SAFe-APM SAFe Agile Product Manager (APM 6.0) Questions and Answers

The chasm is the gap in the technology adoption lifecycle between the early adopters and the early majority. The early adopters are enthusiasts who are open to trying new technologies, whereas the early majority is more pragmatic and cautious. The chasm occurs due to the differing expectations and requirements of these two groups. An innovative product is a product that introduces a new or significantly improved technology, functionality, or design that creates a new market or disrupts an existing one. An innovative product might face a chasm in its adoption, because it may not appeal to the mainstream customers who value reliability, compatibility, and convenience over novelty and differentiation. Therefore, an innovative product needs to cross the chasm by finding a niche market, establishing a clear value proposition, and creating a strong word-of-mouth.

References:

Crossing the Chasm in the Technology Adoption Life Cycle: This article from Business to You explains the concept and purpose of the technology adoption lifecycle and the chasm, and how they can help marketers understand and target different customer segments.

How to Cross the Chasm & Scale Your SaaS: This article from Userpilot provides a practical guide on how to cross the chasm and scale a SaaS product, with examples and tips on finding product-market fit, defining a beachhead market, and creating a whole product.

Segment 1 is the better choice for the next 12 months, because it aligns with the company’s growth strategy to sell to larger organizations, and it offers a higher potential value and lower competitive intensity than segment 2. Segment 1 consists of very large companies that have a need for the new application, but are dissatisfied with the current solutions offered by the large enterprise application vendors. This indicates a market opportunity for the company to provide a better integrated and more satisfying solution that can meet the needs and expectations of these customers. Segment 2, on the other hand, consists of small businesses that are already well-served by the company and its competitors, and may not have a strong demand or willingness to pay for the new application. Therefore, segment 2 offers a lower value and higher competitive intensity than segment 1.

References:

Market Segmentation: Definition, Types, Benefits, & Best Practices: This article from Qualtrics XM provides an overview of market segmentation, and discusses the benefits and best practices of market segmentation for businesses. It also provides some examples and tips on how to segment markets effectively.

Market Segmentation: Definition, Example, Types, Benefits - Investopedia: This article from Investopedia explains the concept and purpose of market segmentation, and describes the four primary types of market segmentation: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral.

Market Segmentation: Definition, Criteria and Other Details: This article from Your Article Library provides a comprehensive guide on market segmentation, including its definition, criteria, process, levels, and bases. It also discusses the advantages and limitations of market segmentation.

Investment horizon 3 is the longest-term horizon that focuses on exploring and developing breakthrough innovations that can create new markets and revenue streams for the business. It is important for every business to allocate funding to investment horizon 3, because it enables the business to anticipate and respond to the changing customer needs, technological trends, and competitive threats, and to secure its future growth and survival. Investment horizon 3 requires a high level of creativity, experimentation, and risk tolerance, but it can also generate a high level of return and differentiation.

References:

Horizon Planning: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the concept and purpose of horizon planning, and describes the four horizons and their characteristics, challenges, and best practices.

SAFe®’s investment horizon model — A synopsis: This article from Medium provides a summary of the SAFe investment horizon model, and illustrates how it can help organizations allocate their resources and manage their portfolio.

Enduring Ideas: The three horizons of growth | McKinsey: This article from McKinsey presents the original framework of the three horizons of growth, and discusses how it can help businesses balance their current and future opportunities and challenges.

A story map is a visual tool that helps product teams organize and prioritize user stories based on the user journey and the value they deliver. A story map shows the main activities or steps of the user journey as the backbone of the feature, and the stories that support each activity as the slices of the feature. A team would create a story map when stories work together to support a workflow, because it helps them to understand and communicate the big picture of the user goals and needs, and to identify the minimum viable product (MVP) scope.

References:

Story Mapping: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the purpose, process, and benefits of story mapping, and provides an example of how it can be used in a SAFe context.

User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product: This book by Jeff Patton, the creator of story mapping, provides a comprehensive guide on how to use story mapping to create better products and services that delight customers.

How to Create a User Story Map: Step by Step Guide with Examples: This article from Miro provides a detailed guide on how to create a user story map, with examples and templates for different types of products and services.

Feature estimates are aggregated back into the Epic estimate as part of the lean business case. The lean business case is a lightweight and collaborative artifact that captures the rationale, assumptions, and financial projections for an Epic. The lean business case includes the Epic value statement, which consists of the value proposition, the benefit hypothesis, and the Epic estimate. The Epic estimate is the total effort required to implement the Epic, expressed in story points. The Epic estimate is derived from the sum of the Feature estimates, which are the effort required to implement each Feature that contributes to the Epic, also expressed in story points. The Feature estimates are aggregated back into the Epic estimate as part of the lean business case to provide a realistic and data-driven projection of the cost and duration of the Epic.

References:

Lean Business Case - Scaled Agile Framework

Epic - Scaled Agile Framework

Feature estimates are aggregated back into the Epic estimate as part of …

The projected value of a market segment is an estimate of the potential revenue and profit that can be generated from selling products or services to that segment. To increase confidence in this estimate, it is important to keep the calculations transparent and continually updated as more accurate information becomes available. This involves documenting the assumptions, data sources, methods, and results of the calculations, and validating them with stakeholders and experts. It also involves monitoring the changes in the market conditions, customer behavior, and competitor actions, and adjusting the calculations accordingly. By keeping the calculations transparent and updated, the organization can ensure that the projected value of a market segment reflects the current and future reality, and avoid overestimating or underestimating the market opportunity.

References:

Market Segmentation: Definition, Example, Types, Benefits: This article from Investopedia explains the concept and purpose of market segmentation, and describes the four primary types of market segmentation: demographic, geographic, psychographic, and behavioral.

Market Segmentation: Definition, Types, Benefits, & Best Practices: This article from Qualtrics XM provides an overview of market segmentation, and discusses the benefits and best practices of market segmentation for businesses. It also provides some examples and tips on how to segment markets effectively.

Data Integration Market Size, Share & Growth Report, 2030: This article from Grand View Research provides a comprehensive analysis of the global data integration market, including the market size, share, growth, trends, drivers, challenges, opportunities, and segments. It also provides a regional and competitive landscape of the data integration market.

The horizon model is a framework that helps organizations balance their investments across different time horizons and types of innovation. According to the Scaled Agile Framework, there are four horizons: Horizon 0, Horizon 1, Horizon 2, and Horizon 31. Horizon 1 describes the desired state as stable solutions that deliver high value with minimal new investment. These are the core products or services that generate most of the current revenue and profit, and have a loyal customer base. Horizon 1 solutions require continuous improvement and optimization, but not significant new investment or disruption. Horizon 1 can be further divided into two sub-horizons: Investing and Extracting2.

References:

Horizon Planning: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the concept and purpose of horizon planning, and describes the four horizons and their characteristics, challenges, and best practices.

SAFe®’s investment horizon model — A synopsis: This article from Medium provides a summary of the SAFe investment horizon model, and illustrates how it can help organizations allocate their resources and manage their portfolio.

A successful minimum viable product (MVP) that has value in the market reveals that the Epic hypothesis has been validated and that development should continue. An MVP is an early and minimal version of a new product or solution that is used to test the assumptions and hypotheses behind an Epic. An MVP provides the fastest and cheapest way tolearn from real customers and to measure the impact and value of the Epic. A successful MVP means that the Epic has proven its desirability, viability, feasibility, and sustainability, and that there is still more value to be delivered by implementing additional features and capabilities. Therefore, development should continue until the Epic is completed or the value hypothesis changes.

References:

Epic - Scaled Agile Framework

Minimum Viable Product (MVP) - Scaled Agile Framework

Innovation Accounting in SAFe - Scaled Agile Framework

Using personas and empathy maps together is a result of applying design thinking, which is a customer-centric development process that creates desirable products that are profitable and sustainable over their lifecycle. Personas are fictional characters that represent archetypal users of a product or service, while empathy maps are visual tools that capture the thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and needs of the users. Using personas and empathy maps together can help to improve product design by:

Understanding the problem and the context from the user’s perspective

Generating ideas and solutions that address the user’s pain points and goals

Testing and validating the assumptions and hypotheses behind the product

Aligning the stakeholders on the scope, value, and quality of the product

References:

Design Thinking - Scaled Agile Framework

Personas - Scaled Agile Framework

Empathy Map vs Persona: What’s the Difference and Why You … - Userpilot

Qualitative research fuels innovation when it is designed to explore the context in which Customers use the product. Qualitative research is a type of research that collects and analyzes non-numerical data, such as words, images, or emotions. Qualitative research can help understand the needs, problems, and opportunities of the Customers, as well as their behaviors, attitudes, and preferences. By exploring the context in which Customers use the product, qualitative research can help identify the pain points, gaps, and unmet needs of the Customers, and generate ideas for improving the user experience and value proposition of the product. Qualitative research can also help validate the assumptions and hypotheses behind the product design, and test the prototypes and solutions with the Customers.

References:

Design Thinking - Scaled Agile Framework

Qualitative Data – Strengths and Limitations

New Research: Data And Culture Fuel Innovation - Forbes

Buy a Feature is a research game that is primarily used to better understand the priorities of Solution requirements. Buy a Feature is a collaborative prioritization technique that involves giving participants a fixed amount of virtual money and a list of features or requirements with different costs. The participants then have to decide which features or requirements they want to buy, either individually or in groups. The game reveals the preferences,trade-offs, and consensus of the participants, as well as the relative value and importance of each feature or requirement.

References:

Buy a Feature - Scaled Agile Framework

Buy a Feature - Innovation Games

What Innovation Game is primarily used to better understand the priorities of Solution requirements?

An Enabler Feature is a type of feature that supports the development and delivery of future business features by extending the architectural runway, improving the infrastructure, or addressing compliance. An Enabler Feature is usually defined and prioritized by System/Solution Architects, who are responsible for designing and guiding the technical aspects of the solution. Therefore, the best stakeholder to collaborate with if a Product Manager wants to discuss an Enabler Feature for the upcoming PI is the System/Solution Architect, as they can provide the necessary technical expertise, guidance, and alignment.

References:

Enablers - Scaled Agile Framework

System and Solution Architect/Engineering - Scaled Agile Framework

PI Planning - Scaled Agile Framework

One of the strengths of qualitative research is that it can be applied to a large number of people, as it does not require a fixed sample size or a predefined set of questions. Qualitative research can use various methods, such as interviews, focus groups, observations, or document analysis, to collect data from different sources and contexts. This allows researchers to explore a wide range of perspectives, experiences, and meanings, and to generate rich and diverse insights.

References:

23 Advantages and Disadvantages of Qualitative Research

5 Strengths and 5 Limitations of Qualitative Research

Market segmentation is the process of dividing a market into distinct groups of customers who have similar needs, preferences, or behaviors. Market segmentation helps enterprises identify and target the most valuable and profitable customer segments, design and deliver solutions that meet their needs, and optimize their marketing strategies and campaigns. However, market segmentation is not only based on quantitative factors, such as size, growth, and profitability, but also on qualitative factors, such as values, mission, and vision. A market segment should align with the enterprise’s values and mission, which reflect its purpose, identity, and culture. A market segment that aligns with the enterprise’s values and mission will help the enterprise achieve its strategic goals, create a positive brand image, and build trust and loyalty with customers.

References:

Customer Centricity - Scaled Agile Framework

Advanced Topic - SAFe for Marketing - Scaled Agile Framework

What is one consideration when evaluating the fit for a market segment?

5.4 Essential Factors in Effective Market Segmentation

An up-sell feature is a feature that encourages customers to buy a more expensive or advanced version of a product or service, or to add additional products or services to their purchase. An up-sell feature can increase the revenue and profit per customer, and enhance the customer value proposition. An add-on feature is a type of up-sell feature that adds functionality or benefits to the existing product or service, and usually requires an extra payment or subscription. For example, a cloud storage service may offer an add-on feature of extra storage space or enhanced security for a higher fee.

References:

Feature Categories: This article from the Scaled Agile Framework explains the concept and purpose of feature categories, and how they can help product teams prioritize and communicate the value of features. It also describes the four main feature categories: new business, up-sell, operational efficiency, and retainment.

Product Roadmap: Examples, Types and Key Features: This article from AltexSoft provides a comprehensive guide on product roadmaps, including their key features, common types, and examples. It also provides some tips and best practices on roadmap creation and communication.