scaling up product manager/product owner organizations

Product Managers, Product Owners, and Scalable Models for

Agile Product Teams

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© 2014. This presentation and all derivative works copyright Rich Mironov | mironov.com

About Rich Mironov

•  Veteran product manager/exec/strategist •  Business models, agile, organizing product teams

•  6 startups as “product guy” or CEO •  Ran first Product Camp, first agile

product manager/owner tracks

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Agenda

1.  Product Managers ≠ Product Owners 2.  Failure Modes 3.  Small and Large

Organizational Maps

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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” does not match complexity of

large-scale commercial software •  Work has to get done, regardless of title

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What Does a Product Manager Do?

For revenue software… •  Drives delivery and market

acceptance of whole products •  Targets market segments, not

individual customers

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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 & Customers

Development Marketing& Sales

Executives

Product Management

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Product Management: Inherently Political

•  Logic and facts are not sufficient •  Sales teams get paid for

closing individual deals •  Regional and vertical groups

focus on their narrow needs •  HIPPO

•  Responsibility without authority •  Keep the process moving

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What PM Hiring Managers Want

Tech product manager job postings •  76% want 3+ years PM experience

•  93% want excellent verbal and written communication skills

•  93% want a BS (68% prefer CS/EE)

•  32% want MBAs •  88% want experience in their segment

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Agile Methodology with Scrum 9

Product Backlog

Features & User Stories

Release Backlog

Features & User Stories

Sprint Backlog

User Stories

Potentially releasable software

Software release

Accepted story

(“DONE”)

Review Demo,

feedback

Retrospective Process

improvement

1 day

Daily Standup

Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks No changes in duration or goal

Release planning

Sprint planning

Charter Release Retrospective

Process improvement

N sprints

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

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Feeding the Agile Beast

Steam engine “fireman” needs to constantly shovel coal, otherwise the train will stop

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‘small p’ Product Owner 12

backlog, priorities, epics, user stories,

personas, demo feedback

Markets & Customers

Development Marketing& Sales

Executives

Product Owner

showcase customers

PO/PM Scope 13

Product Backlog

Features & User Stories

Release Backlog

Features & User Stories

Sprint Backlog

User Stories

Potentially releasable software

Software release

Accepted story

(“DONE”)

Review Demo,

feedback

Retrospective Process

improvement

1 day

Daily Standup

Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks No changes in duration or goal

Release planning

Sprint planning

Charter Release Retrospective

Process 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

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Product manager

After: Greg Cohen

Product owner

Agenda

1.  Product Managers ≠ Product Owners 2.  Failure Modes 3.  Small and Large

Organizational Maps

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Product Management: Oversubscribed, Overcommitted, Burning Out

•  Most product management teams are already understaffed

•  Product ownership adds 40-60% more critical work •  Urgency of stories, backlog

grooming, sprint planning, standups, acceptance

•  One product manager can “do it all” for a single team •  But typical Dev:PM ratio is 35:1, not 10:1

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How Development Organizations Typically Pick Product Owners

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

•  Rarely demand market-side experience

•  Undervalue organizational blocking skills

•  Belief in rational/unemotional/technical customers •  Slant toward smartest users

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Product Management Failure Mode

Product Manager fails agile team when… •  Part-timer, not engaged with team •  Lack of detail on stories •  Stale backlog •  Handwaving and bluster •  Best of intentions, but pulled in

too many directions •  “Build what I meant”

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Product Owner Failure Modes

Product Owner fails markets when… •  Weak on market realities: pricing,

packaging, selling cycle, upgrades, discounting, competitive dynamics

•  Disconnected from Marketing, Sales, Support

•  Trades off company strategy for product features

•  Sees showcase customers as typical

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Agenda

1.  Product Managers ≠ Product Owners 2.  Failure Modes 3.  Small and Large

Organizational Maps

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Minimal PM/PO “Organization” 21

VP or Founders

Heroic Single Product Manager/Owner

more technical more market-focused

“management”

Dysfunctional PO/PM Organization 22

VP Eng

Product Owners

VP Marketing

Product Managers

more technical more market-focused

“management”

PM/PO Product Peers 23

PM Director/ Product Strategist

GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO

more technical more market-focused

“management”

PM/PO: Market Mentoring 24

GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO

more technical more market-focused

Product Owner

Senior Product

Manager

“management”

90 Person Project (1 Product, 8 Teams) 25

Product Manager

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM PO SM

TEAM

PO

SM

What Does Each Team Do? 26

Product Manager

HEADLINE FEATURES PERFORMANCE RE-ARCH

DRIVERS & CONNECTORS

UX/UI

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM

PO

SM

TEAM PO SM

TEAM

PO

SM

Right Product Owners? 27

Lead Prod Manager

PERFORMANCE RE-ARCH

DRIVERS & CONNECTORS

UX/UI

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

Product Mgr?

HEADLINE FEATURES

TEAM SM

UX Lead? Sales

Eng?

Two Performance Architects?

Wrong Product Owners! 28

PERFORMANCE RE-ARCH

DRIVERS & CONNECTORS

UX/UI

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

TEAM

SM

UX Lead

HEADLINE FEATURES

TEAM SM

Sales Eng Perf

Arch

Product Mgr

Lead Prod Manager

Delegating Product Ownership

•  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 product owners, not borrowed 10% •  Solid or strong dotted line to product management •  Vigorous daily discussion among product team

•  Product management keeps whole-product responsibility

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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 products

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Rich Mironov

Mironov Consulting 233 Franklin Street, Suite 308

San Francisco, CA 94102

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/in/RichMironov

@RichMironov

Rich@Mironov.com

+1-650-315-7394