After running a survey of product developers, I collected the following 3 top challenges that product developers face in their work.- Unclear specifications with missing information like acceptance criteria, and that require large amounts of rework after we start developing a particular functionality
- Finding out critical use cases too late (via bugs, real-user feedback, etc), which leads to long delays in the project.
- We don’t have a clear and measurable definition of value, therefore it is always a fight of opinions where the HIPPO (highest paid person’s opinion) prevails most of the times – even when it goes against survey results.
A toolbox to solve these problems
Given these 3 main findings, it is easy to understand why delivering on time is hard for many teams. No matter how much goes into planning and estimating, when the agreement on value is missing, and the specifications of what to do are too fuzzy, we will inevitably find big gaps that lead to massive scope creep and delays.
But it does not need to be like these. There are simple tools I collected in my product developer’s toolbox (#PDevTOOLBOX) that can help alleviate or remove these problems. Based on your input through the #PDevTOOLBOX survey, I’ve created a booklet (15 min read) you can download and read while on the run in your mobile phone or tablet.
Hi Vasco, have you got an insight for me how many where involved? Thx
Hi Roland,
The survey went out to about 5000 people, and we got 17 answers so far. On top of that I’ve had 1-on-1 interviews to validate some of the assumptions from the survey. That’s my usual process: survey -> hypothesis, 1-on-1 interviews to validate.