Scrum brought with it a revolution to how we work together as product teams. It brings together a common understanding of how we can better develop products and nicely illustrates our roles/responsibilities in an understandable way. Yet it’s just one agile method, one approach. Just one philosophy of many.
Why do so many teams stop learning once they know scrum? There is a better way to work.
Long ago or not so long ago we spent two days in training, and after that, we have learned a framework for managing the team and can explain why what we do is better than the “waterfall”. Stand-ups, 2-week sprints, etc and now everything is awesome. But then once you apply it and start learning by doing, something else happens – you start seeing where it can potentially, or occasionally, just might – fall apart.
The purpose of this post is not to bash scrum. Not the point. Scrum has reached incredible adoption and has made things better for everyone. It’s a worthy framework to know, understand, and practice. My point is different:
Product Managers and Leaders should learn a second approach, like Kanban.
Learn a second approach, like Kanban.
There is a huge opportunity to up our skills by knowing more than one way to work. Why you should learn it:
- Be a more effective manager and leader. Apply multiple approaches when and where needed to manage through difficult situations.
- Have a more effective and efficient team. When managers and teams appropriately learn and adopt the principles of Kanban their teams will consistently outperform those that don’t. However, most teams either don’t know Kanban or don’t have enough experience with them to apply them adequately.
- Be more marketable. The more you know, the greater the chance for earning that promotion or new gig.
- You may already be practicing it unconsciously. Lastly, if you don’t know it, many of us are already doing kanban in basic form or another. And so if that’s the case, why not follow the
My first experience with Kanban was 5+ years ago where I was fortunate enough to work with a super talented, bright, and hardworking team at the Executive Office of the President. It was here that I was able to truly grasp the value of managing a team differently, and understanding how a second philosophy can also be super effective at managing a team.
Many teams struggle to deliver their products with adequate quality and efficiency, yet most of them either don’t know it, or they do know it but are still learning to apply it. Kanban can help solve these problems.