Agile content models better address audience wants and needs - O'Reilly Radar
Think iteratively rather than linearly: The current content development process assumes we know exactly what the audience wants. With agile, you iteratively develop (and release) the content to your customers, further tailoring it to their needs each step along the way. [Discussed at the 2:47 mark.] Agile allows for plenty of uncertainties: Agile methodologies assume that you don't necessarily know who your audience is, or perhaps more importantly, that you don't know what their true needs are. [Discussed at 6:05.] Leading indicators trump lagging indicators: So many decisions in publishing are based on lagging indicators, such as sell-through data and comparable title performance. Agile lets you flip that around and work more with leading indicators rather than lagging ones. [Discussed at 13:40 and a bit further at 19:00.] Agile may not work for every format: As McLean notes, some authors just need to go off to an island and write the entire book. That said, it's probably viable for more genres than you think. [Discussed at 17:55.] Large companies beware ...: There's a reason why startups are easily able to adopt agile methods and part of this has to do with the need for a flattened organization. [Discussed at 25:38.] Agile transformation must come from the top down, not from the bottom up: A visionary leader who truly buys into the approach is required. [Discussed at 32:08.] Quality is measured differently in early release stages: Publishers tend to focus on the final product that's been copyedited and proofread, but minimum viable products are often rough around the edges. [Discussed at 33:08.]
Taking an agile approach to content development is a challenge. Bookigee is engaging with it. For the full video click the via above and scroll down.
Online training courses tend to be more granular than books. A course might have around 1/5 the scope of a tech book on the same topic, for example. This might make it more suited to an Agile approach even without iterative releases.