Matthew Hurst brings an interesting perspective to the intersection of agile development and data products:
The product of a data team in the context of a product like local search is somewhat specialized within the broader scope of ‘big data’. Data is our product (we create a model of a specific part of the real world - those places where you can peform on-site transactions), and we leverage large scale data assets to make that data product better.
The agile framework uses the limited time horizon (the ‘sprint’ or ‘iteration’) to ensure that unknowns are reduced appropriately and that real work is done in a manner aligned with what the customer wants. …
In a number of projects where we are being agile, we have modified the framework with a couple of new elements.
Love the concept of “the data wallow”, which is scheduled team time to deeply dig into the collected data. I’d be interested to hear about specific activities of the wallow and how to make that time productive.