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

11-Sep-11 6

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

11-Sep-11 7

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

11-Sep-11 8

• 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

11-Sep-11 9

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

11-Sep-11 20

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/)