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Product Managers, Product Owners and Scalable Models for Agile Product Teams

Rich Mironov

Zurich, 17 Sept 2014

1 w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m © 2014. This presentation and all derivative works copyright Rich Mironov

•  Veteran product manager/exec/strategist •  Organizing product organizations

•  Tandem, Sybase, 5 B2B startups as “product guy” or CEO

•  The Art of Product Management •  Founded Product Camp

ABOUT RICH MIRONOV

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

Organizational Maps

AGENDA

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•  “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 large-scale

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

ORGANIZATIONAL CONTEXT

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•  Drive* whole product strategy and market thinking •  Make* hard trade-offs among complex choices •  Communicate and align around (current) plan

* Get the smartest people and ideas into the room * We collaborate but it’s not a democracy

HOW PRODUCT MANAGERS ADD VALUE

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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

WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO?

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•  Logic and facts are not sufficient •  R&D demand >> supply •  Sales teams paid to

close individual deals •  HIPPO

•  Responsibility without authority

•  Where strategy meets implementation

PRODUCT MANAGEMENT: INHERENTLY POLITICAL

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Product  Backlog    Epics  &    User  Stories  

Release  Backlog    Epics  &    User  Stories  

Sprint  Backlog    User  Stories  

Poten5ally  releasable    so8ware  

So8ware  release  

Accepted  story  (“DONE”)  

Review  Demo,  feedback  

Retrospec-ve  Process    improvement  

1  day  

Daily  Standup  

Sprint:  1  to  3  weeks  No  changes  in  dura5on  or  goal    

Release    planning  

Sprint  planning  

Charter   Release  Retrospec-ve  Process    improvement  

N  sprints  

AGILE METHODOLOGY WITH SCRUM

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•  “…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

•  Wins development team’s appreciation and inclusion •  One PO per team, not per product •  Feeds the hungry agile beast

WHAT DOES A PRODUCT OWNER DO?

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Steam engine “firemen” need to shovel coal constantly, otherwise the train will stop

FEEDING THE AGILE BEAST

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backlog, priorities, epics, user stories,

personas, demo feedback

product bits

Markets & Customers Development

Marketing& Sales

Executives

Product Owner

‘small p’ PRODUCT OWNER

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showcase customers

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PO/PM SCOPE

Product  Backlog    Epics  &    User  Stories  

Release  Backlog    Epics  &    User  Stories  

Sprint  Backlog    User  Stories  

Poten5ally  releasable    so8ware  

So8ware  release  

Accepted  story  (“DONE”)  

Review  Demo,  feedback  

Retrospec-ve  Process    improvement  

1  day  

Daily  Standup  

Sprint:  1  to  4  weeks  No  changes  in  dura5on  or  goal    

Release    planning  

Sprint  planning  

Charter   Release  Retrospec-ve  Process    improvement  

N  sprints  

product manager focus

product owner focus

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•  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

PRODUCT MANAGER HAS MORE LEVERS

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Product manager

Product owner

A6er:  Greg  Cohen  

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•  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 could “do it all” for one team •  But typical Dev:PM ratio is 25:1, not 10:1

PRODUCT MANAGERS: OVERSUBSCRIBED, OVERCOMMITTED, BURNING OUT

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•  Look first for SMEs •  Huge premium on technical chops, story writing •  Rarely consider market-side experience

•  Believe in rational/unemotional/technical customers

•  Undervalue organizational “blocking” skills

•  Can be disastrous for revenue products

HOW DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS TYPICALLY PICK PRODUCT OWNERS

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MINIMAL PM/PO “ORGANIZATION”

VP or Founders

more technical more market-focused

Heroic Single Product Manager/Owner

“management”

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DYSFUNCTIONAL PO/PM ORGANIZATION

VP Eng

Product Owners

more technical more market-focused

VP Marketing “management”

Product Managers

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PM/PO ORGANIZATIONAL MAP: PRODUCT PEERS

PM Director/ Product Strategist

GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO

more technical more market-focused

“management”

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PM/PO ORGANIZATIONAL MAP: MARKET MENTORING

GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO

more technical more market-focused

Product Owner

Senior Product

Manager

“management”

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1.  Must fully staff product manager/owner teams •  Not just assign developers as product owners

2.  On large projects, product managers are not default product owners for every team

3.  Skills, experience and mentoring matter

4.  No cookie-cutter solution

TAKEAWAYS

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CONTACT Rich Mironov, CEO Mironov Consulting 233 Franklin St, Suite #308 San Francisco, CA 94102

RichMironov  

@RichMironov

Rich@Mironov.com  

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