Putting Pivots Into Practice – CSP Fast Pass Case Study

So how does a pivot actually work?  In my last post, I talked about the ten type of pivots from the world of Lean Startup.  Let me illustrate how pivots work by using CSP Fast Pass, my latest effort to help people and businesses be more successful applying Scrum and Agile, as a case study.

In my talk at Agile Portugal 2016, I talked about the various twists and turns we took while on the CSP Fast Pass journey until we arrived the program we have today: a four-month, on-demand, guided, work study program to help Scrum and Agile practitioners continue their professional journey.  In my opinion, I feel CSP Fast Pass has already gone through two pivots.

1. Zoom Out – it took me about two years to understand that individual courses, i.e. features, do not sell.  It does not matter the topic, the location nor the timing.  My experience has showed me what people want is a complete package, i.e. a larger product, that finishes with a professional certification.  In the case of CSP Fast Pass, at the end of the program participants have completed all the educational requirements to become a  Certified Scrum Professional (CSP).
2. Technology – I love to teach.  I also tend to think that in-person, classroom training provides an overall better learning experience for the learners.  However, after reflecting on four to five years of market data, I feel my personal biases for in-person training prevented me from seeing that most people will spend no more than two days out of the office for professional training.  The CSP program at the Scrum Alliance requires educational requirements are seventy hours of continuing education or almost nine days of training!!  That disconnect is a problem.  This would be a challenge for CSP Fast Pass if one assumes the technology to deliver the training would be all in-person classroom instruction.  Late last year, we pivoted CSP Fast Pass to a predominantly on-demand program using our C6 approach that couples short videos with on-the-job application.

So what pivots are on the horizon for this product?  It is hard to say since our understanding of the market need around CSP Fast Pass continues to grow and evolve.  While I think we have product-solution fit and hints of a product-market fit, we do not have a business model fit.  Business model fit is the goal, so the next pivots will be about proving product-market fit and exploring the business model fit.

If I had to guess about what comes next, I think a customer need or channel pivot will offer new data for CSP Fast Pass and perhaps give insight on how to develop business model fit.  I wonder what experiments we can run to prove (or disprove) those hypothesis?