Dual-Track Agile
Continuous discovery and delivery linked through evidence and outcomes.
Dual-Track Agile runs discovery and delivery in parallel. The discovery track tests assumptions and generates evidence about customer needs. The delivery track builds slices that are linked to that evidence. Work moves from opportunity to assumption to experiment to insight to story — each step grounded in what the team has actually learned. Delivery capacity is committed only after discovery validates an idea.
What it's for
Dual-Track Agile works well for product teams that need to validate opportunities before committing delivery capacity — teams running continuous product discovery alongside delivery, where the risk of building the wrong thing is significant and experiment time is cheaper than wasted engineering.
Work item types
| Type | Description |
|---|---|
| Opportunity | A customer need or desired outcome |
| Assumption | A belief that must be tested before building |
| Experiment | A test designed to produce evidence |
| Insight | Evidence produced by discovery |
| Story | A delivery slice linked to validated evidence |
| Bug | A defect to correct |
Opportunities sit at the root. Assumptions, experiments, and insights roll up into opportunities. Stories link to validated evidence. Bugs roll up into stories.
Workflow
The board uses five columns:
| Column | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Opportunities | Customer needs and desired outcomes, not yet in active discovery |
| Discovering | Active discovery work — testing assumptions and running experiments (WIP limit: 3) |
| Delivering | Active delivery of validated slices (WIP limit: 5) |
| Measuring | Shipped work being observed for outcome movement (WIP limit: 3) |
| Learned / Shipped | Discovery or delivery work that is complete |
Rituals
Skopo calls these Rituals in the sidebar for Dual-Track Agile projects.
| Ritual | When | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Product trio sync | Weekly | Align product, design, and engineering on the highest-risk opportunities |
| Opportunity review | Weekly | Prioritize customer needs and outcomes |
| Assumption mapping | As needed | Identify the riskiest beliefs before running experiments |
| Experiment review | Weekly | Review evidence and decide the next step |
| Discovery-delivery handoff | Weekly | Convert validated evidence into ready delivery slices |
| Delivery review | Regularly | Inspect shipped slices and outcome signals |
| Outcome review | Monthly | Check whether shipped work moved the selected product outcome |
Artifacts
- Opportunity — a customer need or desired outcome, tracked in the Opportunities view.
- Hypothesis — a testable statement linking an assumption to an expected outcome.
- Experiment result — the evidence produced by a completed experiment.
- Product outcome — the measurable change in customer or product behavior the team is trying to achieve.
Metrics
| Metric | What it measures |
|---|---|
| Experiment cycle time | Elapsed time from forming an assumption to having evidence |
| Evidence strength | Confidence behind the delivery decisions that flow from discovery |
| Outcome movement | Change in the selected product outcome over time |