From Silos to Synergy
A New Model for Collaborative Product Development
The year 2024 is coming to a close, and it's been another wild ride in the world of digital products. AI has changed the way we create content, but it still needs to find some real, long-lasting use cases, such as in personalised healthcare, improved customer support through conversational agents, or efficient automation in supply chain management. AR/VR was supposed to be the next big thing, especially after Apple Vision came out, but it hasn't quite lived up to the hype yet. Web3 and blockchain have hit some roadblocks because of regulations, such as the European Union's MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) framework and increased scrutiny from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. On a more macro economic level we saw massive layoffs in the tech industry showing that there is a need for recalibration on what and how the industry is bringing value. But even with all these changes, the core question everyone tries to solve stays the same:
How can we deliver the best digital product and user experience to as many people as possible?
“The wrap”
Mental Models
”The gift”
A New Model for Collaborative Product Development
This question is more important than ever as digital adoption continues to grow. More people are getting online globally, with over 5 billion internet users as of 2024. The rise of remote work and mobile internet access, particularly in emerging markets, has accelerated digital adoption. E-commerce and digital banking are also growing, driven by convenience and financial inclusion.
At The Agile Mindset, helping to understand this question is what got us into blogging in the first place. We aim to explore the complex world of digital product development ourselves while helping others to gain insights. We’ve noticed that the industry often addresses challenges from individual perspectives rather than considering the total picture. For instance, the Agile community is trying to regain momentum amid claims that "agile is dead." Many companies are adopting frameworks like SAFe, which some view as inadequate. Meanwhile, in the product community, leaders like Marty Cagan and Melissa Perri are initiating discussions about the growing need for product operations. Engineering communities are trying to simplify development with Low Code and No Code initiatives. In other words, various communities all are struggling from their own perspective with digital product development challenges. Part of the problem is that every community or profession tends to solve challenges from their specific viewpoint rather than looking at the whole system. For example, Product Managers focus on delivering features, while Agile Coaches emphasise process optimisation. This fragmented approach can lead to suboptimal results because it fails to account for the interconnected nature of product development. For example, optimising processes without addressing people dynamics may bring short-term gains but overlook underlying collaboration issues. Similarly, driving feature delivery without considering system constraints or technical debt can create unsustainable workloads.
We, at The Agile Mindset, took a step back and realised that many challenges teams face come exactly from focusing on these parts rather than the whole. We started thinking about what a more holistic product development approach should look like. This led us to develop a product development model that goes beyond just product management, software development, or Agile delivery. We want to instil the mindset that everyone within a product team is a product developer, someone who aims to develop the best possible product. Everyone should understand what product development entails, what different parts exist, and how they interact with each other. While specialisation is valuable, it’s crucial that the entire team understands the complete picture; otherwise, the question we initially raised will remain unanswered:
“How can we bring the best possible digital products and user experiences to as many people as possible?”
The market is already flooded with models and people offering a certain perspective. George Box once said: "All models are wrong, but some are useful." Having a shared language to discuss complexity can be of great benefit. It can break down walls between silos. Walls that often cause miscommunication. For that reason we did create a new model. New is of course a bit blunt because we are not inventing the wheel here. Like we said we just took a more high level perspective and integrated all the different angles that are at stake within product development. We ourselves now use it daily to check what is happening, identify areas for improvement, and determine where to focus extra attention. This helps us understand how changes in one part affect the others. It's not a model you can or should “implement” -- we don't like the word and also don't believe that you can just implement something. We do hope it can offer some inspiration for other people as well to understand the challenge of product development better.
Our product development model consists of seven concentric layers, showing how different parts of product development are connected and influence each other. It's crucial for everyone involved to understand these layers and how they interact. This understanding helps teams recognise problems and helps identify where they must improve. This approach also ensures a balanced focus on strategic alignment, team well-being, effective workflows, user value, and market responsiveness, making it suitable for guiding teams across various domains.
The seven interconnected layers are: Purpose, People, System, Product, User, Client and Market.
Purpose: Everything starts with purpose. It aligns the team’s work with the organisation's mission, serving as a guide for prioritising features, optimising workflows, and making decisions. Revisiting the purpose regularly ensures that it remains relevant and resonates across all layers.
People: A well-functioning team is not just about roles and skills but also about relationships, communication, and growth. Holistic product development recognizes that investing in people—through training, role clarity, and feedback—can positively impact all other layers.
System (Structure & Process): Processes should be adaptable, serving as living frameworks rather than static rules. Structural adjustments, such as reorganising teams around product areas, can significantly improve delivery speed and quality.
Product: The product should not be seen as an isolated deliverable but as an evolving outcome influenced by purpose, people, and system dynamics. Aligning product development with system capabilities and user needs creates products that are both sustainable and effective.
User: True alignment with users goes beyond feedback; it requires understanding how user behaviour affects other layers, such as product strategy and system architecture. Teams should be prepared to adjust processes based on evolving user expectations.
Client: In B2B contexts, client requirements often extend beyond what end-users need. Addressing these without losing focus on user value or system constraints ensures robust and adaptable solutions.
Market: While market dynamics influence development, they should not dictate the entire process. The holistic approach considers market trends within the broader system context, helping teams stay adaptable while maintaining focus on the core purpose.
So moving forward, we want to use this blog to explain what every part of this model means. Discuss what influence they have on each other and what you can do to optimise them. We want to create spaces for product managers, designers, engineers, and other stakeholders to unite with a shared purpose and language. In other words we want to make sure everyone acts as a product developer first and as a specialist second. We will also gather tips for workshops and tools we found successful. We will again not always reinvent the wheel but use existing practices from existing communities but explain more how they can help in the total picture.
To conclude this article, this is also a call to action. Challenge our model, share these ideas not only within your own community but also with people in your team or colleagues from another profession. Add or give us tips for workshops that can help understand and optimise specific layers, but also ideas that can help understanding the total product development landscape. Let's keep asking tough questions and challenging assumptions. Because in the end, we must all deliver the best experiences to our end users, and have fun and fulfilment in doing so.