Agile Product Operating Model
Transform your organisation with the Agile Product Operating Model, blending agile practices and product management to deliver consistent, …
Product Management is the strategic discipline of balancing customer needs, business goals, and technical feasibility to maximise product value. It involves defining vision, prioritising opportunities, and guiding development efforts to ensure alignment with market demands and organisational objectives. Effective Product Management enables teams to deliver impactful solutions, adapt to change, and drive continuous value delivery through evidence-based decision-making and cross-functional collaboration.
Product Management: Balancing Vision, Value, and Viability
Product Management is a strategic discipline, not a support function. It is accountable for aligning customer needs, business goals, and technical feasibility to maximise value delivery. This isn’t about writing requirements or running meetings; it’s about making tough trade-offs, prioritising what matters, and driving decisions that create measurable outcomes. Product Management, when done well, creates clarity from chaos and focus from fragmentation.
At the core of Product Management, within the context of Scrum, is the Product Owner accountability, or more broadly, the product strategist in Agile organisations. This role is accountable for value, not output. That distinction matters. Delivering more features doesn’t mean more value. In fact, most features don’t deliver any. Product Managers must act as ruthless prioritisation engines, ensuring the Product Backlog contains only what’s most likely to move the needle for users and the business.
Effective Product Managers work within a social system, not just a technical one. That means navigating stakeholders, aligning executives, collaborating with developers, and continuously engaging users. You need a compelling product vision, framed as an intermediate strategic goal, supported by clear outcomes and measurable progress. Without this, teams drift, customers disengage, and the backlog becomes a dumping ground for pet features and executive whims.
A modern Product Manager uses evidence-based management to guide decisions. You cannot optimise what you don’t measure. Use metrics like Time to Market, Current Value, and Ability to Innovate to inspect and adapt both strategy and execution. Avoid vanity metrics. Focus on evidence that enables learning and guides investment.
Customer feedback isn’t a suggestion box—it’s a strategic asset. Gather it continuously, synthesise it relentlessly, and prioritise it objectively. Use techniques like Opportunity Solution Trees, Jobs-to-be-Done interviews, or user story mapping. But don’t confuse listening with appeasement. Not all feedback should be actioned. Product Management is about discernment, not consensus.
Successful product strategies also demand technical empathy. Product Managers don’t need to write code, but they must understand what’s possible, what’s costly, and what’s risky. This is how you balance desirability, viability, and feasibility. You can’t decouple product strategy from technical architecture or delivery capability.
Finally, Product Management thrives in systems with clear boundaries of authority and accountability. The Product Manager owns what and why. Developers own how. The Scrum Master enables how well. Confusing these boundaries leads to dysfunction, misalignment, and blame.
In short, Product Management is a value-optimising function that sits at the intersection of strategy, execution, and learning. It’s not a job title; it’s an ethos. A relentless focus on outcomes, a commitment to learning, and a willingness to say no. You don’t need more features. You need better decisions.
If your Product Manager is just managing Jira tickets, you don’t have a product strategy. You have a to-do list. Fix that.
Transform your organisation with the Agile Product Operating Model, blending agile practices and product management to deliver consistent, …
A cross-border product team overcame misalignment and role confusion through immersive mentorship, boosting collaboration, engineering engagement, and …
Evidence-Based Management (EBM) is a strategy for improving an organisation’s ability to deliver value by making decisions based on evidence, not …
Comprehensive guide to using OKRs for shared focus, measurable outcomes, and strategic learning, including roles, events, best practices, and common …
Explains how effective Product Owners shape product strategy using accountability, awareness, acceptance, access, and adaptability, not just backlog …
Defining a vision and roadmap to create a competitive and sustainable product.
Minimising waste while maximising learning in product creation.
Many organisations misunderstand Product Ownership, treating it as simple backlog management instead of a strategic, accountable role essential for …
Covers key concepts of Sprint Reviews, interactive workshop delivery using Teams and Mural, technical challenges faced, participant feedback, and …
Explains Scrum’s four key value areas—current value, unrealised value, ability to innovate, and time to market—for data-driven product and …
Learn how Evidence-Based Management uses data to guide Agile teams, improve decision-making, track value, and boost innovation, customer satisfaction, …
A practical guide to Evidence-Based Management, showing how organisations use experiments, feedback, and key value areas to improve value delivery …
Explores how Product Owners can drive strategy, maximise value, and lead Scrum teams effectively, highlighting the need for empowerment beyond basic …
Explains why validating product features is essential, highlighting hypothesis-driven development, data collection, and evidence-based decisions to …
Explains why product ownership and product management are deeply connected in Scrum, clarifying their roles, focus on value delivery, and the need for …
The Product Owner is an accountability in Scrum, responsible for maximising product value through effective backlog management and stakeholder …
Explores why team autonomy in Scrum must be balanced with alignment to strategic goals, highlighting the role of clear objectives and leadership in …
Strategies and techniques for effective backlog management and refinement.
Coordinate multiple teams to deliver complex products while preserving agility. Focus on alignment, flow, and value delivery across the enterprise …
Maximise product value with Agile Product Management. Align strategy, customer needs, and continuous delivery.
Testing product ideas with real users to ensure market fit and customer value.
Explains how the Definition of Done evolves in Scrum, aligning team practices with organisational standards to ensure consistent quality, compliance, …
Scrum Masters are most effective when they combine leadership skills with technical, business, and organisational mastery to support teams, Product …
Explains the difference between subjective goals and the objective Definition of Done in Scrum, highlighting how clear, measurable criteria ensure …
Explains how evidence-based management uses reliable metrics and KPIs at team and organisational levels to drive better decisions, value delivery, and …
Common Goals are a first principle of effective delivery. They align strategy with execution, enabling every decision, every Sprint, and every line of …
Explains how to gather key metrics for evidence-based management in software organisations, focusing on value delivery, time to market, and ability to …
Explains why rejecting individual backlog items at Sprint Review is a misconception, highlighting Scrum’s focus on learning, collaboration, and …
Explores how hypothesis-driven engineering helps teams maximise product value by testing ideas, measuring outcomes, and learning from failure to guide …
Strategies for iterative and continuous value delivery to customers.
Explores how Scrum Masters and Product Owners balance leadership, authority, and team autonomy to ensure accountability, effective self-management, …
Validating product value requires releasing features to real users in production, gathering feedback, and measuring usage, satisfaction, and business …
Explores how evidence-based management uses data-driven practices to improve organisational agility, value delivery, and decision-making in both …
Ensuring every team member understands and connects their daily work to the product vision and strategic goals is key to true Agile alignment, …
Learn how to track, manage, and optimise product development costs by empowering teams with financial awareness, key metrics, and continuous …
Learn how Agile principles help businesses improve predictability by addressing challenges, optimising systems, aligning goals, and adapting to change …
Learn how to align teams, stakeholders, and processes for effective agile product management by fostering shared goals, clear communication, and …
A skilled product owner drives teams to build valuable solutions, anticipate customer needs, and deliver features that create real business impact—not …
Explains how close collaboration between product management and product development in agile teams drives market value, innovation, and continuous …
Explains how a well-ordered, refined Product Backlog guides Agile teams, supports goal alignment, and ensures value-driven product development through …
Explains how identifying and validating unrealised value, understanding user needs, and rapid feedback loops can enhance product development and …
Learn how to turn scope creep into an advantage by adopting Agile methods, focusing on value delivery, and adapting to changing requirements in …
Explores how immersive learning in product management blends practical assignments, evidence-based metrics, and reflection to drive real …
Explores how clear vision, goals, and evidence-based management empower teams, improve alignment, and foster autonomy, engagement, and effective …
Explores how rigid hierarchies in product backlogs can hinder agility, advocating for flatter, value-focused approaches to manage complexity in …
Explains the key accountabilities, skills, and behaviours required for a Scrum Product Owner, including hiring trends, role requirements, and …
Explains how the Sprint Goal serves as an immediate tactical objective in Scrum, guiding teams toward strategic Product Goals and maximising value …
Explains how product goals serve as intermediate strategic goals, guiding agile organisations through uncertainty using experimentation, outcomes, and …
Explores how Agile transformed product management by enabling shorter release cycles, faster feedback, continuous delivery, and a stronger focus on …
Evidence-based management uses data-driven decisions to help organisations achieve business outcomes, adapt to market changes, and maximise value …
Explains why a product owner is essential for shaping, prioritising, and maintaining a focused, lean product backlog that drives effective Agile …
Explains how a hypothesis-driven approach, small experiments, and cross-team collaboration improve product development, user experience, and …
Learn practical skills in product validation, customer discovery, and team collaboration to create customer-focused products, guided by an expert …
Explores when consensus helps or hinders product development, highlighting the need to balance collaboration, leadership, trust, and timely …
Explores the limitations of traditional budgeting and explains how flexible, value-driven approaches like Beyond Budgeting can improve agility, …
Explains Product Discovery in product development, its role in setting strategy, uncovering opportunities, and aligning teams to build valuable, …
Learn how evidence-based management uses data and purposeful metrics to inform decisions, shape behaviours, and drive continuous improvement in …
Learn how product owners use Evidence-Based Management (EBM) to make data-driven decisions, track key value metrics, and maximise product value and …
Learn the core skills and best practices for effective product backlog management, including risk, value, sizing, learning, and refinement to maximise …
Explains how Product Owners can replace traditional project management with vision, value, and validation to guide teams, deliver real value, and …
We partner with businesses across diverse industries, including finance, insurance, healthcare, pharmaceuticals, technology, engineering, transportation, hospitality, entertainment, legal, government, and military sectors.
Brandes Investment Partners L.P.
ALS Life Sciences
Healthgrades
Freadom
Bistech
Flowmaster (a Mentor Graphics Company)
Slaughter and May
ProgramUtvikling
Xceptor - Process and Data Automation
Philips
New Signature
MacDonald Humfrey (Automation) Ltd.
Alignment Healthcare
Cognizant Microsoft Business Group (MBG)
Graham & Brown
Kongsberg Maritime
Slicedbread
Schlumberger
Washington Department of Transport
Washington Department of Enterprise Services
Royal Air Force
Ghana Police Service
New Hampshire Supreme Court
Nottingham County Council
Akaditi
Microsoft
CR2
Freadom
Xceptor - Process and Data Automation
Sage