Product Owner is role in agile product development, which secure commercial success of product or service. It makes it very critical.

1. New Profession - Product Owner
Agilia Conference 2012, Brno

2. How we wants to achieve Agile?
Its about change in the organization!
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3. How we wants to achieve Agile?
Its all about Business
Its about changeOutcome Matter
Business in the organization!
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 3

4. Paradigm change
Quality • Scope (Fixed)
Scope
• Budget (Resources)
• Deadline
Budget Deadline
(Resources)
• Quality
RISK: Transferred to Vendor
(Customer who pays must be happy!)
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 4

5. Paradigm change Can be project successfull?
Quality
Scope
Budget Deadline
(Resources) Absolutelly!
In Time – In Budget
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 5

6. Paradigm change
Quality Scope
Scope
Budget Deadline Value Estimation +
(Resources) (Importance) Planning
Business RISK: Shared between Vendor and Customer
(User (who use) must be happy !)
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 6

7. Paradigm change
Quality Scope
Scope
Product Owner
Budget Deadline Value Estimation +
(Resources) (Importance) Planning
Business RISK: Shared between Vendor and Customer
(User (who use) must be happy !)
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 7

8. Traditional product management
Product
Marketing
Management
• Vision • Product Design
• Market Analysis
• Segmentation • Technical
• Marketing Strategy & Specifications
Communication
• Competition Assessment • Features
• Sales Strategy
• Pricing • Usability
• Distribution
• ......
Various
Stakeholders
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 8

9. Who is the Product Owner?
Product
Marketing
Management
Product
Owner
Commercial success of the product (service) - ROI
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 9

10. Who is Product Owner?
 New role
 The one who has the money
 A man with a Vision – product / service
Target segment of customers – for whom is the product
Business – how to make money on product
Marketing – how to market and sell the product
Functionality – minimal marketable feature, technical concept, usability
 Entrepreneur / Intrapreneur
 Customer Voice? Not Really. Its a customer himself.
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 10

11. What Product Owner does?
In General Agile approach
Analyze market/users needs
Defines Product Vision and Boundaries (time or DL, costs, resources, technology)
Prepares requirements and prioritize them
Convince development team about product – motivates people
PO collaborate with production team
Provides feedback to the team – based on many inputs
Is available to production team
Coordinates works of supporting members
In Scrum Team
Creates and owns Product Backlog
Attends Planning and Review meetings
Defines product iterations and accepts results
Doing decisions go/no go
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 11

12. When role of Product Owner begins?
Project Hidden Phase
Sprint 0
Inception Production Commissioning
Inception:
• Vision of the project - Ideation
• Bring stakeholders to agreement around vision
• Align with enterprise direction
• Identify initial technical strategy, initial requirements
• Form initial team
• Secure funding
• Identify risks
• Product Owner – Definition Business Plan / Stakeholders
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13. Product Owner – One person?
Product Owner is One person – not a committee.
It means PO has authority to make final decision.
According to context - may have support team
Product Product
Owner Owner
Product Architecture Analyst
Marketing Champion
Product
Owner Team 1 Team 2 Team 3 Team n
Team
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14. Product Owner – Responsibilities
Role of Product Owner (the one, who has money) Attributes of Product Owner
 Provides product Vision and Boundaries. Available – daily available to the
 Responsible for product profitability (ROI). team or directly engaged to
selected activities.
 Responsible for product strategy (product marketing)
Business-savvy – good knowledge
and tactic (design). of customers, users, market
 Defines product requirements. Defines road-map conditions, etc. Knowledge
gained by years of practice.
of product development. Communicative – regularly
 Is available to the team – 20% of time – collaborates. communicates with
stakeholders...
 Gives team product vision (why), shares it and actualize.
Decisive – capable to make
 Sets priorities. Accept or reject results. decision and be accountable for
 Is ready to discuss changes. its decision.
Empowered – is high enough in
 Manages Stakeholders. the organization so nobody
overrides its decisions.
Characteristics of PO Mike Cohn – Succeeding with Agile.
 Visionary and a action man.
 Leader and team player.
 Communicator and negotiator. Note: Full-time job.
 Is competent and engaged.
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 14

15. Product Owner – Required Knowledge
 Business Domain Knowledge
 Years of Experience („Seasoned Veteran“)
 Product Knowledge
 Based on Vision, Based on existing product
 Leadership Skills
 Training and Practice
 Communication Skills
 Training and Practice
 Entrepreneurial skills
 Business School, Training, Environment, Nurturing
Product Owner cannot be outsourced !!!
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 15

16. Where is the place in VC for Product Owner?
Type 3 Type 4
Type 5 Type 6
Type 1 Type 2 Custom Custom
R & D (innovative Government
Mass market Mass market development development
project) project
(web) (product)
Enterprise /
Manufacturer
Customer Type Enterprise Enterprise Manufacturer Enterprise Government office
(Internal)
(internal use)
Limited number Too many Too many / Small Application users User group enforced
User Type User segment group
(agents) (consumer) (B2B) (limited number) by legislation
Consumers (small Requirements Electronic mail box /
Example Facebook, Ebay Corporate web site New product
cms system/utility) tracking software biometric passport
Project Size Small Large Medium - Small Medium - Large Medium to large Medium to large
Manufacturer - Manufacturer -
Product Vision Customer Customer Individual Lobbing group
Business Idea Business Idea
Requirements
Manufacturer Customer Customer Customer Individual Manufacturer
/Spec.
Customer /
Business risk owner Manufacturer Customer Customer Manufacturer Government
Manufacturer
Business risk High High Medium Medium - Low Very high Very low
Small steps
(features) / Rapid Small steps Sprints - Sprints -
Mitigation feedback (single (features) / Rapid Sprints communication with communication with None
feature, readiness to feedback pool of test users pool of test users
roll back)
N/A. Alternative: N/A. Alternative:
Direct Rapid feedback Rapid feedback
One - to - One One - to - Few One - to - Few None
Communication channel (web), channel (web),
group of test users group of test users
Prod.Management –
Intrapreneur / Intrapreneur / Marketing -
Product Owner Manufacturer / Intrapreneur N/A or PM
Visionary leader Visionary leader customer side
Department cust.
PO Team size None or Little Medium One or small One or small One or small One or None
Source: Michal Vallo, Aguarra
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 16

17. Mass Market – Manufacturer
Product Vision:
Manufacturer –
business idea
User type:
Limited number
(agents)
Risk: High
Product Owner:
Intrapreneur –
visionary leader
PO Type:
Internal
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 17

18. Mass Market - Enterprise
Product Vision:
Manufacturer –
business idea
User type:
Too many (consumer)
Risk: High
Product Owner:
Intrapreneur –
visionary leader
PO Type:
Internal
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 18

19. Custom development - web
Product Vision:
Customer
User type:
Too many / small
(B2B)
Risk: Medium
Product Owner:
Marketing – customer
side
PO Type:
External
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 19

20. Custom development - Product
Product Vision:
Customer
User type:
Application users
(limited number)
Risk: Medium
Product Owner:
Prod.Management –
Manufacturer /
Department cust.
PO Type:
External / Internal
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 20

21. R & D – Innovative product
Product Vision:
Individual person
User type:
User segment group
Risk: Very high
Product Owner:
Intrapreneur
PO Type:
Internal
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 21

22. Government project
Product Vision:
Lobbing group
User type:
Enforced by
legislation
Risk: Very low
Product Owner:
n/a or Project
Manager
PO Type:
n/a, External is
better
IMPLEMENTING AGILITY
PROBLEMATIC OR NOT
POSSIBLE
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 22

23. Where in the arrangements is Product Owner
Type 3 Type 4 Type 5
Type 6
Type 1 Type 2 Custom Custom R&D
Government
Mass market Mass market development development (innovative
project
(web) (product) project)
Enterprise /
Manufacturer Government
Customer type Enterprise Enterprise Manufacturer Enterprise
(Internal) office
(internal use)
Application User group
Limited number Too many Too many / User segment
User type users (limited enforced by
(agents) (consumer) Small (B2B) group
number) legislation
Consumers Requirements Electronic mail
Corporate web
Example (small cms Facebook, Ebay tracking New product box / biometric
site
system/utility) software passport
Product
Product Intrapreneur / Intrapreneur / Marketing -
Management - Intrapreneur N/A or PM
Owner Visionary leader Visionary leader customer side
Manufacturer
Internal vs External/Inter N/A (external
Internal Internal External Internal
External nal is better)
Product Owner is right where business value is created.
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 23

24. Typical problems - selection
 No Product Owner at all
 Unempowered Product Owner
 PO as an administrator
 Committee
 Incompetent Product Owner
 Wrong person
 Lack of skills, visionary and leadership
 Lack of experience in Agile development
 Lack of personal interest
 Lack of communication with the team
 No product vision & strategy
 Product Owner Proxy
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 24

25. Summary
Product Owner
 Is (most) important role
 Is entrepreneurial business role – principal goal is to create
commercially successfull product / service
 Requires:
1. Experience
2. Knowledge (Business Domain)
3. Courage
 PO has to be trained
 PO is one person (who may represent small team)
(c) Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 25

26. Recommended reading
Books
 Agile Product Management with Scrum, Roman Pichler, Addison
Wesley, 2010
 Leading Lean Software Development – Results are not the
point, Poppendiecks, Addison Wesley, 2009
 Agile Excellence for Product Managers: A Guide to Creating Winning
Products with Agile Development Teams, Greg Kohen, 2010
 The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous
Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses, Eric Ries, 2011
 Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love, Marty Kagan, 2008
Articles
The New New Product Development Game – Hirotaka Takeuchi, Ikujiro Nonaka, Harward Business
Review, 1986
Webs
Scrum Alliance (www.scrumalliance.org), Scrum (www.scrum.org), Agilia (www.agilia.cz)
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 26

27. Thank you
Ing. Michal Vallo, MBA, CSP
Tel. +420 604 226 125
E-mail: mvallo@aguarra.cz
www.aguarra.cz
@aguarrawolf
Aguarra, s.r.o., Lisabonská 2394/4, 190 00 Praha 9, www.aguarra.cz 27