Agile isn't dead, the market changed, part three

Jan 20, 2025

Matt Bjornson

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See the previous articles in the series Part One Part Two

We last looked at the how agile can benefit organizations, and also the challenges involved.

Agile solution providers ( consulting firms who help other companies implement agile) and the practitioners ( individuals) might need to change as well due to market shifts. As we mentioned, this is easier said than done due to the dogmatism involved with the certification 'puppy mill'. This process is further reinforced by the solution providers, as well as the entities behind the 'Agile Processes'.

What should solution providers and individuals do?

Listen to your customer

While this is really table stakes, listen to your client about what they need to accomplish and do. The hard part of this: drop the dogma. Based on what the client wants to accomplish - in terms of an outcome - develop a plan to help them get there. An outcome isn't 'adopt agile'. Adopting agile is a solution, what's the problem they are trying to solve that made them think about 'adopting agile'? Establish a regular cadence to discuss progress and impediments. The frequency of your 'check in' depends on the scope, but may be start monthly and bi-monthly.

But what if they do not know?

You need to find out what that outcome is. It's critical to understand the outcome and how the client is measuring 'success' in achieving that end state. This is really the hard part of this, but if you get this correct and reorient to the outcome and success measures, you tend to 1) work with higher level leaders, and 2) you are seen as a more strategic partner. You're no longer providing bodies to the 'cattle call' of an 'agile transformation' project.

Get some operational experience.

In most cases, most of the individuals in the agile community have backgrounds in project management or business analysis roles within technology departments. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but those functions are largely focused on taking direction, defining requirements, and getting engineers to build and deploy. The roles are overhead and administrative in nature. There's certainly some overlap with what some product owners do. (Largely, a Scrum Product Owner is a fancy name for an agile project manager - another topic for another time). Yet another administrative or overhead role. Sorry, but an agile coach is not an operational role, nor is a Product Owner.

A Product Owner is not a Product Manager. These are not interchangeable roles.

A Product Manager is an operational role. They are accountable for driving business outcomes. The role of Product Manager has been around for a lot longer than the agile community. Outside the agile community, the product manager is an operational role with P&L responsibility. There's an entire set of practices that a Product Manager does that are mostly absent in what the agile community defines as an 'Agile Product Manager'. It's looks nothing like a Product Owner. As a result, real Product Management is happening outside software, and in those few companies that are product-centric.

The agilistas, by and large, have little to contribute to how a Product Manager should work and function. Ironically, SAFe has learned and split the two roles of Product Manager and Product Owner. This was smart. However, they took a bunch of templates from various other approaches, and said the Product Manager uses these templates without the cohesive understanding of what a Product Manager does. There would be a lot to learn for an agile coach to step into a Product Manager role. I think Product Designers and Product Engineers might have a better chance of making this transition. A key skill these role currently use nearly daily is problem solving.

Don't look to the agile certification entities for training to become a Product Manager. Many MBA programs cultivate the skills needed to be a successful Product Manager. Some people frown on MBAs in Product Manager roles, but the MBA provides a broad business education of which Product Managers regularly use. An MBA is more relevant than a CSPO or PSPO for a Product Manager, a Product Owner, sure those would help with product delivery. The Pragmatic Institute is another route with a holistic approach to product management inclusive of strategy, pricing, lifecycle, competition and product marketing.

What are your blindspots? How are you going to mitigate them?

Even the Scrum guide is somewhat frequently updated, what are you doing to understand your skills and your gaps? What are the skills you think you need and how are you going to get them? What tools and approaches do you need to let go of, or at least put in your back pocket, due to shifts in the market? More importantly, what are my biases and communities that are holding me back from helping companies achieve their outcomes?

Stop blaming leaders that they're doing it wrong

How many times have you heard an agilista lament that "the leaders don't understand agile" or that "the leaders are doing it wrong"? Chances are, pretty often. Look the leaders are the ones on the hook for hiring you and bringing you in. Try to understand their perspective, try to understand if the goal posts have moved? You do understand the 'why' and how they are measuring success, right? It could be that priorities have shifted, or the success definition has changed. This could be a response to internal or external changes. Have the tough conversation, it could also be that they aren't seeing the changes you specified. These factors could be discussed and how to remedy in your check-in meetings.