Talk from Agile2013

1. Todd Olson
Where Rubber Hits the Road: Real-World Stories of Force
Ranking Stuff
Friday, August 9, 13

2. Who am I?
Todd Olson
• Founder pendo.io, Product
Management Consulting
• Former VP Product, Rally
Software
• VP Product Development,
TogetherSoft
• Other stuff...
• Developer
todd@pendo.io
@tolson
Friday, August 9, 13

3. Friday, August 9, 13

4. Friday, August 9, 13

5. 1.Have a consistent model.
2.Tie it to economics.
3.Measure & feedback.
Friday, August 9, 13

6. Friday, August 9, 13

7. I think
I know
from
to
Friday, August 9, 13

8. Need a proxy
Friday, August 9, 13

9. Simple Score
User/Business Value + Time Value + Opportunity Enablement/Risk Reduction
Size
Use relative sizing, 1 ≈ $XXX
Friday, August 9, 13

10. Not so simple values
User/Business Value + Time Value + Opportunity Enablement/Risk Reduction
Size
How
do I compute
this?
How can a
business person even
assess this?
Friday, August 9, 13

11. For some features,
time really matters...
Friday, August 9, 13

12. It’s about maximizing a company’s
investment.
Friday, August 9, 13

13. Imagine marketing an app for college sports....
Friday, August 9, 13

14. Opportunity Enablement & Risk Reduction
Ask good questions!
•Which stories/epics get easier with
this work?
•Does this change the skillsets we can
use going forward?
•Does this reduce the number of
(amount of time on) defects?
•How could this benefit customers or
partners?
Friday, August 9, 13

15. “2.0”
“Super”
“über”
“Master”
All code for scope creep and general scariness.
Friday, August 9, 13

16. User /
Business
Value
Friday, August 9, 13

17. But wait. Isn’t
user and business
value the same
thing?
Friday, August 9, 13

18. Customers pay for value.
They value what they use.
Generally :)
Friday, August 9, 13

19. Should I simply
ask them what they
use or value?
Friday, August 9, 13

20. Ship It
Measure It
Friday, August 9, 13

21. Friday, August 9, 13

22. When Office Online changed their rating system
from yes/no to 5 stars, they lost over 80% of
responses. It took eight months to detect, analyze,
and replace that version! If a metric drops by 3%,
the chances that anyone will discover it and start a
project to back out a feature they proudly launched
is miniscule.
Friday, August 9, 13

23. Users Buyers
not

24.
always

25.
the
same
Friday, August 9, 13

26. Example: Database Encryption
Friday, August 9, 13

27. Advertising-driven
Businesses
Users matter (eyeballs)
But what else?
Friday, August 9, 13

28. Lead
Generation
Lead
Qualification
Sales
Direct Response Marketing
PR Analyst Reports
Advertising
Trade shows
Cold Calls
Website visits
Telemarketing
Existing customers
Referrals
Initial call
Demonstration
Evaluation
Trial
Selling Enterprise Software
Friday, August 9, 13

29. Source: Gartner
Friday, August 9, 13

30. Sales is your friend
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31. Internal IT Projects
Making the engine run better
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32. Freemium?Friday, August 9, 13

33. User
Business
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34. Name Value Cost Weighted
Epic 1 27 18 1.5
Epic 2 10 5 2
Break things down
Friday, August 9, 13

35. Name Value Cost Weighted
Epic 1: Part 1 18 6 3
Epic 1: Part 2 5 8 0.625
Epic 1: Part 3 4 4 1
Epic 2 10 5 2
Break things down
Friday, August 9, 13

36. Neutralize
Differentiate
Optimize
Competitive Dynamics
Friday, August 9, 13

37. borrowed from G. Moore, Escape Velocity
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38. 10%
27%
63%
Horizon 1
Horizon 2
Horizon 3
5%
80%
15%
Customer Issues
Strategic
Research
13%
54%
33%
Neutralize
Differentiate
Optimize
Friday, August 9, 13

39. 10%
27%
63%
Horizon 1
Horizon 2
Horizon 3
Friday, August 9, 13

40. Friday, August 9, 13

41. 1.Have a consistent model.
2.Tie it to economics.
3.Measure feedback.
Friday, August 9, 13

42. Start Collecting Real Data
Friday, August 9, 13

43. Building Better Products.
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44. Friday, August 9, 13

45. If we have data, let's look at data.
If all we have are opinions, let's go
with mine.
Jim Barksdale, former CEO Netscape
Friday, August 9, 13

46. Thanks!
@tolson
Friday, August 9, 13