Common failure modes

• Creating bloated MVPs in big bang releases rather than thin-sliced experience improvements

• Feature fixation (i.e. the belief that more features equals more value)

Pragmatic Insight:

In practice, shifting to product teams may be the hardest thing for most organizations to do. In fact, many companies never quite get there — or even realize that they need to!

It’s important to note that Principle Three is not about design thinking and delivery pods. If you have pods that simply take orders, you are in a waterfall organization masquerading as Agile. If you are asking for requirements from business leaders, and capturing them via BAs, you are not customer-centric. Customer-centricity is obsessing over creating customer value and continuously learning and stretching to do so. That requires real product teams. On the positive side, the barriers are largely noise and can be rapidly overcome with the right approach. Anchoring on this principle is key. More on this in Part III!