Agile product management

Agile product management vs. Traditional product management

How does agile product management differ from ‘traditional’ product management? The main difference lies in flexibility and the iterative approach. Traditional product management focuses primarily on predictability, while agile product management uses uncertainty as an opportunity to become more customer-oriented and efficient.

Agile Product Management –
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• Differences between agile and traditional product management
• Agile product management throughout the entire lifecycle
• Practical application and advantages
• And much more

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Agility is not the end goal in itself

Agility is here to stay. When the topic first emerged in the early 2000s, it was initially a hype topic. Some software development geeks realised that it might be smarter to redefine the parameters of the magic triangle of quality, cost and time. Instead of setting a fixed overall project duration, they introduced short development sprints with manageable target results. And they were right. Virtually every software development team today works according to agile principles such as SCRUM. The flexibility, rapid changeability and immateriality of software are perfectly suited to this approach.

However, as systems become significantly more complex and physical goods in particular are affected, the world of agile methods also becomes more complex: In the field of software development, additional frameworks (e.g. SAFe) have been developed, and when it comes to software and hardware, hybrid approaches have been developed to leverage the benefits of agility while still providing the necessary structure to keep complexity manageable.

This also shows that agility isn’t an end goal in itself. Agile methods help us deal with high uncertainty and change. However, if the conditions are clear and mostly predictable, agile methods quickly become a waste of time, and the classic approach proves to be far more efficient. On the other hand, if you’re in a really uncertain environment, the classic approach quickly falls short, and you need an exploratory and agile approach.

We can also apply this insight to product management: The following table shows a comparison of various aspects of classic and agile product management.

Comparison of traditional vs. agile product management

The solution: Situational product management

The question is therefore not so much whether classic or agile product management is better, but rather when to choose which approach. This quickly reveals parallels with the so-called situational leadership style, which can be seen as state of the art today: situational leadership is a leadership style that adapts flexibly to the needs of employees and the situation at hand. The type of leadership is individually tailored to how competent and motivated a person or team is in relation to a specific task. The concept is based on the idea that no single leadership style is optimal for all employees or situations, but that leadership should be dynamic.

This is exactly what is needed in product management: a good product manager recognises the product-market situation and adapts their approach accordingly. The transition between classic and agile product management is fluid and results in ‘situational product management’.

The principles of agile product management

Let’s return to agile product management and its underlying values and principles: these are derived from the Agile Manifesto and are specifically tailored to the needs of product teams. They ensure that products are developed and marketed in a customer-oriented, flexible and efficient manner. Here are the most important principles, their benefits, but also their challenges:

1. Customer focus

2. Iterative and incremental approach

3. Flexibility and adaptability

4. Cooperation and transparency

5. Quick, valuable results instead of extensive documentation

6. Experimenting and learning

7. Empowerment and personal responsibility

You can find a more detailed description of the principles of agile product management in our white paper.

Our conclusion on agile product management:

Agile product management means applying the principles of the Agile Manifesto to the field of product management. In contrast to agile product development, agile product management considers not only the product development phase, but also the entire product life cycle and the overarching product portfolio management. Agile methods help to deal with high levels of uncertainty and dynamism. They ensure that products are developed and marketed in a customer-oriented, flexible and efficient manner. The principles of agile product management promise us that products and the necessary business conditions will be developed and marketed in a customer-oriented, flexible and efficient manner. However, applying these principles sometimes requires an adjustment of the corporate and management culture, which can be challenging.

However, since agility is not an end in itself, we recommend the idea of situational product management, similar to the situational leadership style approach: depending on whether you are operating in a blue world (good predictability) or a red world (high uncertainty), you should use the approaches of classic or agile product management. It is therefore not a question of abandoning classic product management methods, but rather of expanding the product manager’s toolbox to include agile methods. In this sense, agile product management and business development have in common the ability to initially deal with increased uncertainty and dynamism and, as predictability and certainty increase, to bring the business into more efficient regular operation.