The best innovative ideas typically come from individuals who have different points of view. Many modern companies have begun making the most of their employees’ ideas as well as their customers’. These people often have an unbiased view of your company and what they think it is or could be, which makes them important in the innovative process.  

Many companies forget to ask the customer for feedback but in the Agile world, higher customer interaction is the focus. Adopting an agile framework enables your company to be malleable and to have the ability to easily change course based on feedback from customers. Agile processes enable companies to adapt during the innovation process as it observes and studies rather than basing a project solely around theory and assumptions.  

Below are some of the top benefits you may see through implementing agile and scrum methodologies for your business.  

Faster Time to Market 

Agile framework emphasizes the Minimal Marketable Product as well as the Minimum Viable Product, each of which is lean concepts that enable small and safe investments that are quickly delivered.  

A Minimal Marketable Product is a piece of software that encompasses the bare minimum set of features a user needs. It offers businesses ability to make it to market faster while adding features for the future with ease.  

A Minimum Viable Product looks at an idea, tests it and offers a learning mechanism as well as the ability to release a very early version of a product to see how the market reacts. The main intent is to determine whether the concept is worth pushing.  

Smaller Failures (and Faster Ones) 

Every project may begin with successful intentions but they do not always pan out that way. Sometimes it isn’t even the project itself but a feature or idea that is just simply not adding the value you expected it to. Have you heard the phrase, “Fail forward fast”? This is just what agile is about.  

Behind “fail forward fast” is the idea that failure should happen quickly. It happens and you move on from it after learning from it. With agile frameworks, there are not huge analysis efforts involved. You quickly learn as you go and change as necessary. This process produces a quicker Return on Investment (ROI) with little investment.  

Satisfaction of Stakeholders 

Customers, users or anyone else who has a vested interest in your product are stakeholders. With agile, stakeholders are very engaged in the entire process and their feedback is regularly sought to ensure that value is added every step of the way. As a result, stakeholders feel like they are part of the process and are engaged. They know you are working with their best interest in mind, which keeps them happy.  

Save Money 

Agile offers lower risk, faster time to market, happy stakeholders and the embracing of change, which helps businesses to save money by generating the right product rather than shooting at the dark, basing product development from assumptions. Your team will be highly productive and feel engaged and costs will be lower because you are focusing your resources on building just what is needed.