Dual-Track Agile Template for Agile Teams

A common split is 20-30% discovery and 70-80% delivery. In practice, the PM and designer spend more time on discovery (40-60% of their week), while engineers spend most time on delivery with 1-2 hours per week on discovery reviews and feasibility checks. The exact split depends on how much uncertainty your product faces. New products need more discovery. Mature products with clear roadmaps need less.

Yes, but the "tracks" are more like time blocks than parallel streams. The PM runs 2-3 interviews per week and shapes solutions in mornings. The team builds in sprints during the rest of the week. The key principle remains: validate before you build, even if one person is doing both.

Discovery runs continuously outside of sprint boundaries. Delivery follows standard Scrum ceremonies (planning, standups, reviews, retros). The connection point is the shared backlog: discovery produces validated, estimated items that delivery pulls into sprint planning. Add a weekly "discovery review" ceremony where the PM shares findings and the team discusses what is ready for delivery.

This is the most common challenge. Handle it by making the handoff criteria non-negotiable. If a stakeholder wants a feature built, it goes through discovery first. Frame it as de-risking: "We want to make sure we build this the right way. Give us one week to validate the approach." Most stakeholders prefer a one-week delay over a three-month build that misses the mark. For more on managing stakeholder expectations, see the [Stakeholder Management Handbook](/stakeholder-guide).