Dual-track agile
Dual-track agile (sometimes called dual-track discovery and delivery) is a product-development model, codified by Marty Cagan and Jeff Patton, that runs two parallel workstreams: a discovery track that validates which problems are worth solving and what solutions will work, and a delivery track that builds the validated solutions. The product trio (PM, design, engineering) staffs both tracks continuously.
The model exists to fix the failure mode of single-track agile: engineers build whatever the backlog says, the team ships features that don't move the metric, then everyone wonders why retention didn't change. Discovery in dual-track is continuous — user research, prototype testing, opportunity-solution trees — not a one-time 'requirements phase'. Delivery is normal sprint-based execution but only against opportunities that discovery has validated. The model assumes a product trio with real authority; it fails in organisations where 'discovery' is a checkbox before a pre-decided feature gets built. Pairs naturally with continuous discovery practices (Teresa Torres) and opportunity-solution trees.
Related terms
- Jobs-to-be-done
Jobs-to-be-done (JTBD) is a product-discovery framework, popularised by Clayton Christensen, that frames features in terms of the 'job' a customer is hiring the product to do — the underlying outcome they want — rather than demographic personas or feature lists.
- User-story mapping
User-story mapping, formalised by Jeff Patton in his 2014 book of the same name, is a workshop technique for organising product backlogs around the user's journey rather than as a flat list.