Going the Extra Mile in an Agile Context

As you’ve gathered by now, I really like writing about the use of agile methodologies in business. Customer satisfaction naturally is usually rated a key agenda item in most business meetings. Of course, the overarching question is- how much do businesses really believe in it?

Well, I’ll not delve too much into that. But, I would like to talk about going the extra mile using agile principles.

As we all know, the agile philosophy is in providing incremental improvements to customers. The beauty of continuous delivery is to  constantly ensure that customer goals are met in product development.

Recently in one of the conferences, I heard this term – Minimum lovable product as opposed to minimum viable product.

It was motivating enough to dedicate an article about it in one of our previous discussions. In this discussion, I’d like to explore stretching the philosophy of ‘going the extra mile’ for a customers.

The Agile Context – What is the customer expectation?

A compelling aspect of agile development is in keeping the customer at the centre of product development. It beats the waterfall project management with a simple approach of continual, incremental improvements.

When we start off an agile sprint/ project, the first question is usually about the definition of done. It simply means – we draft common expectations between the delivery team and customers.

Naturally as a project takes shape, there will be changes in approach, scope and timelines in a project. It is the ownership of a product manger to ensure that the definition of done is a constantly adaptable discussion so that the customer requirements are well met.

Definition of Done

This is clearly one of the most important things in ensuring that a customer’s expectation are managed. We can still see businesses promise the entire world but deliver an awful product at the end of a project management cycle.

Agile philosophies actively move away from that approach .Our eye needs to be on the prize constantly. And in this instance, it is the customer’s expectations or the definition of done.This is particularly of extraordinary value when something in the list is not being delivered.

The definition of done allows very little leeway for ambiguity. It needs to be very clear and precise. Of course, if I were to point us back to the theme of this article – going the extra mile, it is always very helpful to have an ace up the sleeve.

However, I would point us back to thediscussion of satisfier, dissatisfier theory. The ace cannot be at the cost of a dissatisfier. We cannot escape by not providing a bare minimum requirement for the customer. Going the extra mile works very well in line with – promise less but deliver more.

Managing expectations – Going the Extra Mile? 

Although I talk about the above with ease, I fully appreciate how difficult it is to come to a clear agreement about the definition of done. A project cost is based on so many moving parts that it is extremely difficult to just get an MVP signed off as the definition of done. It needs to be far more defined and clear.

One may argue that all of this takes time. It is certainly an argument I have encountered in most of my roles. But the truth is – it is better to spend time in planning and build something a customer really wants rather than going the completely wrong direction. I can assure you that even with the most crystal clear communication, things will go wrong.

All we are doing in the process is to try and reduce the possibility of the number of things going wrong. And the worst part is when these things come as a surprise to the customer. Again, this is not about going the extra mile, but a dissatisfier which can cause a loss of trust. And we all know what that means for the business relation.

Today’s inspiration for going the extra mile is from a nice piece by about entrepreneurship and providing added value to customers