5 Questions to AskDoes Your Software Dev Partner

(Really) Know LPD?

Successful Outsourcing

LPDLean Product Design (or Development)• Becoming a standard methodology in the same way

agile, scrum and lean have become industry standards• But – when you approach a software development partner, is

their understanding & implementation as strong as they say it is?

• If your team practices LPD principles, you might have trouble trying to work with a partner who claims experience and understanding they don’t have• Your investment in a repeatable process for developing and

releasing new software products is at risk if you find it difficult work with outsourcing services who understand your goals and can work seamlessly alongside your team.

A Little Level Setting• The term “LPD” is used interchangeably for design and

development but there are some differences between the two in implementation• Both are based on Lean• Both are broadly informed by the Lean Startup Methodology• But, because it has been adopted by many large

organizations for products and services lessons from the Lean Startup are brought down to the product level, rather than the business model• LPD implementations tend to favor the use of agile, scrum

and kanban as development methodologies

A Little Level Setting• Lean Product Design

implementations are focused on• Product design• User Interface (UI)• User Experience (UX)• How the user interacts with the

product (application)• A process flow for a design imple

mentation that evolves dynamically during development with screen sketches, wireframes, & design standards• Design specs become more detailed

and rigid as incremental design progresses

A Little Level Setting• Lean Product Development implementations tend to focus on the features

required to satisfy user needs and product goals• Textual user stories will guide development. Design supports features but does not

lead the process• Both implementations will use agile user story techniques

• Design-based user stories will be in the context of the UI and user experience• Development-based user stories focus on features and functional groups or modules

• A team with clients• That tend to be more visual, literal and unsure of their needs may find it easier to

be design-focused• Working on business processes and users with strong, informed opinions may find it

easier to be development-focused• And – design and development thinking can be blended in implementations

So – What Does this Mean?• There are many software apps that embody process &

principles from a software product management point of view• How will they work for you if use an outsourced software

development partner?• Is there one that is better for integrating with outsourced

teams?• Are there methodologies or points to emphasize with

partners as you discuss their approach & experience?

So – What Does this Mean?• From a high level, if your vendor has strong product

development experience and understands the product development cycle fully• The software you use and the implementation of agile they use

shouldn’t matter a great deal – because they should be able to be flexible and do what is needed to integrate teams

• If your vendor is using ideas from a book or a seminar they attended and have only practiced with a client a few times• A client who wasn’t themselves fully committed to formal product

management• It will be a distracting challenge for both teams to implement a

methodology while developing your product

5 Questions for your Potential Partner• A word about vendor interviews

• Don’t ask yes or no questions when you are discussing how a potential vendor works with clients

• Ask open-ended questions that should be answered with more than a few words (if they have the kind of experience and background needed)

• If you don’t get what you feel is a strong answer, ask some open-ended questions that take the detail down a level

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

1. Tell me how you use agile in projects with clients practicing Lean Product Development• You’re looking for how agile informs their work with teams

practicing LPD and the value their implementation brings to projects• They should be able to cover their practices within agile

such as scrum, extreme programming (XP), or kanban. • Use open-ended questions to drive out more detail if needed

• In most cases, scrum will be the task management and basic development guideline.• Some teams will be familiar with kanban• Some will mention that if you use DevOps they might start with

scrum and transition to kanban after the app goes into continuous improvement

Scrum? Kanban? Both?Scrum• Generally considered to

be more structured• Time-boxed iterations• Team uses velocity to

estimate tasks for each sprint

• Planning & retrospective sessions

• Most teams find scrum to be a good approach for standard application development

Sandwich Kanban• Generally considered to be

more flexible for the insertion of new features and less structured

• Requires strong feature management to avoid creep

• Tends to limit the number of tasks the team can have in work at the same time

• New tasks are pulled off the backlog immediately when a slot in the work list opens

• Teams might use kanban or a variation after full release for maintenance or continuous improvement

• Team familiarity & experience in adjusting their implementation to your team is more important than the flavor of agile they use a various points in their work

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

2. How do you understand the MVP process in LPD?• Iterative development of the

minimum viable product (MVP) is one of the least understood parts of the cycle by non-practitioners• Hard for vendors to estimate• Key issue – how will they

help you towards viable iterations for validation? Credit: Crisp’s Blog, Crisp Consultants, January 25, 2016

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

2. How do you understand the MVP process in LPD?• If their understanding is less than ideal, it will require some real work to

assure you arrive at validation releases that are fully-formed (lovable) • Not feature-rich or too simplistic

• This is an element of your work as a team where you can really assess the ability of your outsourced team to work as a partner in product development• Can they come up with creative ideas to represent the product to uses

with less effort and time?• Can they see an evolution of ideas and pick out key elements in

customer feedback? • If you have to micro-manage every iteration, you’re not getting a fully

prepared team

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

3. How will we capture & manage user feedback during validation and after initial release?• A vendor could say, “That is

your problem.” but you are looking for partner level answers• They should indicate a

willingness to do whatever is necessary and provide solutions

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

3. How will we capture & manage user feedback during validation and after initial release?• If the app can benefit from a

continuous-development/improvement, DevOps type release, they should be putting you in position for it from the beginning• Possible answers can be all over the board from add-on

services that support help-desk and application feedback to in-app custom modules• At a minimum, developers should expect to be “in the loop”

during validation and early release to assure that bugs are not being reported in feature requests. They should be able to suggest a system to allow users to see proposed changes, features in work and to “vote up or down” features they would value.

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

3. How will we capture & manage user feedback during validation and after initial release?• Including the dev team in the feedback loop has a cost but it

• Avoids a lot of thrash when a feature is not working as users expected

• Allows dev team to be proactive with corrective actions• Puts team in position to understand needs directly in user words,

rather than summaries• Again, what you are looking for is not a specific answer, but

a partner that is willing and able to help with what you need from a product perspective and provide creative solutions

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

4. What are our options for capturing metrics?• Solutions can range from custom reporting within the

application to third party services and application libraries• The richness of options a vendor can bring to the table is

key so you can evaluate different aspects of customer acquisition, feature usage, time to complete a process, etc.• Metrics like this don’t exist in “average” applications. They

can be added relatively easily during development• Bolting them on later is a high effort activity and generally gives less

detail • Along with features to track metrics, you should also be

offered some type of dashboard for generating reports

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

5. What do you do to assure quality issues don’t get in the way?• Quality is far and away one of the biggest issues in

unexpected project delays• You can’t expect stakeholders and users to stay engaged in

product development if feature releases are delayed or incomplete• A really good app that is unstable or has a poorly designed

UI is a big distraction from your goals

5 Questions for your Potential Partner

5. What do you do to assure quality issues don’t get in the way?• Best answers include test-driven development, test automation,

continuous integration and tools that would allow for continuous development if you need it. • Your primary aim is to ensure you have full test coverage and to be able to leverage

tools and processes proactively from the beginning• Your team should be able to focus on feature execution and user

experience in acceptance and not buggy code or UI inconsistencies• The answers to this question should cover many of the ways your

team will work and communicate. • If they don’t, ask follow-up questions in that direction.• Successful agile teams require strong, open dialog and collaboration. Don’t

let easy answers push you off this point. Understand fully how your team will achieve quality, strong communication and ownership of project goals.

More Questions? • There are lots more

questions you could ask, but these should get you started. • The point is to have a

conversation with your prospective vendor and come to an understanding of the• Methodologies they have utilized• Capabilities they bring to the

table• Customer experience you can

expect

More Questions? • There are lots more questions

you could ask, but these should get you started. • A conversation can clear up

many issues an RFI or proposal cannot and give you an opportunity to imagine your team working with the outsourced team

• If you are actually looking for a partner (and not just a short engagement) – it is always wise to have that conversation in person, in your offices or theirs

We’re Scio• We provide outsourced,

nearshore software development teams to our clients in North America• Our teams have a background

in LPD as part of our service portfolio• We use adaptable, agile

methodologies • Contact Us – we would be glad

to discuss your needs and how we can help