product ownership challenges

Product Ownership Challenges in Large Organiza7ons

[email protected] @ken_power

•  Is responsible for the success of the product

•  Represents the user and customer

•  Decides what features go into the product

•  Writes requirements in the form of user stories

•  Maintains the product backlog

•  Responsible for priori7zing product backlog items

•  Decides the order in which content is delivered

•  Works with Delivery Team to determine specific itera7on content

•  Communicates expecta7ons

•  Defines project goals

•  Sets project vision

•  Be available to the Delivery Team throughout the Itera7on

•  Point of contact for Delivery Team to get ques7ons answered

•  Helps team make decisions

•  Never (ever, ever) produce es7mates on behalf of Delivery Team

•  Engage customer both internal and external

•  Accepts user stories using the Defini7on of Done and acceptance criteria

•  Remains engaged and responsive throughout the project

•  Conducts the Sprint Review


Pilot Projects

2008 • Teams • Agile Projects • Organic Growth

Formal Agile Transi7on Program

Launched

2009 • More Teams • Agile Program Management • System Wide Focus • Formal Training Plan • Formal Exec Support • Broader Stakeholder Engagement

Agile Office Established

2010 • Commitment to sustainable and sustained agility • Broad Organiza7on Focus • Focused Stakeholder Engagement

Increased Adop7on

2011

• Expand adop7on across product areas • Improve capability of organiza7on • Specific areas of focus, including architecture in lean/agile organiza7ons • PorYolio Management

Ongoing con7nuous improvement

2012+ • Build on successes • Learn and adapt • Refine and Improve • Expanded adop7on across product areas • New people and teams • Scaling across porYolio

January ‘08 December ‘09 September ‘10


Company

Technology Group

Business Unit

People, Products, PorYolios, Systems

• Lots of people • Internal Conferences, Learning • Working Team • Transi7on Team

• ~6000 people • ~150+ Agile Teams • Core Working Team • Transi7on Team

• ~600 People • ~35+ Agile Teams


Sprint Planning

Delivery

Acceptance Demo

Backlog Management

Build

Test

Design


•  … are in a single Scrum Team?

•  … does it take to build and deliver a product?

•  … does it take to ship a product?

•  … does it take to ship a system?

•  … are affected by the crea7on and delivery of the product?


Cross-‐Func7onal Delivery Team

Scrum Master

Product Owner

Scrum Team

Product Manager

QA Manager

Development Manager

Program Manager

Alpha

Beta TME

Early Access Program

User Experience

Team

Product Marke7ng

Channel Ramp

Other Business Units

GB

Tech Support Team

Product Owner Team

Extended Delivery Team

Product

System PorYolio Council

Sales Support Engineers

Customer Engagement

Team

UE Lead

Architect


• Process Owner • Stakeholder Engagement • Dependency Management • Objec7vity • Con7nuous Inspec7on & Adap7on

• Engineering Investment (People)

• Quality Direc7on • Quality Strategy • Quality Requirements

• Technical Requirements • Technology Direc7on • Technology Strategy • Engineering Investment (People)

• Dependencies

• Priori7za7on • Customer Requirements

• Revenue

Product (Strategic)

Development (Tac7cal,

Opera7onal)

Program (Organiza7on)

Quality (Product Quality,

Con7nuity, Customer Focus)


•  The Product Owner role can be filled by a collabora7ve Product Owner Team –  Typically a Product Manager, Development Manager, UE Lead, Architect, Program Manager

•  Meet regularly as a team to manage the backlog


•  Ronica Roth ar7cle iden7fies 6 scenarios for filling the Product Owner role –  Scrum 101 (Single Product Owner) –  Scrum 1012 (Product Owner per Team)

–  Product Manager, aka Uber Product Owner

–  Dynamic Duo

–  Product Council –  Product Owner Team


•  New Features

•  Technical Debt

•  Quality Debt

•  Spike Tests

•  Research

•  Planning


Investment

Technical Debt

Quality Debt

Features

Spike Tests

Research

Planning


“ Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside,

awakes.” Carl Gustav Jung


Internal & External View of Product Ownership

7me

FCS Sell Install Day 2+

Internal Product Ownership

External Product Ownersip

Product

Customer Engagement

Teams

Delivery Teams


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User Stories

Epics Themes

Strategy

8.6 9.0 10.0

Projects Management Execs

Product Team

Portfolio Councils

DeliveryTeams Internal focus

Market focus

Projects

Products

Portfolio

MR MR MR ES MR MR 8.5


Itera7

on

Product Increment

Full Product Release Release Rhythm

Project Rhythm

Cadence and Sequencing


Concept Happy User

Do something cool

As a User I want to do something cool with the product So that I can benefit in some way


Product Owner

Team

Level of Focus on the User Story

Concept Start End Ship It Done Accept

Ready

Done

Time [email protected] @ken_power

•  User Story defined

•  User Story Acceptance Criteria defined

•  User Story dependencies iden7fied

•  User Story sized by Delivery Team

•  Team accepts UE artefacts

•  Performance criteria iden7fied, where appropriate

•  Person who will accept the User Story is iden7fied

•  Delivery Team has reviewed and accepted the User Story


SycnhronizaCon Point Defini7ons of Ready & Done act as focusing anchors for teams, Product Owners, and everyone involved


•  Consider Product Ownership, not just Product Owner role

•  Product Owner Teams bring balance

•  Understand and Engage Stakeholders

•  Take an Internal and External Perspec7ve

•  Think of Product Ownership like managing an investment porYolio

•  Understand Your System’s Cadence and Establish synchroniza7on points


Thank you.
