Hybrid: Developing products & services: investment or bet?

SPEAKER

Martin Jewiss

AGENDA

18:00 Refreshments and networking
18:00 Start
19:30 Questions and networking
20:30 End

SYNOPSIS

Organisations often want upfront certainty before starting a programme to develop a new product or service. Yet only 17% of new digital products and services succeed.
Does that make these programmes an investment or merely a bet? In today's environment of rapid change, how do we invest strategically rather than simply taking larger and larger gambles?

Even when we have the conditions in place to build things the right way, too many programmes still fail. They suffer from a fundamental misalignment: a product or service was built brilliantly, uncertainty navigated, but it wasn't what customers actually wanted. The classic case of a solution in search of a problem. Building things right is not enough. We also need to build the right thing.

This talk offers a high-level overview of agile approaches to building products and services right. But it focuses primarily on how to build the right thing using design thinking, customer-focused discovery, Objectives and Key Results (OKRs), and a simple model to continually guide programme activity.
Together, these approaches significantly improve the chances of developing a valuable product or service.

Moreover, they extend beyond product and service development. They're equally valuable as a personal framework for navigating change throughout your professional career.

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY

Martin Jewiss is a co-founder and Customer & User Experience Director at The Forge Partnership. He has extensive experience in customer-centred, lean and agile methods, customer and user experience design, product and service design, and brand strategy. His focus is to ensure every client sees measurable business value and sustainable impact from their work with Forge.

Martin’s diverse professional background includes over 20 years of running creative and technical businesses. Prior to this he was a Chartered Biologist, creating and managing environments for tropical animals.

Since 2021 Martin has volunteered as Early Careers Advocate on the BCS Agile Methods Special Interest Group committee. In this role he is a first point of contact for anyone considering or newly starting a career in agile, whether student, new to the world or work, or navigating a major career change.