Focus on the customer

• Know customer segments. To create products that customers love, you need to know who they are and what they want. Use user and market research methods, such as surveys, interviews, or observations, to collect data and insights about customers. Use personas, which are fictional representations of typical customers, to describe their characteristics, goals, motivations, and pain points. By knowing customer segments, align and focus your organization on delivering value to them.

• Solve customer’s problems. To create products that customers use, understand their problems and needs. Use tools like user stories, which are short descriptions of what a customer wants to do or achieve with product, to capture their needs. Value proposition canvas: helps map out how product solves customer’s problems and delivers benefits to them. By solving customers’ problems, create products that meet their expectations and requirements.

• Empathize with customer’s perspective. To create products that customers enjoy, think and feel like them. Use tools like empathy maps, which help visualize what customers see, hear, think, feel, say, and do in relation to your product. Also, use tools like customer journey maps, which helps illustrate the steps and emotions that customers go through when interacting with product. By empathizing with customer’s perspectives, create products that delight their senses and emotions.

• Design whole product solutions. To create products that customers value, Design whole product solutions that address their needs. A whole product solution is not just the core product or service that offer, but also the additional features or services that make it complete and satisfying for the customer. For example, a whole product solution for a car might include warranty, maintenance, insurance, financing, etc. Try minimum viable product (MVP), which is the smallest version of product that can be tested with customers, to validate your whole product solution. Use product roadmap, which is a plan that shows how your product will evolve over time, to ensure that your whole product solution is optimal and adaptable for the initial and long-term user experiences.

• Build long-term customer relationships. To create products that customers trust, build long-term customer relationships that go beyond a single transaction. Use Net promoter score (NPS), which is a measure of how likely customers are to recommend product to others, to gauge customer loyalty and satisfaction. Use a customer feedback loop, which is a process of collecting and acting on customer feedback regularly, to improve product and service quality. By building long-term customer relationships, create customer lifetime value (CLV), which is the total profit can expect from a customer over the course of their relationship.

How to Make Customers Happy with Fast Delivery

The Continuous Delivery Pipeline (CDP) is a way of making and delivering things that customers want. 

It has four parts:

1. Find out what customers want

2. Make things that work well

3. Send things to test them

4. Give things to customers when they need them

Each part helps the other and makes the delivery faster. 

• Find out what customers want

This part is called Continuous Exploration (CE). Design Thinking helps to understand customers and generate ideas. Prototypes are made and tested with customers. Ideas are changed based on feedback. This way, value that customers like and need is created.

• Make things that work well

This part is called Continuous Integration (CI). The work of different teams is combined into one thing. Tools and practices ensure quality and feedback. This way, value that works well and meets standards is created.

• Send things to test them

This part is called Continuous Deployment (CD). The thing is sent to places where it can be tested more. Tools and practices enable fast and reliable delivery. The thing is monitored and evaluated. This way, value that has no errors and can be tested fast is created.

• Give things to customers when they need them

This part is called Release on Demand (RoD). The thing is given to customers when they want it or when there is a business opportunity. Tools and practices enable small and continuous delivery. The impact of the thing on customers is measured and problems are fixed quickly. This way, customers are delighted by getting what they want fast and often.

By working together, using tools, making things flow, measuring results, and fixing problems, we can make better things and happier customers. 

Challenges in Product Delivery

Challenge 1: Getting customer feedback and collaboration

• Feedback and collaboration help to understand customer needs and expectations, and to deliver solutions that meet them.

• But getting customer feedback and collaboration can be hard, because customers may have different preferences, opinions, availability, and engagement.

How to solve: Use various methods and tools to collect feedback and collaborate with customers. Segment customers based on their needs, behaviors, and characteristics. Communicate clearly and frequently with customers, and involve them throughout the process.

Challenge 2: Using new tools and working with agile mindset across teams and stakeholders

• Tools and agile mindset help to organize, coordinate, monitor, and improve the process.

• But using new tools and working with agile mindset across teams and stakeholders can be hard, because they may require training, adaptation, alignment, and support.

How to solve: Choose tools and agile mindset that suit the needs, goals, and context of the process. Provide training and coaching for teams and stakeholders. Align teams and stakeholders on the vision, values, principles, and practices of agile product delivery. Create feedback loops and improvement mechanisms for the tools and agile mindset.

Challenge 3: Changing culture and mindset to embrace agility

• Culture and mindset influence the attitudes, behaviors, and actions of teams and stakeholders towards delivering value to customers.

• But changing culture and mindset to embrace agility can be hard, because they may be deeply rooted in the organization’s history, structure, policies, and norms.

How to solve: Communicate the benefits and value of agility for teams, stakeholders, customers, and the organization. Model agile behaviors and practices by leading by example. Empower teams and stakeholders by giving them autonomy, responsibility, trust, and recognition. Foster a culture of learning, experimentation, innovation, collaboration, and customer centricity.

Challenge 4: Gaining experience and making agile product delivery work

• Experience helps to develop skills, knowledge, confidence, and competence in delivering value to customers.

• But gaining experience and making agile product delivery work can be hard, because it may involve trial-and-error learning, uncertainty, risk, and failure.

How to solve: Start small and scale up gradually by applying agile product delivery to simple or low-risk tasks first. Learn from others by seeking guidance, mentoring, or coaching from experts or peers. Learn from yourself by reflecting, evaluating, and improving your own performance. Learn from failure by embracing it as an opportunity for learning, growth, and innovation.