The Better Way: Transformation principles for the
  • The Better Way: Transformation principles for the real world
  • Preface
    • Preface
  • Part I - The Big Picture
    • Introduction
    • Radical change
    • Rapid acceleration
    • Profound complexity
    • Part I Summary
  • Part II - The better way
    • Introduction
    • Principle one: Focus on customer value and adaptability
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle two: Technology excellence is the strategy
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle three: Choose product teams over project teams
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle four: Divide and conquer
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle five: Integrate governance, risk and compliance experts with product teams early and often
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Principle six: Measure what matters
      • Applying the principle in practice
      • What good looks like
      • Common failure modes
      • Final thoughts
    • Part II Summary
  • Part III - Micro-transformation
    • Introduction
    • Step one: Design effective cross-functional teams
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Step two: Create immersive working environments
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Step three: Implement the Starter Kata
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Step four: Thin-slice the work
      • How it works
      • Why it works
      • Final thoughts
    • Part III Summary
  • Conclusion
  • Glossary
  • Endnotes
    • Endnotes
    • License
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  1. Part II - The better way
  2. Principle three: Choose product teams over project teams

Common failure modes

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Last updated 3 years ago

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  • Creating bloated s 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!

MVP