What is Dual-Track Agile?
An operating pattern where a product team runs discovery and delivery in parallel tracks instead of sequencing them.
Coined by Marty Cagan and popularized by Jeff Patton, dual-track agile separates the work of figuring out what to build (discovery) from the work of building it (delivery). The two tracks share the same trio but operate on different cadences: discovery moves in days and small experiments, delivery moves in sprints. The point isn't the tooling — it's that discovery is continuous, not a phase. When discovery stops, the backlog turns into a wishlist and delivery degenerates into feature factory mode.
Related terms
Continuous Discovery
The practice of weekly customer touchpoints by the product trio to keep insights flowing into prioritization decisions.
Product Trio
The three-person collaboration model — Product Manager, Designer, Engineering Lead — that owns discovery and delivery for a product area.
Product Discovery
The structured work of figuring out what to build by validating customer problems and solution assumptions before delivery.
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