Agile research is a modern approach to research that enables organizations to learn more about their customers in less time and for less money. The term “agile” traces its roots to a software development manifesto that was published in 2001.
At the time, the manifesto challenged what the writers agreed to be an outdated approach to software development. Instead of working on enormous software solutions and releasing them periodically, the agile approach promised more frequent updates informed by customer feedback and, as a result, more powerful, user-friendly software. Agile was developed to solve so-called “wicked problems” that are common among innovation teams. Wicked problems are multidimensional, often involving new or different consumer behaviors. Rather than getting to a solution through analysis, these types of problems often require building early concepts or prototypes to identify unforeseen issues and fully flesh out consumer needs.
Today’s top-performing companies are connected to the agile manifesto one way or another. If you’ve ever wondered why your favorite platforms or websites are constantly changing or why Apple pushes iPhone updates out at regular intervals, you can thank the agile approach to development. Agile, however, is no longer confined to the software world. For example, a utility company recently wanted to improve the bill-paying experience. Nobody necessarily likes paying bills, but the company wanted to do whatever it could to make the process more enjoyable. Using agile research, they created an activity where customers selected emojis that indicated how they felt when they were paying their bills. The company then asked its customer why they chose certain emojis. This helped the utility company see things from their customers’ perspective. With that data, they were able to update the bill-paying experience to make it less abrasive.
2. Agile Expands Across the Enterprise
While agile started in software development, the concept has since spread to many other areas of the enterprise—including HR, marketing and R&D. Today, leading consumer products, insurance and financial services companies, durables manufacturers and more are using agile methods to develop innovative new products, experiences and marketing campaigns.
Why are so many companies embracing agile? Research suggests that agile provides a ton of benefits to organizations, including increased productivity, happier employees, reduced expenses, higher-quality products, faster time-to-market and, overall, more business value.
This is due to the fact that agile methods focus on empowering small teams, breaking complex problems into smaller “sprints”, accelerating the prototyping and development process, using tight feedback loops to inform future iterations, and integrating all of these parts into a larger coherent whole. As Jeff Bezos famously remarked, if you can’t feed everyone in a meeting with two pizzas, your meeting is too big and therefore won’t be productive.
Agile teams start out with a rough idea. While it might it seem like a fantastic one to start, the team understands that the original idea will almost never be the final outcome. Instead, teams build something that is simple but complete enough that the consumer can visualize the entire experience with that solution. Customers then share their experiences and react to the new idea in the context of their current behavior. Their feedback is then used to iterate. The process is repeated until the company ends up with a product that is truly one-of-a-kind and better than anything else out there—one that solves customers’ problems in a unique manner.
