Projects vs. Products: Rethinking Success in the Age of Agile

The classic Project Management Iron Triangle – good, fast, cheap, choose two – has served us for decades. But in the dynamic world of modern product development, this model can be a recipe for disappointment. When building products designed for long-term success, we need to shift our focus away from fixed scope and towards a laser-like focus on quality.

The Project Mindset’s Hidden Trap

In project-focused settings, there’s a natural tendency to prioritize minimizing time and resources while maintaining a predefined scope of work. The problem? Quality is often nebulous and difficult to quantify beforehand. This leads to a situation where the deliverable may meet the scope criteria but ultimately fail to meet user needs or market expectations.

The Product Mindset: Putting Quality First

With long-lived products, where continuous iteration and customer feedback are paramount, quality is essential for survival. In this context, we must make quality the non-negotiable factor. So our Iron Triangle adaptation becomes: large, fast, cheap, choose two – with the acknowledgement that quality remains a fundamental constant.

Here’s why this shift is so powerful:

• Customer Satisfaction: Users don’t care about project constraints, they care about whether a product solves their problems well. A high-quality product is inherently more valuable.
• Agility and Adaptation: Limiting scope allows for greater flexibility within development. Teams can respond to insights and market shifts more easily, leading to a better product overall.
• Iterative Value Delivery: By focusing on the minimum viable product (MVP) and subsequent increments, teams can deliver value to customers faster while gathering essential feedback.

Aligning with Lean and Agile Principles

This “quality-first” approach aligns perfectly with lean and agile methodologies:

• Customer Focus: Quality ensures the product aligns with genuine customer needs, enhancing its overall value proposition.
• Minimum Viable Products: Limiting scope encourages MVP thinking, driving teams to deliver the core value proposition quickly.
• Embrace Learning: By focusing on quality, teams are more likely to learn and pivot effectively based on user feedback.

How to Make this Shift

Transitioning to a quality-focused product mindset requires organizational changes:

• Define Quality Metrics: Establish clear, measurable metrics to define “good enough” for your product. This might include metrics around user satisfaction, performance, stability, etc.
• Invest in Autonomy: Empower cross-functional teams to make decisions within quality guardrails, fostering ownership and a shared commitment to delivering excellence.
• Prioritize Learning: Create a culture where experimentation and iteration are encouraged. Embrace feedback loops and continuously improve the product over time.

Key Takeaway: When building long-lived products, focusing on delivering high quality while keeping scope flexible is essential for success. By adapting project management mindsets, we can build products that not only meet but surpass customer expectations, ensuring longevity and market impact.