Agile Product Owners - What Ails Them?
-Anupam Kundu
A Short Story of Business and IT
Failed Products / Failed Companies
11-Sep-11 3
No Hiring Freeze!!!
11-Sep-11 4
Who is a Product Manager?
…who investigates,
selects and develop
one or more products one or more products
for an organization...
…Delivers more value
than the competition
…Creates a sustainable
competitive difference
…Creates a sustainable
competitive difference
…Generates business
benefit to the
organization
Wikipedia
World of Product Management
strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps,budgets, staff,
DevelopmentMktg &
Sales
Executives
Product
Management
market information, priorities,requirements, roadmaps, MRDs,
personas, user stories…
software
commitments, roadmaps,competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,targets
Field input,Market feedback
Markets &
Customers
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software
Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos…
Inspired from Rich Mironov, author of “The Art of Product Management”
Product Management in Large Tech Companies
Talks to
the Market
Builds the
Listens to
the Market
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Builds the
Product
“We are Agile”
Product Managers became Product Owners…who makes decisions about
what the product should do while taking into account what what the product should do while taking into account what
people who make buying decisions actually want... Jeff
Patton
• Assure team is pursuing a common vision
• Establish priorities to track business value
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• Establish priorities to track business value
• Act as ‘the customer’ for developer questions
• Work with product management to plan releases
• Plan, elaborate and accept user stories and iterations
Product Owner Attributes
•Subject Matter Expert– Understand the domain well
enough to envision a product
•Business Advocate
– Understand the needs of the organization paying for the enough to envision a product
•End-User Advocate– Describe the product with
understanding of users and use, and a product that best serves both
organization paying for the software and selects a mix of features that cater to their goals
•Communicator
– Capable of communicating vision and intent to the team and the stakeholders alike
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both
•Customer Advocate– Understand the needs of the
business buying the product and select a mix of features valuable to the customer
•Decision Maker
– Given a variety of conflicting goals and opinions be the final logical decision maker about what goes into a release
market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, wireframes,
personas, user stories
Holistic View of Product Management
personas, user stories
alpha launch, beta testing,
minimum viable product,
build know-how
monitoring and
ideas /
refinement
five whys, product
roadmap, forecast,
competitive intelligence,
Stakeholder inputs
Real-time monitoring,
alerts, funnel analysis,
pricing feedback,
segmentation
monitoring and
listening
analyze product-
market fit
refinement
Challenge#1: Product Owners’ Influence Spheres
PortfolioDivision level objectives and goals
Prioritized product road map
StrategyProduct roadmap and business strategy
Daily
ReleaseWhat business objectives will each release achieve?
What capabilities will the release offer?
Release plan
Product Business objectives fulfilled by the product
Product Vision
Product life cycle
road mapbusiness strategy
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Daily story backlogStory Details
Acceptance Tests
Sprint PlanningWhat stories must be included in the sprint to achieve release objectives?
Iteration Plan
Sprint velocity/capacity
Spheres of Influence Symptoms
Absentee Product Owner
-No clear product vision-No clear product vision
-Limited interaction and
showcases
-Too many conflicting
priorities
Challenge#2: Organizational Model & Culture
• Innovation & Risk taking• Innovation & Risk taking
• Stability & Control
• Attention to detail
• Outcome orientation
• People orientation
• Team orientation
Aggressiveness• Aggressiveness
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/primary-characteristics-of-organizational-culture.html
Organizational Culture Symptoms
Un-empowered Product
Owner
-Decisions are
overridden by other
departments and
individuals
-No power to influence
technology or staffing technology or staffing
choice
-This is the way things
get done around here
Challenge#3: Business Model Validation
Business Model Symptoms
•Limited or no engagement by the Product Owner with Strategy team
•Too many process / organizational hurdles to get buy-in•Too many process / organizational hurdles to get buy-in
•No clear product or release vision prepared or shared
•Absentee stakeholders
•Continually delayed launch dates
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•Extensive rework just before and after launch
Challenge#4: Arrogant PO
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Arrogant PO Symptoms
•Limited or no engagement with engineering team
•Too much hand-waving instead of accepting realities•Too much hand-waving instead of accepting realities
•No respect for any metric
•Public reversal of tactical team decisions
•Treats humans as machines
Connect the Challenges
Spheres of Influence
No Business Model Validation
Organizational Model
and Culture
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Arrogance and Ignorance
and Culture
Connect the Dots
Spheres of Influence
No Business Model Validation
Organizational Model
and Culture
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Arrogance and Ignorance
and Culture
Slow to move or change vs. Moving fast
Focus on process vs. Focus on outcome
Product Owners in large corporations vs. startups
Focus on process vs. Focus on outcome
Risk averseness vs. Risk adoption
Pass the buck vs. Yes, we can
Low participation vs. High-impact per personLow participation vs. High-impact per person
Lack of innovation “soul” vs. Pivoting ideas for new markets
Existing business models vs. Searching for new and repeatable oneswww.SteveBlank.com
No mentoring vs. Constant learning
Think
differently!
Blog.stackoverflow.com
Corporations getting back
into venture funding
-Start-ups
-Incubators
-Partner Ventures
http://www.mercurynews.com/busin
ess/ci_17630231
Examples
Spawn Entrepreneurial
Culture
-Value creation
through innovationthrough innovation
-Enough freedom to
fail and grow for
everyone
- Build leaders
Keep focus on business
value
-Continually balance
all stakeholder risks all stakeholder risks
against business
value
-Execute iteratively
and incrementallyand incrementally
- Use metric
intelligently
Build Cross-Functional
Product Teams
-Harness the
intelligence of the intelligence of the
whole team
-Align authority with
responsibility
- Align responsibility
with capability
Orchestrate, Don’t Manage
Product Centric Development Teams
“…high-performing class of “product-centric” development
teams that characteristically support their company’s value
chain, partner with both their customers and business
stakeholders, and own the business results that their
software delivers… “
Forrester Research on Product Centric Development
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Forrester Research on Product Centric Development
Interesting Trends
People-centred than process centred
Customer focused
Innovation inclinedInnovation inclined
Move fast
Respond to feedback
Self-organizing
High trust
Quality obsessedQuality obsessed
Collective Ownership
(sounds like Agile principles)
Good Reads
Questions??
Anupam Kundu Lead Consultant, ThoughtWorkswww.Linkedin.com/in/Anupam#mydibba
THANK YOU
#mydibba
Tale of Two Product Owners (http://bit.ly/fQMkXR)Plight of Product Owners(http://bit.ly/agileproductowners)2020 Best CIO Acceptance Speech2020 Best CIO Acceptance Speech(http://bit.ly/duxAgy)Product Road-mapping usingAgile Principles(http://bit.ly/abfM4X)
Image Courtesy
•Orchestrate, don’t manage (ThoughtWorks Studios)
•Build Cross-functional Teams (http://www.flickr.com/photos/activefree/137467210/)
•Spawn Entrepreneurial Culture (http://www.geoffsnyder.com/the-entrepreneurial-rift)
•Business Model Image (Jason Furnell, ThoughtWorks) / Alexander Osterwalder:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas
•Organizational Culture Symptoms (http://www.blacktomato.co.uk/44035/taiwan-art/)
•Focus on Business Value (Life Magazine Photography)
•Big Corporations Funding Start-ups (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nichollsphotos/2906834393/)
•Lean Start-up Book (www.theleanstartup.com)
•Arrogant Bastard Ale (http://sandiegopho.com/menus/beers.html)
•Challenge#2:Organization Culture (http://www.designofsignage.com/application/symbol/hands/largesymbols/number-
seven-7.html)
•Changing Perspectives (http://www.productmarketing.com/productmarketing/magazine/1/2/07sj.asp)
• Think Differently (http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/07/stack-overflow-private-beta-begins/)