Learning outcomes of the curricular unit (knowledge, skills and competences to be developed by the students)
LO1. Understand the framing, relevance, and historical context of the agile methodologies. LO2. Understand what a digital product is and its stages from discovery to launch. LO3. Build skills to manage the product from discovery to launch. LO4. Use agile tools and frameworks for product discovery and validation, conduct user interviews and product prototyping. LO5. Learn what composes an agile product team, the involved roles, their goals, and dynamics. LO6. Learn to use Scrum and Kanban agile methodologies, their contexts, concepts, activities, artifacts, and events. LO7. Define acceptance criteria and product metrics: focus, loyalty, usability, functional, alignment, and adoption funnel. LO8. Understand the utility and learn how to define and prioritize a product roadmap. LO9. Outline a Go-to-market strategy based on Product-led growth.
S2. Product Discovery and Design S2.1. Agile teams: composition, roles, skills, scope, and focus S2.2. Hypotheses creation and validation, Product-Market Fit, and Minimum Viable Product S2.2.1. Opportunity Solution Tree and Value Proposition Canvas S2.2.2. User interviews S2.2.3. Design Sprint S2.2.4. Prototyping
S3. Product Development & Delivery S3.1. Agile Manifesto, Agile vs Waterfall S3.2. Agile Development Methodologies: Scrum and Kanban. Processes, roles, artifacts, and events S3.3. Release cycles: sprints, measuring impact and retrospective S3.4. Go-to-market Strategy S3.5. From Sales-led to Product-led Growth
Demonstration of the syllabus coherence with the curricular unit's learning objectives
Today¿s digital product landscape is moving at an unprecedent pace with high uncertainty, demanding a mindset of constant learning and adaptation from professionals. Agile methodologies answer these needs and challenge old methodologies that are not suitable for a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous world. S1 and S3 will achieve LO1 and LO2. A digital product is not only about building the product right¿, but also about build the right product. That means products that customers love to use and serve the business outcomes of the company. This is accomplished by LO3 through S2 and S3.
Building the right product is all about discovery, design, and the early definition of the right product team. Therefore, S2 achieves LO4 and LO5. Building the product right¿ takes the team through defining a product roadmap and develop and deliver it with agile methodologies. S3 covers LO6, LO7, LO8, and LO9.
M1 - Expository. Oral presentation of theoretical content.
M2 - Demonstrative. Utilization and application of frameworks and methodologies.
M3 - Participatory. Presentation of case studies.
M4 - Active. Development of project deliverables.
Theoretical and practical in-presence classes to exhibit theoretical content, presentation and demonstration of tools and methodologies, case study analysis, and development of the group project. M1, M2, M3, M4
Distance synchronous classes will be about the exhibition of theoretical content, case study discussion, and development of group activities. M1, M3, M4
Students will group up to create/enhance a product with given methodologies and using the tools provided during classes. There will be continuous short presentations to assess the evolution of the project, and in the end a presentation and group discussion.
Each student will be subject to 2 quizzes to assess theoretical contents.
A1. Group project. 70%
A2. Quizzes. 25%
A3. Participation. 5%
Demonstration of the coherence between the teaching methodologies and the learning outcomes
The exhibition of the theoretical contents (M1) will be required to almost every objective (LO1, LO2, LO4 ¿ LO9) to introduce and build fundamental knowledge on every matter. This introductory exhibition will allow students to develop a critical view over the application of the presented methodologies and frameworks. The demonstrative method (M2) will be used mainly to concretize the methodologies and frameworks (LO3, LO4, LO6, LO7, LO8, and LO9) students shall use in the development of the group project. Students will analyze and discuss case studies, invited guests will present their own case studies (M3) to provide a higher connection to the practice and realistic concretization of the theoretical and practical contents. The sharing of experiences by invited guests will anchor theoretical contents (LO1, LO2, and LO5) to concrete cases, and case studies materialize practical contents (LO3, LO6, LO7, LO8, and LO9). The active in-class development (M5) of the project will be crucial to its continuous accompaniment. Along with demonstrations (M3), this methodology allows students to apply given methodologies and exhibited frameworks (LO4, LO6, LO7, LO8, and LO9) to the different stages of the digital product (LO2 and LO3).
LO1 - M1 e M3 (A2) LO2 - M1, M3 e M4 (A1 e A2) LO3 - M2, M3 e M4 (A1) LO4 - M1, M2 e M4 (A1) LO5 - M1 e M3 (A2) LO6 - M1, M2, M3 e M4 (A1) LO7 - M1, M2, M3 e M4 (A1) LO8 - M1, M2, M3 e M4 (A1) LO9 - M1, M2, M3 e M4 (A1)
Bibliography (Mandatory resources)
Fitzpatrick, R. (2016). The Mom Test: How to talk to customers & learn if your business is a good idea when everyone is lying to you. Robfitz Ltd. Torres, T. (2021). Continuous Discovery Habits: Discover Products that Create Customer Value and Business Value. Product Talk LLC. Cagan, M. (2017). Inspired: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love (Silicon Valley Product Group) (2nd ed.). Wiley. Dutt, R. (2021). Radical Product Thinking: The New Mindset for Innovating Smarter. Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Vance, A. (2017). Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future (Illustrated). Ecco. Sutherland, J., & Sutherland, J. J. (2014). Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time (Illustrated). Currency. Manifesto for Agile Software Development - https://agilemanifesto.org Darrell Rigby, Sarah Elk, Steve Berez, (2020) Doing Agile Right: Transformation Without Chaos.
