Profit is Sustainable Value, Part 2

Sustainable solutions deliver business value, systematically.

We’ve established in Part 1 of "Profit is Sustainable Value" that the Agile domain tends to view value through an upstream lense, with an understandable heavy consideration for customer benefits.

This brought the notion of viability into the spotlight. A viable product means that it works for the business which provides it. Viability is a sensible additional dimension in product thinking, especially since the Agile domain in the past has put too much emphasis on the delivery angle of product development. However, it still only offers a static perspective on product development. More crucially, there is ambiguity whether viability is an additional consideration, or rather the result of achieving a useable, feasible and valuable solution.

Enter solution sustainability, powered by Profit

Sustainable solutions deliver business value, systematically.

We’ll all agree that competing in the software industry is not a one-off game where victory is declared at product launch. The Software Profit Streams™ framework gravitates around the practical necessity of providing sustainable solutions over time and under dynamic market conditions. Solutions are sustainable if they earn a profit, passing the test of time!

The key insight here is that sustainable businesses must use a variety of models, frameworks and maps to navigate complex challenges such as business model design, pricing, licensing, feature prioritization, exploiting emerging technology or assessing the impact of external forces onto their solutions. Profit Streams™ leverages design thinking to map all these interdependent choices on an ongoing basis, as multiple provider and product variables are constantly battle tested in the marketplace with fierce competition, ever-changing customer needs and accelerating technologies. We’ll unpack the dimensions of solution sustainability in Part 3 →