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Adventures in Product Development

Adventures in Product Development. Cory von Wallenstein VP, Product Management Dynamic Network Services Inc. December 7, 2009 – ECE 2799. Product Leadership: Creating and Launching Superior New Products – Robert G. Cooper Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idletype/526824467/.

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Adventures in Product Development

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  1. Adventures in Product Development Cory von Wallenstein VP, Product Management Dynamic Network Services Inc. December 7, 2009 – ECE 2799

  2. Product Leadership: Creating and Launching Superior New Products – Robert G. Cooper Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/idletype/526824467/ “Truly Superior, Differentiated” Productshad an average 98% success rate and 53.5% market share. “Me-Too” Products averaged an 18.4% success rate and 11.6% market share.

  3. Overview • Relevancy • Before • Team selection • Understand requirements • Leave no question unanswerable • During • Testing • Importance of iteration • Keep it simple • After • Embrace failure • Accept responsibility

  4. Relevancy • Small companies: < 50 folks • Small budgets: ~ $1 million • Fast turnaround: 6 months or less • Corporate culture: • Aspire to be the best. • Never be outworked. • Welcome failure.

  5. Team Selection • No greater project impact. • No greater return on investment. • Individual differences: • Count on the best people outperforming the worst by about 10:1. • Count on the best performer being about 2.5 times better than the median performer. • Count on the half better-than-median performers outdoing the other half by more than 2:1. Source: Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams; Demarco, Lister

  6. Understand Requirements • Alleviate pain, receive compensation. • Talk to your customers. • What are they paying for now? • Why should they pay you? • Listen. • Focus on a niche. Be the best in that niche. • Polarize.

  7. Leave No Question Unanswerable • Discover problems when they are cheap to fix. Source: Code Complete; McConnell

  8. Leave No Question Unanswerable • How does… ? • When should… ? • What happens if… ?

  9. Testing: Invert the Goal • Typical Goal: • Build a widget that measures light intensity. • Inverted Goal: • Build a widget tester that generates light of varying intensity, and can connect to a widget to verify the measured value of intensity. Oh, and along the way, we’ll have built a widget that measures light intensity. • Shocking fact: Roughly the same cost.

  10. Testing: Invert the Goal • Time typically used for: • “It was working yesterday…” • All-nighter debug sessions. • “When I touch this wire, it works…” • “It worked on batteries…” • “WTF?!?! Why isn’t it working?” • “We’re 95% complete.” • Real world: • “You know, everything would be fine if the stupid customers would stop breaking it.”

  11. Testing: Invert the Goal • Time is now used for: • Iteratively building a repeatable test suite and test harness. • Provides confidence that what you built yesterday, still works today. • Easy progress indicator… if there’s a passing test for it, it’s complete.

  12. Iterate, Don’t Waterfall • Waterfall model – Six week duration: • Weeks 1 and 2 – Spec out requirements for features A, B, C and D • Weeks 3 and 4 – Build features A, B, C and D • Weeks 5 and 6 – Testing and quality assurance for features A, B, C and D

  13. Iterate, Don’t Waterfall • Waterfall model – Nine week duration: • Weeks 1 and 2 – Spec out requirements for features A, B, C and D • Weeks 3 and 4 – Build features A, B, C and D • Weeks 5 and 6 – Testing and quality assurance for features A, B, C and D • Weeks 7 and 8 – Fix bugs found in features B and C. Feature D only works when not used with feature A. • Week 9 – Fixes break feature A. Fix feature A. Test.

  14. Iterate, Don’t Waterfall • Iterative model – Six week duration: • Weeks 1 and 2 – Spec out feature A. Build feature A. Work with Q & A to test feature A. • Weeks 3 and 4 – Spec out feature B. Build feature B. Work with Q & A to test features A and B. • Weeks 5 and 6 – Spec out feature C. Build feature C. Work with Q & A to test features A, B and C. • Deliverable product, albeit missing feature D, but it was low priority anyway.

  15. Simple as Possible, But No Simpler • Simpler products get built sooner. • Put into customers’ hands more quickly. • Feedback arrives earlier. • Market traction takes hold. • Use feedback to decide new priorities.

  16. Embrace Failure • Failure is an opportunity to learn from your mistakes. • Regrets turn into lessons. • Failure is different from negligence.

  17. Accept Responsibility • The only way to improve is to accept responsibility for what needs improvement. • Point criticism inward, before you point it outward. • More constructive, since it gives you something you can actually control. • “I’m sorry. I messed up. I’ll fix it.”

  18. Summary • Before • Team selection – Greatest indicator of success. • Understand requirements – Build the right thing. • Leave no question unanswerable – Save time and money. • During • Testing – It sure beats debugging. • Iterative development – You will be happier. Trust me. • Keep it simple – You can always add it in later. • After • Embrace failure – It’s an opportunity to improve. • Accept responsibility – Actionable criticism is good.

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