by Stefan Wolpers|Agile TransitionLean and Product
TL; DR: Create Personas with the Help of the Engineers
Creating valuable software requires knowing the customer—we all agree on that, right? The first question that then comes to mind is how to support this product discovery process in a meaningful manner in an agile environment? And the second question follows swiftly: who shall participate in the process—designers and business analysts or the engineers, too?
Read on and learn why personas are useful for product discovery purposes, how to create personas, and why the complete team—including the engineers—needs to participate in their creation.
Be careful with the selection process for user interviews: You might end up picking those that will support your vision – it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy trap.
Beware of false positives in user interviews.
Never start writing a single line of code before an appropriate number of customers signed up. (For clarification: Customers are paying users.)
Never spend money on developing a prototype when you’re not working full-time on growing the user-base and increasing customer value.
Be patient and give your product the time it needs.
Always make branded t-shirts and wear them later regularly to preserve the recollection of the disaster. (See below.)
TL;DR: Four Lessons Learned From Making Customer Value Your Priority
Building a valuable, usable and feasible product does not happen overnight. These are my four core learnings from focusing on customer value, looking back at the projects I have been pursuing over the years.
