{"id":29203,"date":"2018-04-02T10:05:07","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T17:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/?p=29203"},"modified":"2023-01-12T16:53:11","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T00:53:11","slug":"agile-should-not-be-confused-with-a-product-strategy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jamasoftware.com\/legacy\/blog\/2018\/04\/02\/agile-should-not-be-confused-with-a-product-strategy\/","title":{"rendered":"Agile Should Not Be Confused with a Product Strategy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Agile<\/p>\n

Companies turn to Agile for different reasons.<\/p>\n

Heightened efficiency, quicker time to market and risk reduction are all compelling benefits. That’s provided teams can actually stick with the discipline required to make the methodology work for them.<\/p>\n

Either way, organizations shouldn\u2019t substitute Agile as a product strategy, according to author and consultant Greg Cohen<\/a>. Although that hasn’t stopped some from trying.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can be so responsive with Agile, you can get away without a strategy in the way you couldn\u2019t in the Waterfall world,\u201d Cohen says.<\/p>\n

While Agile as a development methodology can give you a distinct edge in many areas, it\u2019s woefully inadequate as a standalone strategy for market success.<\/p>\n

A team may think it can rapidly develop and release a product, for instance, leaving strategic decisions like plans for rollout, marketing, distribution and partnerships until it\u2019s available to the general public. Unfortunately, that\u2019s not a path to profit.<\/p>\n

We recently chatted with Cohen, who runs Agile Excellence<\/a>, and he expanded on this key distinction.<\/p>\n

Jama Software: You\u2019ve said before Agile is not a substitute for product strategy. Could you elaborate a little bit on that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Greg Cohen<\/strong>: <\/strong>If you think about what Agile is, it\u2019s absolutely a superior process for development and working in an uncertain and dynamic environment. And without a doubt a high performing Agile team is a competitive advantage.<\/p>\n

So in that sense, a superior process can be part of a bigger strategy. Agile lets you learn, out develop, out innovate your competition \u2014 if you can use this process better than your competitors.<\/p>\n

But even knowing that, do you know how many times the word \u201dstrategy\u201d shows up in the Agile Manifesto or The Scrum Guide?<\/p>\n

JS: Zero. <\/strong><\/p>\n

GC: <\/strong>Right, exactly zero times. And, in that sense, Agile isn\u2019t a strategy. Its creators didn’t consider it that way at all.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why I wrote this new book that came out in September, Strategy Excellence for Product Managers<\/em><\/a>. Because what I saw was teams were losing the hard skills of product strategy and just sort of relying on Agile flexibility to react to the market. And no longer leading it.<\/p>\n

But product strategy is about analysis. It\u2019s a deep analytic, intellectual exercise. And there are five elements in it:<\/p>\n