Why we need to stop using these 3 images when talking about Agile

Sam Higham
Bootcamp
Published in
5 min readJun 7, 2021

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There are a number of semi-humourous semi-useful images that are regularly pulled into a slide-deck and used to help describe various #Agile ways of working. The problem is, more often than not, they don’t help to promote the values, instead, they are misinterpreted, misused, and misrepresented. Below are the three biggest offenders…

1) The Iterative MVP

Image with two sections separated by a horizontal line. The top line shows are car being build in four stages with only the fourth staging showing a happy customer. The bottom line shows a more incremental way of proving a way to transport them, with the customer being happier sooner. This is a common way of depicting iterative development.
A common visualisation of ‘iterative development’ — Image Source

The above is the archetypal image used to represent great Agile iterative development using a Minimal Viable Product (MVP) approach. It’s been included in countless Agile 101 presentations I’ve sat through. The problem is that it glosses over the ‘viable’ aspect, and gives an unhelpful steer about how to address customer pain points. If the customer’s need is for a vehicle for their 100-mile round commute in a cold & wet climate, then the image will look more like this:

Image with two sections separated by a horizontal line. The top line shows are car being build in four stages with only the fourth staging showing a happy customer. The bottom line shows a more incremental way of proving a way to transport them, but the customer is unhappy with all of those as it didn’t meet their need either.
My modified version after taking context into account — Image, Me.

Just because you iterate, doesn’t mean you’re being efficient or providing value. To provide value you need to understand the job-to-be-done, and that usually means gaining a deep understanding of what users are ‘hiring’ your product to do…by asking them. You can then use that to determine what minimal-valuable thing you can provide to them to test this.

Henry Ford is credited with saying ‘if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses’, but he also knew the parameters in which he could innovate, as he understood the end goal — to get from A to B as quickly as possible, whilst remaining safe; they wouldn’t have accepted a coalition of cheetahs strapped to the front of their carts…

Image showing three changes to how a cart could be transported. Stage one is with a horse, but the driver is unhappy. Stage two has a cheetah instead of a horse, with the driver really shocked. Stage three has the cheetah with the head of the driver in his mouth looking unhappy. There is text at the bottom that says ‘if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses’
Be careful what you wish for — Image, Me.

In this article (and also in his books) Marty Cagan articulates that we always need to be considering four key areas when we talk about what we are delivering — Value, Usability, Feasibility & Viability:

value risk (whether customers will buy it or users will choose to use it)

usability risk (whether users can figure out how to use it)

feasibility risk (whether our engineers can build what we need with the time, skills and technology we have)

business viability risk (whether this solution also works for the various aspects of our business)

This is a much better way of looking at what an MVP could be, and also articulate the risks with choosing that as the first iteration — there are always some risks, get comfortable with that. From there, you can start using data-driven, customer AND business-focused decisions to move forward.

There are loads of ways you can start to tackle this, usually it involves getting familiar with your users, beyond how they interact with your product — the context of why, when and how to interact with your offering is really important, and can help you go from creating a product that they like to one that they love.

#TIP# Run a Jobs-to-be-Done workshop to figure out what your customer really need from your product.

2) Misunderstood Product Requirements

Image showing ten trees with swings that have been created by different people in a project team — i.e project manager, sales person, business analyst. It shows that there are loads of ways to add a swing, and not all of them satisfy a customer’s need, which was just a tire on a rope.
If a product requirement falls in the woods… Image Source

Yes, this image has been created in jest — haha, I hear you — but it does call out one of the key challenges in cross-functional collaborative development — communication, understanding, and expectation. The problem with the image is that it's too tongue-in-cheek. I mean, the idea that a child would even be outside to play on a swing…

This image perpetuates the inconsistency, and expected misalignment levied by stakeholders not familiar with agile methodologies. It builds a mindset where people looking to contribute are destined to be disappointed with the end result, and therefore not apply the effort needed — empowered teams should address this.

But if we are going to use this approach, then usually the differences are slightly more nuanced, and less dramatic:

Image showing three trees with different swings based on what the customer asked for, what sales sold, and what product delivered. The Sales one is in gold to show that they want to make money. There is also a computer which underneath it says ‘what the customer wanted’. This shows the misalignment between what they want and what they say they want.
Turns out they just wanted a way to entertain their kids. Image, Me.

Again, this swings back to the concept of getting inside the head of your end-user, and using that to deliver a valuable solution to their problem.

If you start with a discussion between a customer and sales team, which is then turned into a requirement without interaction with a product development team, then you are almost always going to miss key elements of value.

If you work in a product team, then I implore you to get closer to your sales teams, or customer success teams, or whoever is actually speaking to the people using the product. Without this, you are always going to be floundering.

#TIP# Try to collaborate with your sales teams to create a customer journey map.

3) Agile Principles

Image showing two lines of boxes, that say Individuals and interactions over process and tools, working software over comprehensive documentation, customer collaboration over contract negotiations and responding to change over following a plan. This is a visualision of the agile principles.
A common depiction of the ‘Agile Principles’ — Image Source

The final image is the worst offender. Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with the principles, the problem is, it misses off a key disclaimer included at the bottom of the Agile Manifesto:

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.

You need to allow pragmatism when looking to apply any framework, doing so in a way that allows collaborative discussion and not dogmatic stubbornness. By missing that disclaimer, I have seen the stuff on the right dismissed as valueless, unimportant, and unnecessary — a byproduct of which is a loss of faith by all outside the agile sect.

I was fortunate enough to get one of the original signers, Ron Jefferies, to give his insight on the intention of that part of the manifesto, he said: “I think it means to me to be continually leaning to the left side, keeping downward pressure on the right.”

So, if we insist on a single image, maybe it looks more like this:

Image showing two columns of four boxes. The first says individuals & interactions, working software, customer collaboration and responding to change with a tag that says ‘increase these’. The second says process & tools, comprehensive documentation, contract negotation and following a plan, with a tag that says ‘decrease these’.
Modified image of the ‘Agile Principles’ — Image, Me.

Don’t forget that the things on the right can provide value. But that your daily focus should be trying to do more of the things on the left.

#TIP# Try a how might we session focused on what action you could take to help you keep leaning left.

Please let me know below if there are any other images you often see misused!

To stay up-to-date with my ramblings you can follow me here:

https://www.twitter.com/sambhigham

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Full-time rambler, part-time product specialist. Love finding and creating joy in products, and supporting the people that are passionate about the same.