by Roman Pichler

Most agile processes are empty of any advice on forming a company or product strategy. Product backlogs or featurelists are just assumed to exist or to spring spontaneously from the mind of a product owner or key stakeholder. In his new book, “Strategize,” Roman Pichler fills this void in agile thinking.

Roman is a long-time Scrum trainer based in the UK. He has previously written books about the overall Scrum framework and about succeeding as a product owner.

In “Strategize,” Pichler covers how to form and then validate a strategy, including identifying the right audience for the product and delivering just the features they need. The book covers roadmapping, including addressing the unfortunate misconception that because a team is agile, they don’t need to know where they’re headed.

Pichler presents a very helpful roadmap selection matrix that helps identify what type of roadmap is appropriate for different types of projects. I’ve already put this to use in discussions with clients. And I’m becoming convinced that if a company had a bad experience with roadmapping in the past, it was likely because of doing the wrong type of roadmapping. This book’s roadmap selection matrix will fix that.

This book should be read by anyone involved in determining the future direction for a product or entire organization.