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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
3
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 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? TME?
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
TME 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
+1-650-315-7394
