confessions of a product manager

CONFESSIONS OF A PRODUCT MANAGER

FAILING IS EASY, MOVING ON IS HARD

QUESTION TIME

INSPIRATION FOR PRODUCT XCASE STUDY 1:

INSPIRATION FOR PRODUCT X

KAIZEN


TEAM DYNAMICS


MY SCRUM ROLES

2008 - 20112011 - 2012

2012 - 2015

GETTING LOST IN THE SOLUTION

CONFESSION 1


FRICTION


START WITH WHAT


START WITH WHY

START WITH WHAT

VISION STATEMENT

▸ Product X is an integration platform, bringing information from different systems.

START WITH WHY

VISION STATEMENT

▸ I believe in delivering great messages to my audience in their language.

▸ You can achieve this by increasing the quality of your content, keeping to your company style guides and branding, increase reuse and bringing information to your authors.

▸ Product X is a tool for your authors that connects your language tools, content repositories and terminology systems together to increase the quality of your content.

START WITH WHAT

USER STORY

▸ As an editor, I want to create profiles for quality rules, so that I can group my rules.

START WITH WHY

USER STORY

▸ As an editor, in order to adapt to different requirements of my teams, I want each team to have their own set of quality rules.

START WITH WHAT

TECHNICAL TASK

▸ Abstract the data layer for other data sources.

START WITH WHY

TECHNICAL TASK

▸ Why? We cannot force customers to switch databases. Migration of data is expensive and time consuming.

▸ How? Abstract the data layer making it easier to support new database providers.

▸ What? Support SQL Server and MySQL.

FOCUS ON THE PROBLEMLESSON LEARNT 1

FOCUS ON BUILDING THE RIGHT THING

CONFESSION 2

Build it fast

Build the right thing

Build the thing right

Sweet Spot

Build it fast (SM)

Build the right thing (PO)

Build the thing right (Team)

Sweet Spot

Build it fast (SM)

Build the right thing (PO)

Build the thing right (Team)

Conflict

Build it fast

Build the right thing

Build the thing right

Everyone’s Responsibility

STRIVE FOR QUALITYLESSON LEARNT 2

TROUBLE AT PRODUCT YCASE STUDY 2:

MY FATHER’S LESSON

PAIN IS A SIGN OF LIFE

Luis Muñoz - Being Luis

MY FATHER’S LESSON

A PRODUCT IS ABOUT FEATURES, FEATURES AND FEATURES

CONFESSION 3

PRODUCT Y

SCRUM… BUT…

▸ PO is a messenger

▸ No feedback from team

▸ No technical debt payback

PRODUCT Y

ROADMAP

Q1 Q2 Q3

FEATURE 1 FEATURE 2 FEATURE 3 FEATURE 4



PRODUCT Y

ROADMAP IN Q2

Q1 Q2 Q3

FEATURE 1



COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE, COMMUNICATE

PRODUCT Y

NEW ROADMAP

Committed Projected Envisioned

CUSTOMER PROBLEM AND SOLUTION

CUSTOMER PROBLEM AND SOLUTION 2

CUSTOMER PROBLEM 3 CUSTOMER PROBLEM 4 CUSTOMER PROBLEM 5

LISTEN TO YOUR USERS, CUSTOMERS AND YOUR TEAM

LESSON LEARNT 3

GETTING LOST IN THE SOLUTION… AGAIN

CONFESSION 4

PRODUCT Y

WHEN DO WE DECIDE WHAT TO BUILD?

PRODUCT Y


Too Late

PRODUCT Y


Refinement

THREE AMIGOS

Refinement

THREE AMIGOS

BENEFITS

▸ Single language

▸ Majority of team involved

▸ More effective stories

PRODUCT Y


Too Late Refinement

DEATHLY HALLOWS

DISCOVER WHAT TO BUILD

Discovery Refinement

Requests Ideas/Solutions

PRODUCT OWNER

BENEFITS OF DISCOVERY

▸ Driven by problems

▸ Saying “No”

▸ PO has control

DEATHLY HALLOWS

BENEFITS OF DISCOVERY

▸ Joint effort to create solution that is:

▸ Valuable

▸ Usable

▸ Feasible

▸ Just in time ideation

▸ Saying “No”

SOLUTIONS ARE THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE TEAM

LESSON LEARNT 4

VISION AND STRATEGY OF PRODUCT Y

CASE STUDY 3:

DAYS OLDNO FEAR

ONE MONTHNO FEAR

THREE MONTHSNO FEAR

SIX MONTHSNO FEAR

SEVEN MONTHSNO FEAR

EIGHT MONTHSNO FEAR

NINE MONTHSNO FEAR

TEN MONTHSNO FEAR

ELEVEN MONTHSNO FEAR

SIXTEEN MONTHSNO FEAR

MANAGING A PRODUCT WITHOUT A STRATEGY

CONFESSION 5

NO STRATEGY

PRIORITIES CHANGED VERY OFTEN

NO STRATEGY

INCOMPLETE FEATURES

“PRIORITISING A FEATURE WITHOUT A STRATEGY IS LIKE PLANNING A JOURNEY WITHOUT A DESTINATION”

MIND THE PRODUCT BLOG

NO STRATEGY

“DELIVER SEAMLESS EXPERIENCES ACROSS ALL TOUCH POINTS”

Gino Toro

SINGLE VISION

SINGLE VISION

DELIVER SEAMLESS MEDIA EXPERIENCES ACROSS ALL TOUCH POINTS

▸ Who are we selling to?

▸ What do they need?

▸ What can the product offer them?

▸ What value will they have?

STRATEGY

SWOT ANALYSIS

▸ Strengths

▸ Weaknesses

▸ Opportunities

▸ Threats

STRATEGY

5 BASIC QUESTIONS

▸ Where are we now?

▸ Where do we want to be?

▸ What is stopping us getting there?

▸ What can help us get there?

▸ How can we change?

STRATEGY VS TACTICS

Vision

Strategy

Goals

Roadmap/Releases

Objectives/Themes

Epics/Stories/Tasks

STRATIGIC

TACTICS

THINK STRATEGICALLYLESSON LEARNT

GETTING LOST IN THE SOLUTION… MISERABLY

CONFESSION 6

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY

TOO MANY REQUESTS TOO LITTLE TIME


Requests Ideas/Solutions

CONTINUOUS DELIVERY

THEME BASED IMPACT MAPPING


Requests Ideas/SolutionsTHEME 1

THEME 2

THEME 3

Consolidate

IMPACT MAPPING

WHY?

IMPACT MAPPING

MAKE AN IMPACT

IMPACT MAPPING

WHY?

SAVE TIME IN SEARCHING FOR CONTENT

IMPACT MAPPING

METRICS?

TIME TO SEARCH

FAILED SEARCHES


IMPACT MAPPING

WHO?

CONTENT EDITOR

PROGRAM MANAGER


IMPACT MAPPING

HOW?

CONTENT EDITOR

PROGRAM MANAGER

FILTERS ADVANCED SEARCH

SMALL REPOSITORIES

IMPACT MAPPING

WHAT?

EDITOR MANAGER

FILTERS

SEARCH

SMALL REPOSITORIES

FACETED FILTERS

ASSIGNED TO ME

PERSONAL SPACE

TEAM SPACE

IMPACT MAPPING

WHEN?

EDITOR MANAGERFILTERS SEARCH

FACETED FILTERS

TO ME

Q1 2016

THERE IS ALWAYS A LESSON TO BE LEARNT

LESSON LEARNT 6

THE PRODUCT MANAGERLESSON LEARNT

“SUCCESS IS NOT FINAL, FAILURE IS NOT FATAL; IT IS THE COURAGE TO CONTINUE THAT COUNTS.”

Sir Winston Churchill

THE PRODUCT MANAGER

Technology (DevOps)

Business (Sales, Customers)

Users (Users, Support, Design)

Product Management

PRODUCT AMBASSADOR

UNDERSTAND THE BUSINESS!

EMBRACE THE TECHNOLOGY!

LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE!

THANK YOU!THE END