Agile Principles for Market Research (Part Four)

So far in this seven-part New Ways of Working for Market Researchers series, we’ve discussed Design Thinking and Lean Startup, and the benefits of combining both methodologies for innovation. This month we’ll look at the Agile methodology, its principles, and what benefits these can provide market researchers.

What is Agile?

In 2001, a group of programmers discussed the future of software development. They concluded that companies were too focused on planning, management, and writing long documents. This meant that they failed to investigate the most important thing – the user.  From this, the Agile Manifesto emerged, setting four simple principles which we’ll now discuss.

Agile is an iterative approach to project management. It originates from software development and helps teams deliver value to their customers through a product.

An Agile methodology aims to deliver outputs in small increments and focuses on continuous delivery, rather than a single final product. The advantage of this is that a product is consistently updated to fit the user’s needs.

This is done by strong communication and collaboration between diverse teams, continuously evaluating requirements and results, and improving upon them. By doing this, Agile teams can effectively respond to any changes.

Why is this relevant to market research?

Externally, market research’s goal in new product development (NPD) is to ensure that a product is relevant and viable in the marketplace. The Agile methodology’s flexibility, adaptability, and collaborative methods mean market researchers can use Agile principles to effectively inform NPD decisions.

Internally, market researchers can use the Agile methodology to improve how they work within their organization, as it’s an efficient and effective way of working

An Agile team’s core characteristics

An Agile team has three core characteristics: Collaboration, communication, and flexibility.

Collaboration:

Agile teams work together instead of working in silos. This allows all teammates to have a view of the project. Additionally, the Agile methodology promotes working with customers to gain feedback.

Why?

Products are human-centric. By collaborating with customers, involving them in the decision-making process, and acting on their feedback, Agile teams can deliver products to solve the customers’ problems. Additionally, this leads to greater customer retention as customers feel part of the NPD process.

Communication:

Communication between teammates, clients, and stakeholders is integral. This ensures that everyone is aligned towards the end goal, and team meetings with clients and stakeholders will determine the next development phase rather than long written emails.

Why?

Agile prioritizes human interaction over rigid processes. This is important as Agile teams make complex products. This means being able to converse about choices is critical. The Agile methodology fosters collaboration. Therefore, teams can learn from shared experiences that lead to product improvement.

Flexibility:

Being flexible and able to adapt to changes is paramount in an Agile workflow. There are several factors that may lead to changes within a project (e.g., changes in the marketplace or feedback from customers). By responding to these changes, Agile teams can continuously progress and improve a product.

Why?

Agile teams can keep on top of what’s relevant to their customers and to the marketplace because they deliver work in increments. They can respond and adapt to feedback, make changes easier, and integrate these into the project’s future at a minimal cost.

Four values of the Agile manifesto

The Agile manifesto places emphasis on four separate but interconnected and complimentary values:

1. Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Processes and tools are important. But it’s more important to have clear and continued communication within teams and with clients and stakeholders. By incorporating stakeholders into the process, teams can move forward together more effectively.

2. Working software over comprehensive documentation

An Agile methodology is based on learning by doing. This means building and creating products to test – and sometimes fail – and learning from mistakes instead of over-planning a product. It’s more effective to learn from a product’s failures and successes in the market as a prototype.

3. Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Customer collaboration is at the heart of the Agile methodology. It’s imperative to include them in all phases of the development and decision-making process. This will ensure that the product meets customers’ needs and will minimize wasted time and resources.

4. Responding to change over following a plan

Embracing ambiguity is key in an Agile methodology. Having a flexible project plan allows teams to accommodate any changes that may occur along the project timeline – for example, changes in the project scope or a shift in stakeholders’ priorities.

Common misconceptions of Agile

There are a variety of misconceptions surrounding Agile, including that:

1. Agile is faster

People tend to believe that the Agile methodology allows work to be done faster due to the word “agile”. Agile with a capital “A” is a process that is not fast, but instead flexible. The Agile methodology is by no means faster than traditional processes. Its advantage is its agility to produce a product that has been improved to be viable in the marketplace.

2. Agile is only for software development

“Agile” refers to a group of frameworks such as SCRUM and Kanban (which we will discuss next month in Part 5: Agile Techniques and Frameworks). These frameworks focus on the end-users needs that add value to the product and divide large work into bitesize projects. These frameworks do not only apply to software development but can be applied to other industries because it is an effective and efficient way of working.

Next month…

In next month’s Monthly Dose of Design, we’ll discuss Agile techniques and frameworks and how these can benefit market researchers.

Header Image: Patrick Perkins, Unsplash