Introducing Orbit
Introducing Orbit
An Agile Approach for Better, Focused, Adaptive Product Development
About the Book
Modern product teams are under pressure to move fast, stay aligned, and deliver value, all while navigating constant change. The Agile movement, once a response to rigid bureaucracy, has too often become its own set of rituals and checklists, disconnected from the messy, creative reality of building great products.
We sit in planning meetings trying to guess timelines we can’t predict. We ship features that don’t solve real problems. We confuse speed with progress. Teams burn out delivering work they don’t believe in or can’t explain.
Orbit emerged not as a replacement for the Agile movement, but as a response to its stagnation. It’s an attempt to re-center our work around what matters most: shared understanding, thoughtful alignment, and purposeful delivery. Orbit is not a magic process. It’s not a playbook you follow blindly. It’s a set of principles and practices designed to help teams focus, adapt, and work together with clarity, especially when the path ahead is uncertain.
This document doesn’t promise silver bullets. It offers questions, patterns, and tools to help you and your team think more clearly about the work you’re doing, and why you’re doing it. Orbit is here to support honest conversations, not suppress them. To embrace complexity, not ignore it. To turn reflection into routine and learning into leverage.
The chapters ahead introduce Orbit’s structure, vocabulary, and practices. But more importantly, they invite you to reconsider how you define progress, and what kind of team you want to be in while pursuing it.
If you’ve ever felt like your team is going through the motions, building fast but not wisely, or stuck between process and purpose, this is for you.
MASOUD BAHRAMI
About the Author
Table of Contents
Contents
- About the Author 10
- Introduction 11
I. Foundations and Philosophy
- Flow of Decision 13
- 1.1. The What, When, Depth Triangle 14
- What, Choosing the Right Thing 14
- When, Choosing the Right Moment 15
- Depth, Choosing How Far to Go 15
- 1.2. Flow of Decision 16
- The Top-Down Flow: When the CEO Has a Vision (Again) 16
- The QA Flow: When Quality Becomes a Religion 17
- The Marketing Flow: When the Hype Train Has No Brakes 18
- The PM Flow: When the Backlog Becomes the Bible 18
- The Dream Team: When Everyone Orbits the User 19
- 1.3. The Social-Rank Trap 21
- 1.4. The Core Challenge: Ambiguity in Product Development 21
- 1.5. What is Orbit? 22
- 1.6. What Orbit Is Not 23
- 1.7. The Imperative of Shared Understanding and Clarity in Product Development 24
- 1.8. Human-Centric Approach: The Power of Layered Understanding 25
- Philosophical Pillars and Core Principles of Orbit 27
- 2.1. Philosophy: What Does Orbit Believe In? 27
- 2.2. The Pillars of Orbit 28
- 2.3. Fundamental Principles of Orbit 29
- 2.4. Core Values of Orbit 30
- Relationship with Agile Methodologies and Project Management 32
- 3.1. Orbit as a Complementary Framework 32
- 3.2. Integrating with Scrum, Kanban, and Other Approaches 33
- Scrum 33
- Kanban 34
- Other Methodologies 34
- Orbit vs. Traditional Approaches: Why This Method Is More Collaborative and Effective 35
- 4.1. Beyond Fragmented Planning: Orbit's Holistic View 35
- 4.2. Proactive Ambiguity Management 36
- 4.3. Enabling True Cross-Functional Collaboration 37
- 4.4. Complexity Over Arbitrary Timelines 38
II. Core Mechanics of Orbit
- Orbit Product Development Process Flow 40
- Phase 1: Defining & Mapping (Upfront Clarity) 40
- Phase 2: Focus Cycles (Execution & Continuous Learning) 42
- Phase 3: Adaptive Forecasting & Communication (Informed Planning) 44
III. Practices and Behaviors
- Core Practices and Team Behaviors in Orbit 67
- Orbit Practice Loop: Turning Principles into Action 70
IV. Application and Facilitation
- Problem Focus/Flow Map 77
- Running Problem Flow Map Workshop 81
- Real-World Examples 86
- Scaling Orbit for Bigger Products and Organizations 92
- Common Roadblocks When Implementing Orbit 95
- Potential Team Pushback and How to Address It 99
V. Reflection, Adoption & Support
- Strengths and Weaknesses of Orbit 103
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) 107
- Wrap-up: Orbit in Action 109
The Leanpub 60 Day 100% Happiness Guarantee
Within 60 days of purchase you can get a 100% refund on any Leanpub purchase, in two clicks.
Now, this is technically risky for us, since you'll have the book or course files either way. But we're so confident in our products and services, and in our authors and readers, that we're happy to offer a full money back guarantee for everything we sell.
You can only find out how good something is by trying it, and because of our 100% money back guarantee there's literally no risk to do so!
So, there's no reason not to click the Add to Cart button, is there?
See full terms...
Earn $8 on a $10 Purchase, and $16 on a $20 Purchase
We pay 80% royalties on purchases of $7.99 or more, and 80% royalties minus a 50 cent flat fee on purchases between $0.99 and $7.98. You earn $8 on a $10 sale, and $16 on a $20 sale. So, if we sell 5000 non-refunded copies of your book for $20, you'll earn $80,000.
(Yes, some authors have already earned much more than that on Leanpub.)
In fact, authors have earnedover $14 millionwriting, publishing and selling on Leanpub.
Learn more about writing on Leanpub
Free Updates. DRM Free.
If you buy a Leanpub book, you get free updates for as long as the author updates the book! Many authors use Leanpub to publish their books in-progress, while they are writing them. All readers get free updates, regardless of when they bought the book or how much they paid (including free).
Most Leanpub books are available in PDF (for computers) and EPUB (for phones, tablets and Kindle). The formats that a book includes are shown at the top right corner of this page.
Finally, Leanpub books don't have any DRM copy-protection nonsense, so you can easily read them on any supported device.
Learn more about Leanpub's ebook formats and where to read them
