Product Managers, Product

Owners, and Scalable Agile

Product Teams

AgileCamp Dallas

19 Oct 2015

Rich Mironov

1

Agenda

1. Product Managers ≠ Product Owners

2. Failure Modes

3. Small and Large

Organizational Maps

2

Organizational Context

• “Product manager” is a job title

• “Product owner” is an agile team role

• Overlapping, but very different scope and skills

• One-per-scrum-team poor fit for commercial software

• Work needs to get done, regardless of title

3

What Does a Product Manager Do?

For revenue software…

• Drives delivery and market

acceptance of whole

products

• Targets market segments,

not individual customers

4

What Does a Product Manager Do?

market information, priorities,

requirements, roadmaps, epics,

user stories, backlogs,

personas, MRDs…

product

bits

strategy, forecasts,

commitments, roadmaps,

competitive intelligence…

budgets, staff,

targets

field input,

market feedback

segmentation, messages,

benefits/features, pricing,

qualification, demos…

Markets &

CustomersDevelopment Marketing

& Sales

Executives

Product

Management

5

Product Management: Inherently

Political

• Logic and facts are not enough

• HIPPO

• Sales teams paid to

subvert corporate goals

• Responsibility without authority

• Keep the process moving

6

What Product Hiring Managers Want

Tech product manager job postings

• 76% want 3+ years product

management experience

• 93% want excellent verbal and

written communication skills

• 68% want CS/EE

• 32% want MBAs

• 88% want experience in their

segment

7

Agile / Scrum8

Product

Backlog Features &

User Stories

Release

Backlog Features &

User Stories

Sprint

Backlog User Stories

Potentially

releasable

software

Software

release

Accepted

story

(“DONE”)

ReviewDemo,

feedback

RetrospectiveProcess

improvement

1 day

Daily

Standup

Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks

No changes in duration or goal

Release

planning

Sprint

planning

Charter Release

RetrospectiveProcess

improvement

N sprints

Product Failures9

Product

Backlog Features &

User Stories

Release

Backlog Features &

User Stories

Sprint

Backlog User Stories

Potentially

releasable

software

Software

release

Accepted

story

(“DONE”)

ReviewDemo,

feedback

RetrospectiveProcess

improvement

1 day

Daily

Standup

Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks

No changes in duration or goal

Release

planning

Sprint

planning

Charter Release

RetrospectiveProcess

improvement

N sprints

Most product failures

happen here

What does a Product Owner Do?

• “…represents the customer’s interest in backlog prioritization and requirements questions... available to the team at any time.”

• Provides intense sprint-level focus: stories, backlog, prioritization, acceptance

• One product owner per team, not per product

• Wins development admiration and inclusion

• Feeds the hungry agile beast

10

Feeding the Agile Beast

Steam engine

“fireman” needs to

constantly shovel coal,

otherwise the train will

stop

11

‘small p’ Product Owner12

backlog, priorities,

epics, user stories,

personas, demo feedback

Markets &

CustomersDevelopment Marketing

& Sales

Executives

Product

Owner

showcase

customersproduct

bits

PO/PM Scope13

Product

Backlog Features &

User Stories

Release

Backlog Features &

User Stories

Sprint

Backlog User Stories

Potentially

releasable

software

Software

release

Accepted

story

(“DONE”)

ReviewDemo,

feedback

RetrospectiveProcess

improvement

1 day

Daily

Standup

Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks

No changes in duration or goal

Release

planning

Sprint

planning

Charter Release

RetrospectiveProcess

improvement

N sprints

product manager focus

product owner focus

Product Manager Has More Levers

• Engineering Output• Product features

• Order of delivery

• Product / Market / Business Model• Pricing

• Competitive positioning

• Partners and Channels

• Services and Support

• Fit with corporate strategy

• Product split, merge or EOL

14

Productmanager

After: Greg Cohen

Product owner

Agenda

1. Product Managers ≠ Product Owners

2. Failure Modes

3. Small and Large

Organizational Maps

15

Absenteeism

• Teams with no formal product

owner/manager

• Short-term borrowing of untrained SMEs

• One product-somebody

per 3-10 teams

16

Product Management: Oversubscribed,

Overcommitted, Burning Out

• Most product management

teams already understaffed

• Product ownership adds

40-60% more critical work

• One product manager can

“do it all” for a single team

• But typical Dev:PM ratio is 35:1, not 10:1

17

How Development Organizations

Typically Pick Product Owners

• Internal borrowing

• SMEs with technical chops, story writing experience, “already know” the market

• No organizational blocking or market-side skills

• Belief in rational/unemotional/technical customers

• Slant toward smartest users

18

Product Management Failure Mode

Product Manager fails agile team

when…

• Part-timer, not engaged with team

• Stale backlog, lack of story detail

• Best of intentions, but pulled in

too many directions

• “Build what I meant”

19

Product Owner Failure Mode

Product Owner fails markets

when…

• Weak on marketplace: pricing,

packaging, selling, upgrades,

competition, priorities

• Disconnected from Marketing

and Sales

• Only meets showcase

customers

20

Organizational Failure Mode21

• Absent/understaffed product team

• Lack of market direction

• Technically complete

products that don’t sell

or projects that don’t matter

Agenda

1. Product Managers ≠ Product Owners

2. Failure Modes

3. Small and Large

Organizational Maps

22

Minimal PO/PM “Organization”23

VP or Founders

Heroic Single

Product Manager/Owner

more technical more market-focused

“management”

Dysfunctional PO/PM Organization24

VP Eng

Product

Owners

VP Marketing

Product

Managers

more technical more market-focused

“management”

PM/PO Product Peers25

PM Director/

Product Strategist

GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO

more technical more market-focused

“management”

PM/PO: Market Mentoring26

GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO

more technical more market-focused

“management”

90 Person Project (1 Product, 8

Teams)27

Product

Manage

rTEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

MTEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAMP

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

What Does Each Team Do?28

Product

Manage

r

HEADLINE FEATURES PERFORMANCE

RE-ARCH

DRIVERS &

CONNECTORSUX/UI

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

MTEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

TEAMP

O

S

M

TEAM

P

O

S

M

Right Product Owners?29

Lead

Prod

Manager

PERFORMANCE

RE-ARCH

DRIVERS &

CONNECTORSUX/UI

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

MTEAM

S

M

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

M

Produ

ct

Mgr?

HEADLINE FEATURES

TEAMS

M

UX

Lead?TME?

Two

Performan

ce

Architects

?

Wrong Product Owners!30

PERFORMANCE

RE-ARCH

DRIVERS &

CONNECTORSUX/UI

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

MTEAM

S

M

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

M

TEAMS

M

UX

Lead

HEADLINE FEATURES

TEAMS

M

TMEPerf

Arch

Product

Mgr

Lead

Prod

Manager

Delegating to Product Owners

• No cookie-cutter solution, no magic formula

• Varies with scope, teams, technical depth, skills…

• What is this team working on? Who brings right talent mix?

• Full-time owners, not borrowed 10%

• Solid or strong dotted line to product management

• Vigorous daily discussion among product team

• Product management keeps whole-product

responsibility

31

Takeaways

1. Must fully staff product owner roles

• Not a sideline, not an add-on, not an afterthought

2. On large projects, product managers are not

default product owners for every team

3. Need to thoughtfully select/hire/train POs and

PMs

4. IMHO, cookie-cutter assignments endanger

outcomes

32

Rich Mironov

Mironov Consulting

233 Franklin Street, Suite

308

San Francisco, CA 94102

33

/in/RichMironov

@RichMironov

Rich@Mironov.com

+1-650-315-7394