The Lean-Agile Dilemma: Product Management Inside a Chunky Corporate

“Tamblin proposes a mixture of the disciplined defined waypoints of the wave method and agile execution, which she calls orienteering. Having led several large-scale developments, I can testify that this type of mixed discipline-flexible approach works.” – Nonfiction Authors Association

“The Lean-Agile Dilemma is the Gold Winner for the best Product Innovation Book in the Hustle & Heart Book Awards, beating out serious competition as scored by twelve independent judges.” – Hustle & Heart Book Awards Team

“It’s a fantastic read for any Product Manager navigating a corporate environment (instead of a startup) who still wants to get things done in a meaningful way. It explains why larger companies often struggle to move as fast as startups and, more importantly, what they can do about it – without blindly applying Lean-Agile principles where they don’t fit. Smart, practical, and entertaining!” – Bernhard Hecker, Former Chief Product Officer

“I feel like I am reading my own story in many of these chapters and have the scars to prove it. It is very engaging from both a senior leadership perspective and especially useful to those people directly involved in delivering platform change.” – Hugh Cox, Chief Information Officer

“It’s brilliant, and I wish I had read it years ago. Software business senior leadership should read this.” – Marianne Rabanal, Product Delivery Director

Winner of the Best Product Innovation Book at the Hustle & Heart Book Awards and Winner of the Silver Non-Fiction Book Award by the Nonfiction Authors Association!

Over the last decade, Lean-Agile principles have become the standard methodology by which product and technology teams operate. However, Lean-Agile was written for small companies seeking new markets to buy their innovative software products, not for an average corporation with a catalogue of existing software products that must be maintained and rebuilt. The typical tech-enabled business isn’t a lean startup; it’s a chunky corporate. This book offers an alternative software development methodology perfectly suited for chunky corporate product management.

You’ll quickly find out how individual players in the corporate organization impact business performance. You’ll follow the story of Blake, a well-meaning but ultimately naive, CEO of a fictional company called Acme Tech. As he and Acme struggle to maintain business performance, it becomes apparent how embedded and complex his challenges are. Lean-Agile principles are regularly misapplied in the corporate environment, causing tension, missed deadlines, and inefficient working practices.

You’ll see that managing software transformation at a large, mature business requires a new set of tools. Popular development methodologies are not well-suited for the replatforming exercises that chunky corporates inevitably face. This book helps product and technology leaders navigate software development projects at organizations grappling with the constraints of investor ownership.  

Chunky corporates have a lot going for them: The Lean-Agile Dilemma reveals that, when managed well, they have the potential to be safe havens in a relentlessly unstable world.

You will:

• Understand how replatforming differs from new product development
• Learn how to manage existing data when updating or building new software
• Gain tools to prioritize items in your overstuffed product roadmap