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Edit publication Agile ME 2017 - Speak: Pimp My Agile
publication titleAgile ME 2017 - Speak: Pimp My Agile
publication dateMar 18, 2017 publication descriptionAgile ME 2017
publication descriptionPowerpoint from my speak at Agile ME 2017, about how to optimize your agile process, by having an agile approach to your process as well as your product.
See publication Agile ME 2017 - Speak: Pimp My AgileSee publication
Edit publication Agile ME 2017 - Speak: Product Ownership - A shared sport!
publication titleAgile ME 2017 - Speak: Product Ownership - A shared sport!
publication dateMar 18, 2017 publication descriptionAgile ME 2017
publication description'Product Ownership' is a multi-faceted complex function that gets more and more challenging with additional variables; product industry/project nature, market drivers, technology and functionality being examples of external variables; while distributed teams, team structure and team size being internal variables- to name a few. 'Product Ownership' function is expected to be carried out by Product Owner. In reality it becomes a shared sport of disparate stakeholders. While PO controls and drives priorities and scope, he/she highly depends on team members for effective/efficient decision making across the product/project. In this interactive talk, we will elicit audience's understanding of this function and will try to explore what skillset(s) is/are critical to ensure the success for this function.
4. Two Examples of a Product Owner
Mirza Asfaar Baig Rasmus Runberg
• Product Owner at Teletronics
• +10 years of project experience
• Product Dev & Agile Consultant
• 10 years of experience
12. Expectations
Create a shared vision and
helps builds consensus
The one person ultimately
responsible for the return on
investment (ROI)
Must have a firm understanding
of the business domain
Be able to prioritize work based
on business values
Liaison between the
stakeholders (Dev Team,
clients, management etc.)
• Value thinking
• Analytical skills
• Trust building
• Facilitation
• Decision making
• Leadership & alignment
• Communication at all levels
and Skills
13. It’s a shared sport …
In order to succeed as a
Product Owner, it is
essential that he/she utilize
the entire business
PO
SM
Market
Trends
Org.
Customer
Dev
Team
Other
PO’s
Partners
Luckily the PO Isn’t Alone
14. Other factors that will affect the PO
• The organization size and culture
• Size of the product
• Stage of product (lifecycle)
16. PO Functions
Product Functions
• Ownership
• Prioritization
• Value Delivery
Behavioral Functions
• Enactment of Agile framework
• Enactment of Agile values
• Team Empowerment (forget “cover-your-ass” games)
17. • Collaboration!
• Only by standing together and utilizing skills from the development teams,
the organization, the clients etc. the PO will stand a chance
• The Product Owner should see himself more as a facilitator, that ensures
things get done, and dots are connected, rather than the single entity
(single point of failure) that has to do it all
• Value-driven
• Focusing on the vision and the value to deliver, by asking “why” and
telling “what” and “when” - Never “how”!
• Delivery-driven
Mindset of a Successful PO
18. So can you truly be a PO if you’re not empowered?
(Being the Product CEO)?
Question for the audience …
Are you as a PO ready to be the
fire of your product?
Editor's Notes
Rasmus:
Ice breaker: General idea is to get someone from the audience to talk about their understanding of being a product owner, so if someone says “I am”, we will ask about his or hers current role.
If no one is a product owner, we can ask if someone can tell us what they believe a product owner is.
This will also give us an insight into the level of experience in the audience.
Mirza:
We can also set expectations out of this session at this stage: PO is a role, PO’ship is a function
Expectation:
Our talk is a holistic view of PO’ship, that can’t cover all elements of PO’ship. It is a good start to look at the immensity of the role and functions, as it is a very complex function that depends on myriad of factors; Size of the product, stage of the product, size of organization – to name a few.
Rasmus:
Introducing ourselves as Product Owners, but at the same time focusing on our differences. Even though we have the same title and same mindset I believe we are very different. This could be due to our experience, our organizations, scrum teams, culture etc.
Hopefully we can show that there isn’t 1 fit to rule them all – even as a Product Owner you need to be agile.
Mirza:
I believe it is a good point to let them know that there is no “standard version” of the PO, but there are guidelines (as we will see during today’s talk). This is the base of “Agile Mindset” as it allows the function take the shape according to the context and constraints and let it evolve into its best version.
Rasmus:
Ice breaker: General idea is to get someone from the audience to talk about their understanding of being a product owner, so if someone says “I am”, we will ask about his or hers current role.
If no one is a product owner, we can ask if someone can tell us what they believe a product owner is.
This will also give us an insight into the level of experience in the audience.
Mirza:
Perfect!
The “SCRUM” definition of a Product Owner is very simple!
But rarely the setup is that simple.
There are usually more than one client
And at one point you might to scale your development with more teams
The company might scale as well, so there’s a sales department with input from market, and management that request some strategic value
Finally we shouldn’t forget that the teams are stakeholders as well with their technical “know-how” and new technologies and trends from the world should be taken into consideration as well
And there might be more stakeholders?
On top of tall this, even the organization needs to be considered. With every organization comes politics, that the Product Owner needs to be able to navigate.
Question to the audience:
And there might be more stakeholders?
Letting the audience add stakeholders will add to the story of a complex reality.
The simplified view of a Product Owner in SCRUM doesn’t match reality – Reality is far more complex. That’s why we need some additional tools.
The “SCRUM” definition of a Product Owner is very simple!
But rarely the setup is that simple.
There are usually more than one client
And at one point you might to scale your development with more teams
The company might scale as well, so there’s a sales department with input from market, and management that request some strategic value
Finally we shouldn’t forget that the teams are stakeholders as well with their technical “know-how” and new technologies and trends from the world should be taken into consideration as well
And there might be more stakeholders?
On top of tall this, even the organization needs to be considered. With every organization comes politics, that the Product Owner needs to be able to navigate.
Question to the audience:
And there might be more stakeholders?
Letting the audience add stakeholders will add to the story of a complex reality.
The simplified view of a Product Owner in SCRUM doesn’t match reality – Reality is far more complex. That’s why we need some additional tools.
The “SCRUM” definition of a Product Owner is very simple!
But rarely the setup is that simple.
There are usually more than one client
And at one point you might to scale your development with more teams
The company might scale as well, so there’s a sales department with input from market, and management that request some strategic value
Finally we shouldn’t forget that the teams are stakeholders as well with their technical “know-how” and new technologies and trends from the world should be taken into consideration as well
And there might be more stakeholders?
On top of tall this, even the organization needs to be considered. With every organization comes politics, that the Product Owner needs to be able to navigate.
Question to the audience:
And there might be more stakeholders?
Letting the audience add stakeholders will add to the story of a complex reality.
The simplified view of a Product Owner in SCRUM doesn’t match reality – Reality is far more complex. That’s why we need some additional tools.
The “SCRUM” definition of a Product Owner is very simple!
But rarely the setup is that simple.
There are usually more than one client
And at one point you might to scale your development with more teams
The company might scale as well, so there’s a sales department with input from market, and management that request some strategic value
Finally we shouldn’t forget that the teams are stakeholders as well with their technical “know-how” and new technologies and trends from the world should be taken into consideration as well
And there might be more stakeholders?
On top of tall this, even the organization needs to be considered. With every organization comes politics, that the Product Owner needs to be able to navigate.
Question to the audience:
And there might be more stakeholders?
Letting the audience add stakeholders will add to the story of a complex reality.
The simplified view of a Product Owner in SCRUM doesn’t match reality – Reality is far more complex. That’s why we need some additional tools.
The “SCRUM” definition of a Product Owner is very simple!
But rarely the setup is that simple.
There are usually more than one client
And at one point you might to scale your development with more teams
The company might scale as well, so there’s a sales department with input from market, and management that request some strategic value
Finally we shouldn’t forget that the teams are stakeholders as well with their technical “know-how” and new technologies and trends from the world should be taken into consideration as well
And there might be more stakeholders?
On top of tall this, even the organization needs to be considered. With every organization comes politics, that the Product Owner needs to be able to navigate.
Question to the audience:
And there might be more stakeholders?
Letting the audience add stakeholders will add to the story of a complex reality.
The simplified view of a Product Owner in SCRUM doesn’t match reality – Reality is far more complex. That’s why we need some additional tools.
The “SCRUM” definition of a Product Owner is very simple!
But rarely the setup is that simple.
There are usually more than one client
And at one point you might to scale your development with more teams
The company might scale as well, so there’s a sales department with input from market, and management that request some strategic value
Finally we shouldn’t forget that the teams are stakeholders as well with their technical “know-how” and new technologies and trends from the world should be taken into consideration as well
And there might be more stakeholders?
On top of tall this, even the organization needs to be considered. With every organization comes politics, that the Product Owner needs to be able to navigate.
Question to the audience:
And there might be more stakeholders?
Letting the audience add stakeholders will add to the story of a complex reality.
The simplified view of a Product Owner in SCRUM doesn’t match reality – Reality is far more complex. That’s why we need some additional tools.
Pointing out that the the expectations are high - the requirements are high - the responsibility are high and the level of interactions are high … So the PO can only succeed if he share the loads.
In previous slides we have set the scene, explaining the common situation for a PO. Now we need to move towards solution. By collaborating with his surroundings the PO can actually succeed.
Mirza:
If he won’t share, how can he bring out the best in people.
Steve Jobs once said, "It doesn't make sense to hire smart people and then tell them what to do
(Let’s call this slide “OCTOPUS SLIDE”)s
Mirza:
We can start this slide as:
“So, summarizing what we have seen so far, PO functions are: ….”
Alignment / Questions:
So how do we see the successful PO?
Collaboration is key. ABSOLUTELY
Focusing on value. ABSOLUTELY – By this, I also believe we say that he should NOT focus on solutions, tech, management etc.
I’m unsure what you mean by delivery driven. By constant deliveries we get quick feedback, in order for us to re-evaluate. That is the key of being agile! – But is that something we will put on PO shoulders?
Should we add a slide saying what he shouldn’t do? . (Mirza: Lets keep it open, if we find time we can discuss. No issues)
MIRZA:
Value-driven means “selecting the right thing to develop – prioritization”. (What to develop)
Delivery-driven means “selecting the right time to deliver – as per product roadmap”. The PO may or may not opt to deliver features every sprint or two sprints. It depends on his/her depth of understanding of the market and competition etc. (When to deliver)
He knows “what” to deliver and “when”.
Rasmus:
I like the idea of asking questions. Opening the debate a bit, making it easier for the audience to ask their own questions. But I’m unsure of these two questions. Actually I might answer no to both of them, and I do not think that is what you had expected.
Why I might answer no:
CEO is a very loaded word. It’s a manager role, and to me it implies that the PO is on top.
True entrepreneur at heart I mostly agree with, but what about product maintenance, and old products . (Mirza: Fully agreed)
