Product-Oriented Architecture
An ideal product experience is delicate balance between customer needs, business needs, and technical capabilities. An emphasis on one of these dimensions over another can lead to missed expectations, lost opportunities, and unscalable solutions.
Product-oriented organizations identify, develop, and deliver digital products. Their key capabilities include defining and organizing around digital products, implementing a product management discipline, and implementing commensurate Agile support for business units across the company.
Product Focus Changes the Customer Value Proposition
Historical approaches to creating digital products focus either on a technology-driven approach (i.e. Agile) or on a marketing-driven approach (i.e. what is needed to market products). Conflict and silos inevitably emerge when technologists follow one practice and marketing teams follow another.
When the organization thinks beyond just the digital experience and in terms of a digital product, it can innovate and deliver more value for the customer.
A product-oriented focus also provides the organization with a common set of goals and measurements. The digital product is the goal and customer satisfaction is the measure.
Rise of the Product Management Discipline
A product-oriented architecture requires a strong product management discipline and an iterative approach to product development. Product management teams must research ideas, test solutions, throw away work, and iterate until they build the product that delights customers.