Transformed

CHAPTER 8Changing How You Solve Problems

Changing how you build, test, and deploy is important no matter what you choose to build, but too many companies just become more efficient feature factories.

They ship more new features than ever, yet they don't see the corresponding value to their customers, or the impact to their business.

In fact, in most companies today, the percentage of features and projects on product roadmaps that actually generate a positive return on investment is depressingly small. Most industry analysts place it in the range of 10 to 30 percent.

If you compare the list of capabilities that your company needs with the impact that your newly released capabilities are generating, and if you are not feeling good about the return, then this is why changing how you solve problems is so important.

The root of the issue is that these feature teams are set up to serve the stakeholders in your business, rather than to serve your customers in ways that work for your business.

The business leaders and other stakeholders each understand their specific operational needs, and they come up with a list of features and projects that they believe will help them deliver on their obligations to the business. They hand these priorities down to the feature teams, which are then asked to provide a product roadmap with dates and deliverables.

So, why do so few of these features actually generate the hoped-for return?

Realize that each of these features is a potential solution