Key Points

• Agile has long played a behind-the-scenes role in delivering customer value.
• There is a lot of promise in using agile as a tool to drive customer value into the stratosphere if you can get a whole team on board.
• There are multiple agile paths you can consider, including Kanban and Value Stream Mapping.

In any business, no matter what you are delivering to customers, whether it’s widgets, computers, or automobiles, the focus should first and foremost be on customer value. This is the reason you have customers, and if there is any reason why this customer value breaks or the customers no longer see a reason to buy your product, it’s game over.

For most people, trying to match customer value and its importance in the Agile world might be taken with a grain of salt. How do two seemingly unrelated things have a really tight bond that makes both of equal importance to one another? The answer is pretty simple, and it’s a strong reminder of just how flexible Agile can be.

The Big Customer Value Problem

When most businesses look at how to qualify customer value, they are doing so with a far too narrow customer lens. This is often looked at as a way to measure product quality, customer service, price, etc., but none of these, at least on their own, can properly offer a holistic look at customer value.

If the goal of a business is to simply increase sales, customer value often falls by the wayside, and talking about “customer value” becomes little more than lip service. Instead, you wind up in a position where businesses simply aren’t devoting the right amount of resources to the issue of customer value, and that means they aren’t delivering it properly.

There is a better than good chance that a marketing team is going to scream all day about how they can deliver customer value, but this wouldn’t be a complete story either. If they are looking at what campaigns to run, how high on the priority list is customer value as opposed to brand awareness or driving a customer down through the sales funnel?

Most businesses need to take a step back and evaluate what, if any, part of their business is focused on customer value. There’s probably a whole department dedicated to retention, but customer value is perhaps something that comes up in meetings from time to time, but isn’t prioritized in any specific way.

How Agile Can Help

While agile might not be top of mind when it comes to delivering customer value, this might be because it’s not traditionally viewed as a customer business process. However, as soon as you peek under the agile hood, you quickly learn that agile is going to play a huge role in delivering customer value.

If you drill all the way down to the center of what makes agile so strong, it’s all about finding how to deliver the best value to customers and or stakeholders. If your customers are one of your stakeholders, great, then you are already focused on delivering customer value and may not have realized it.

On the other hand, you can also look at everything you are doing as an agile team and ask yourself if the project you are working on is going to deliver customer value. If the answer is no, then it’s a quick and easy way to say you can’t or won’t work on this. Now, try the same question again and get a yes, this process or sprint is going to deliver customer value, and it’s an easy reason to push forward.

Different Agile Tools to Help Deliver Value

Value Stream Mapping

One of the most effective methodologies for businesses to look at how to make changes, Value Stream Mapping, is a great way to identify and eliminate waste. As a visualization technique, VSM will help an agile team identify where value is being created while also identifying where time is being utilized without delivering customer benefits.

If a company only focuses on value-added activities, the teams working on Value Stream Mapping can identify any of the bottlenecks that are delaying customer value and eliminate anything that isn’t going to help with better outcomes.

Daily Standups

For the most part, daily standups are one of the best ways a team can make sure everyone is on the same page toward providing customer value. A daily standup is often composed of individual teams led by the Scrum Master, and it’s an opportunity to have everyone be on the same page with customer-impacting issues that need to be fixed.

These regular check-in meetings are critical to identifying the patterns that might indicate a broader issue that is affecting customer value. The quicker these problems are identified and solved, the more likely it is that a resolution can happen quickly enough that something can be done to win back customers with even more value.

Different Frameworks

When you look at the different frameworks that can take place on the agile front, there really is something for every team and organization. It doesn’t matter if your team uses a Scrum, Hybrid, or Kanban approach, as all of these frameworks can help provide stakeholders with the right amount of input to make the right changes and improve overall processes.

Continuous Improvement

The last big tool that is available for customer value delivery is that of continuous improvement, which is generally found through retrospective meetings done at the end of every sprint. These meetings are an opportunity to look at what went well, what went wrong, and what can be done for the future. This is where the notion of continuous improvement comes into play, which is one of the best tools to keep ensuring that delivering solid customer value is regularly top of mind.

Real-World Examples

Netflix

The premier streaming service in the world, Netflix, had a massive transition from its DVD-based business to streaming, and it was all about delivering customer value. As the company realized that it had to shift from DVD rental to on-demand digital content, it forced them to eventually abandon the DVD project and focus entirely on streaming for the future.

This is a prime example of a company striving to deliver incredible customer value, all while maintaining customer loyalty and profits at the same time. Had Netflix not pivoted toward DVDs, it might have eventually gone the way of Blockbuster, and another competitor would be the biggest name in the video streaming world right now.

Amazon

In one of the more unique ways of delivering customer value, Amazon has historically written its press releases and responses to anticipated frequently asked questions before any development work is done. This has forced developers and anyone building something new to clearly understand what needs to be done to articulate the value for the customer.

This approach has helped the customer start with customer-centric value propositions rather than focusing on a technology-driven solution that exists to look for a problem.

ING Bank

Another prime example of adopting an agile approach is ING Bank, which underwent a complete transformation to agile in the 2010s. This was a complete corporate restructuring that saw the company shift from traditional departments to agile squads. As a result, the company was able to deliver features faster and customer satisfaction scores more than proved that the company’s strategy was the right one.

Restructuring the entire company to focus on an operating model that then focused on customer value showed that agile wasn’t just something that could be successful for startups, but also for entrenched businesses.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

If you’re interested in learning more about agile, there is so much good news for you. You can get started by looking at the Scrum Guide Explained, which is a fantastic read on how to master agile projects. Alternatively, you can look at this article that delves deep into the battle between Six Sigma and Agile and asks if they can work together.

When you’re ready for a topic that doesn’t involve the word agile, how about reading all about how to raise the bar on call center service? This is an important topic that carries significant weight in driving customer value. These two organizational goals should go hand-in-hand and can help differentiate any two companies.

Conclusion

Agile and customer value are two things that need to be discussed more in any organization. The importance of delivering customer value cannot be overstated, especially in an increasingly competitive world where every day is spent sparing no expense to try to be the company that stands out the most.