage the customer and users.
2. Explore ideas by spinning them about in a 360-degree view. What do they look like from the points of view of customer, user, supply chain, sales, marketing, and product support? Draw, diagram, or write down the ideas from each, and then look for affinity and common ground. One piece of advice: “If you can’t draw it, you can’t write it!”
3. Do a Kano analysis of features and functions.5 Kano analysis is done on a Kano chart, a graphical tool for portraying product feature and function in relation to customer satisfaction.
Envision with Kano Charts
As shown in Figure 5.1, the chart is in four quadrants separated by horizon- tal and vertical axes. The horizontal is the product axis and the vertical is
Missing — Product Functionality — Present +
Indifferent axis
The Kano analysis chart illustrates feature and function in context of where to place investments
Ah-hah! features are big winners
but might decay rapidly
“More is better” lie along this line
Functions are present but customer is dissatisfied with the quality Missing functionality causes
customer distress Investment is required
Missing functionality in this quadrant could have high customer satisfaction if investments are made
Customer satisfaction
the customer axis. Features and functions that lie along the horizontal axis have no particular customer appeal. Customers are indifferent to these but they are nevertheless required by standards and conventions.
Opportunities and threats describe the four quadrants. The upper right quadrant is the ah-hah! space. In the upper right quadrant there is high cus- tomer satisfaction and unique product value. The lower left is just the oppo- site—it has missing product value and correspondingly poor customer satisfac- tion. The two remaining quadrants are the middle ground between customer and product value.
The Kano analysis provides insights like these:
• Features that lie along the horizontal axis require continuing invest- ment but return little in customer loyalty; customers expect them in every product so they rarely provide any discriminating value.
• Features in the upper right quadrant are usually high value—high in-
vestment opportunities. But as competitors recognize the attractiveness
and provide similar offerings, these features decay toward the horizon- tal axis over time.
• Any feature that is missing—as identified in the lower left quadrant— becomes a must-do investment, to catch up with evolving expecta- tions of the market. Investment in this quadrant is me-too investing that simply levels the field for discriminators or disqualifiers.
Wicked Thinking
The wicked idea is this:The requirements are not knowable until the solution is knowable.
Does that sound agile? It might; but unlike agile most of the time, it’s cer- tainly circular in logic. Wicked problems, issues, or needs arise when there are many interlocking issues and competing stakeholders for which there seems no obvious point of entry. All resolutions seem to conflict with some- thing else. Thus, some methodologies of wicked thinking are required.
A project management tip
Wicked thinking and agile
• Wicked problem solving has a natural affinity with agile
methods because to solve a wicked problem, the analyst thinks iteratively rather than linearly, somewhat like a spi- ral, and generally begins with the end in mind.
• Try to envision the desired end-state first, and then work
Problems like these also arise when constraints constantly change, thereby introducing new conflicts and dependencies that force the solution to change also. Wicked problems are a constant test of whether any specific outcome is ever really an answer. A sure sign of the wicked problem is con- stant spinning about on an issue. From a project perspective, as convention- ally governed, such an idea is a really perverse feedback loop. Nonetheless, solutions to wicked problems can be envisioned.
In Excel terms, solving for a wicked problem is what the resolver does: it tries a solution on the source to see if it fits. That’s pretty much the wicked situation. You talk about the requirements, then you talk about the solution, and then on the basis of yet another solution that might actually be doable, you back fit the requirements.
One of the source documents for this line of thinking is Dilemmas in a
General Theory of Planning. Authors Rittel and Webber outline 10 wicked issues; among the more intriguing for agile projects are these:
Wicked Issues* 2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule.
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad.
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set of permissible oper- ations that may be incorporated into the plan.
10. The planner has no right to be wrong. Here the aim is not to find the truth, but to improve some characteristics of the world where people live. Planners are liable for the consequences of the actions they generate.
* Numbered according to the original source list.
Module 2—Discussion for Critical Thinking
Sometimes our vision comes to us as an epiphany, creating that ah-hah moment that maps to the Kano chart we discussed. But, sometimes we start with the green field and no firm idea of the project need. In that event, what process have you employed for developing the business case vision?