Stoic Agility #1: The Product Isn’t Yours
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There is a product vision. There is a budget. We form a small team and start building our product. As we show our progress to the customers, it's getting clearer: Our product is on the path to success. The Product Owner is proud of her innovative idea. Our Development Team, highly motivated and rushing in new features, takes credit too. Everything seems fine.
A few Sprints later the customer attends our Sprint Review. As we ask for feedback, there is a long-reigning silence. “I’m afraid that’s not what we need.” The team members are looking at the Product Owner, waiting for a response. “I think the changes support the products overall appearance and usability. Do you need more explanation?” She goes through the changes again, more selling than explaining. “It’s perfectly clear what you did”, the customer responds. “We just don’t need it at the moment.”
In the Sprint Retrospective we bring the topic up. “I think the customer doesn’t understand where we want to go with the product”, a team member says. Some nod in agreement.
What Happened?
It happens to the best teams: We achieve initial success with our product. In a mad rush we deliver those things customers demand. After a while things get less hectic. We can add the nice-to-haves and finally smoothe off some rough edges. We optimize, taking proud in our craftsmanship.
Slowly we move from a customer-centric to product-centric perspective. It happens naturally and feels good. If customer feedback doesn’t match that, it passes unnoticed or we neglect it as ignorant of our higher intents. “The only thing standing between us and our success is the customer”, some might say. We fell in love with our product.
The Product Isn’t Yours
The Agile Manifesto says: “Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software”. There is an emphasis on valuable.
Some things are within our power, while others are not. Within our power are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is of our own doing; not within our power are our body, our property, reputation, office, and, in a word, whatever is not of our own doing. — Epictetus, Enchiridion, 1.1
The Stoics hold the principle of indifference — not caring about things outside of our control, things we can’t change. That doesn’t mean we have to be emotionally cold or uninterested (the meaning of stoic with a lower S in everyday language). We just have to acknowledge that whether someone values our work is out of our control. It depends on the (sometimes subjective) usefulness of the product to the customer. We can anticipate, but never control the needs ours customer has. So be indifferent to the product, but caring for the value it has for the customer.
You might say: “But won’t I damage my business if I don’t care about the product?” No. Your customer doesn’t pay you for the product. He pays for the use it has to him. If you focus on that you can produce X one day and Y the next day — and be happy about it, as long as your customer is happy too.
You can’t change how other people think about your product. You can’t sell things to them they don’t need. They will see through it.
The happiness of those who want to be popular depends on others; the happiness of those who seek pleasure fluctuates with moods outside their control; but the happiness of the wise grows out of their own free acts. — Marcus Aurelius
Take their feedback, don’t rely on their praise and compliments. If the product doesn’t fit customer needs, its valuable feedback. No need to sell it to them. Learn about what’s valuable for your customer, hold up the technical excellence and be indifferent to everything else. The product isn’t yours, it’s your customer’s. Set your product free.
