www.mironov.com2 the agile product manager / product owner dilemma rich mironov 18 january 2012
TRANSCRIPT
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About Rich Mironov
Veteran product manager/exec/strategist Business models, pricing, agile Organizing product organizations “What do customers want?”
5 startups, including as CEO/founder Author of “The Art of Product
Management” and Product Bytes blog Founded Product Camp, chaired first
product stage at annual Agile conference
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Agenda
What does a product manager do? Agile overview Agile and product managers/owners Conclusions
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Disjoint Communities
Product Managers Agile Community
Still nearly empty,very lonely
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What Does a Product Manager Do?
For commercial / revenue software… PM drives delivery and market acceptance
of whole products PM targets market segments, not
individual customers
For strategic internal development… PM resolves competing priorities PM drives acceptance and adoption
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Development Mktg & Sales
Executives
ProductManagement
What Does a Product Manager Do?
market information, priorities,requirements, roadmaps, MRDs,personas, user stories…
software
strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps, competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,targets
Field input,Market feedback
Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos…
Markets & Customers
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Product Management Planning Horizons
Daily
Sprint
Strategy
Portfolio
Product
Release
Exec
PM
DevTeam
2 wk
2-9 months
many months
years
many years
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Pragmatic Marketing® Framework
Pricing
Buy, Build or Partner
BusinessPlan
Product Profitability
Win/Loss Analysis
Distinctive Competence
Market Problems
MarketingPlan
Customer Acquisition
Customer Retention
Program Effectiveness
BuyingProcess
Buyer Personas
UserPersonas
Positioning
Product Portfolio
Market Definition
Distribution Strategy
InnovationCompetitive Landscape
Technology Assessment
Lead Generation
Thought Leadership
Referrals & References
LaunchPlan
UseScenarios
Require- ments
Status Dashboard
Product Roadmap
Presentations & Demos
EventSupport
“Special”Calls
ChannelSupport
Channel Training
SalesProcess
Collateral
SalesTools
BusinessMarket ProgramsPlanningStrategy SupportReadinessBusinessMarket ProgramsPlanningStrategy SupportReadiness
Dir, Prod Strategy Prod Mktg Mgr
Tech Prod Mgr
© 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved
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Nature of PM Role
No natural sequence for PM Must work all aspects in parallel Entire planning onion
Intensely interrupt-driven Bottoms-up shapes top-down,
top-down shapes bottoms-up
Product Management must provide strategy, judgment and integration as well as execution
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Agenda
What does a product manager do? Agile overview Agile and product managers/owners Conclusions
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What is Agile?
Umbrella term for various software project management and engineering practices Iterative and collaborative More frequent delivery of smaller increments Building quality in, not adding it at the end Goal of potentially shippable at every iteration Active user involvement (or customer proxy) Self-managing teams Incremental process improvements
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Agile is an Umbrella
ScrumExtreme
Programming (XP)
Agile Project Management Framework
(APM)
Crystal Methods
Dynamic Systems
Development Model (DSDM)
Rational Unified
Process (RUP)
Feature Driven Development
(FDD)
Lean Development
Rapid Application
Development (RAD)
Agile Methods
Test Driven Development
(TDD)
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Discussions about Agile…
Part philosophy and religion Part process, tools, techniques, methods Part organizational design
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Why Not Waterfall?
Waterfall projects rarely deliver
according to planRequirements and estimates
Coding and unit test
System integration & QA
Operation and maintenance
Design
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Fixed Vs. Variable
Fixed
Estimated
Requirements
TimeResources
Time
Features
Plan Driven
ValueDriven
The Plan creates cost/schedule estimates
Release themes and feature intent drive estimates
Waterfall Agile
Resources
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Agile’s Strategic Outer Loop (PM)
•Markets•Customer
s•Biz
Models•Strategy•Portfolios•Funding
•Customers•Sales•Marketin
g•Support•Upgrade
s•EOL/
EOS
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Agenda
What does a product manager do? Agile overview Agile and product managers/owners Conclusions
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Product Owner, Product Manager
Most agilists think about “product owners” Formal part of agile team Needs to be physically present Driving user stories and sub-iteration decisions Showcases are primary method of customer input
Most product managers are not agilists Majority of work to deliver products (revenue) happens
outside Engineering Interacts with markets directly, not filtered through Sales
or Marketing Servicing multiple inbound and outbound queues
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DevelopmentMarketing/Sales
Customers
Executives
productowner
“small p” product owner
priorities, requirements,personas, user stories…
software
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• Pricing
• Buy, Build or Partner
• BusinessPlan
• Product Profitabili
ty
• Win/Loss Analysis
• Distinctive Competen
ce
• Market Problems
• MarketingPlan
• Customer Acquisitio
n
• Customer Retention
• Program Effectiven
ess
• BuyingProcess
• Buyer Personas
• UserPersonas
• Positioning
• Product Portfolio
• Market Definition
• Distribution
Strategy
• Innovation
• Competitive
Landscape• Technology
Assessment
• Lead Generatio
n
• Thought Leadershi
p
• Referrals &
References
• LaunchPlan
• UseScenarios
• Require ments
• Status Dashboar
d
• Product Roadmap
• Presentations &
Demos
• EventSupport
• “Special”Calls
• ChannelSupport
• Channel Training
• SalesProcess
• Collateral
• SalesTools
• Business
• Market
• Programs
• Planning
• Strategy
• Support
• Readiness
• Business
• Market
• Programs
• Planning
• Strategy
• Support
• Readiness
Adapted Pragmatic Marketing® Framework
product owner
• backlog,
• accept work
• stories
• burn down/up
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Product Manager Failure Modes
Solo Product Manager fails the agile team if… 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
Solo Product Owner fails the market if… Weak on market realities
Pricing, packaging, selling,upgrades, service models, discounting, competitive dynamics
Missing from outbound teams:Marketing, Sales, Support
Trades off company-wide strategy for product features
Confuses showcase customers withbroader market
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PO/PM Organizational Map
GM - VP PM - VP Eng/CTO
product owners
Product Management Organization
more technicalmore market-focused
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Agenda
What does a product manager do? Agile overview Agile and product managers/owners Conclusions
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Conclusions
Product management bridgesengineering, markets and strategic planning
Agile’s focus is on improving development processes
Success requires strongly technical but market-oriented product managers …who mentor product owners
Agile PM
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Contact Information
+1-650-315-7394
www.mironov.com
@RichMironov
www.linkedin.com/in/richmironov