The Dual-track agile method is most commonly used in design and development teams but can be easily implemented and used in other teams as well. We tested it ourselves and it works!
Dual-track agile means there are two separate tracks of items. There is a “Delivery” track and a “Discovery” track. This method fits really well with OKRs and helps to plan what is needed to discover and then to deliver to bring in the results on set OKRs.
The Discovery Track is about finding out what is needed and what is the current situation. It can mean market research, gathering customer feedback, researching technological opportunities, and testing or bouncing new ideas. For a product, it might mean researching customer needs around the new possible feature they want to add, or in sales, it might mean doing new market research before deciding if it is worth it or not.
Some items might move to delivery after the discovery part is done. But not always, products might find out that the planned feature is not needed and sales can come to a conclusion that the new market opportunity is too small and risky.
The Delivery Track is where something goes into development or will be actioned upon. New features get built and sales will enter into the new market. In this stage, all the learnings and decisions made in the delivery stage will be used.
The Dual-Track methodology helps to see what can be expected soon and what needs to be thought through. Bigger projects and decisions should always go through the discovery phase before they enter into delivery.
Without separating those two tracks it might feel that people are constantly busy but nothing really gets delivered. Including Discovery helps to see what people are researching and when the research is done a decision should be made. It’s important to make sure that there is always something on the delivery track or really, nothing gets delivered.