Cost of Delay (COD) is a decision making / prioritization framework that helps a Product Owner quantify the economic value impact of building a feature or completing an initiative sooner as opposed to later. The cost of delay is an efficient decision-making tool that can completely transform the mindset of an organization and resulting ROI. It does so by putting a value lens over the conversation of costs and deadlines, offering full-scenario visualizations of what the most critical tasks really are.

A customer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal prospect (or customer) based on market research and actual data about your present customers. It includes demographic data, behavior patterns, motivations, life-style, behaviors, pain points and objectives. Customer personas are used to segment your customers into groups, identify their different needs, and tailor your product features or service to each group. Organizations create customer personas for their product / business to make their offering relevant to their customer needs.

Design Thinking is a human-centered approach to solving complex problems. Design Thinking consists of five key steps to creating better solutions: Emphathize: Understand needs of the end user Define: Define end user / customer persona(s) Ideate: Brainstorm ideas, narrow down possible solutions Prototype: A visual-interactive mock-up of an idea, created to test an early stage idea, and gather user's feedback. Test: Invite feedback, insights and analyze the effectiveness of the chosen prototype.

Lead Time is the time it takes from identifying a need (could be a customer problem, feature request, defect raised, technical enhancement etc.) to making a solution available to customers. Having a shorter the lead time equates to more responsiveness. To reduce the lead time in Scrum: a) a shorter sprint duration is recommended, b) work (PBIs) is divided in smaller slices, c) an emergent product backlog is used, d) a Work-In-Progress (WIP) limit is used during Sprint execution A Self-Managing and Cross-Functional Scrum Team further improves the ability to improve the rate of value delivery hence a shorter Lead Time.

The Pareto Principle states, for many events, roughly 80% of results (effects) come from 20% of the inputs (causes). Hence also knowns as 80/20 rule. While the actual % would change based on situation and context, it is almost always true that: a small proportion of the efforts (inputs) towards certain areas generate a larger proportion of results (outputs). The Pareto Principle provides a useful framework for understanding complex systems and identifying key areas for focus / improvement. When correctly used by the Scrum Teams, it can help order Product Backlog Items (PBIs) that would yield most value, identify which retrospective improvement idea to pursue among many, optimize resources, and improve overall ROI. Image source: Interaction Design Foundation This 80-20 rule can be applied to many areas such as business, learning, finance, sales, marketing, customer service etc. The Pareto Principle is named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923).

The Product Backlog is one of the Scrum Elements. The Product Backlog is an ordered list of everything that is known to be needed in the product. It is the single source of requirements for any changes to be made to the product. The Product Backlog is an emergent artifact and creates transparency of the upcoming work. It's owned by the Product Owner.

"The Product Goal describes a future state of the product which can serve as a target for the Scrum Team to plan against." - Scrum Guide 2020. Crafted and Communicated by the Product Owner, the Product Goal is the long-term objective, a specific and measurable benefit or outcome a product should create. The Scrum Team is focused on one product goal at a time. They must fulfill (or abandon) one product goal before taking on the next.

Release Planning is the process of planning a product release, identifying the capabilities that need to be released, stakeholders and team members involved, budget and timelines. In Scrum, every Sprint enables inspection and adaptation of progress toward a Product Goal. Every Sprint begins with Sprint Planning and results in at least one increment that is usable to customers. Some teams release increments multiple times a sprint, other teams group features from more than a sprint before releasing to the customers. Those releasing at least once a sprint, do not need seperate release planning besides the Sprint Planning that already exists.

User Story Mapping is a holistic visual representation of how all the user stories fit into the overall user experience. A 2-Dimensional story map can help understand the sequence of activities of a system, identify gaps in the product backlog, and plan releases that deliver customer value. The goal is not to create a raodmap, rather, change people’s mindset from gathering and writing detailed requirements to building shared understanding. A sample User Story Map: (Source: Jeff Patton)

Product Development results

Cost of Delay

Customer Persona

Design Thinking

Incremental Development

Lead Time

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Pareto Principle

Product Backlog

Product Backlog Refinement (PBR)

Product Goal

Progressive Refinement

Release Planning

Story Mapping