Product Management-Rookie to Pro

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Product Management- Rookie to Pro

Agile Approach

What will Product Knowledge do?

Product Management will give you insight into:Understanding NEED assessmentUnderstanding CUSTOMERSUnderstanding COMPETITORSUnderstanding STEPS to build productUnderstand potential RISKS involved and PreparationUnderstanding PEST strategy for projectLearn how to BUILD product from conceptual phase to market deliveryDevelop Product ROADMAPDevelop Product canvass/ VISION Document

Who needs to understand Product?

I have an idea and don’t know how to make it come to live

I have a “pet” project and I need to make it a reality

I have a full-time profession and don’t have enough time during the day. I need an independent perspective.

Explore the Possibility of building a product Opportunity to network with product

professionals

Why Product?

Opportunity for additional income Opportunity to fulfill product dream Opportunity to spend time doing what you

love Bring Your ideas to Life If you can think it, why not bring it to life The opportunity can live a legacy We think daily why not think big?

Some “Take Away " Developed VISION document Developed PEST strategy document Developed USER PERSONAS for business Developed COMPETITOR analysis Developed preliminary USER stories for starters Developed preliminary EPIC for projects Access to NETWORK of professionals Reference documents and TEMPLATES for

future use Constant newsletter updates on TRENDS in

technology

Meet your Product Coach Akingbade(Akin) co-founder of largest

professional database of African professionals “PANLinked.com”

Partner with African Union on Capacity Building

Mentor to many start-ups Mentor and professional in Content

management strategy Served over 70+ “Fortune 500” as a

Manager with Big 4 “Ernst & Young” Co-Author many articles Author of Poetry book

“Lord, I have a question” Author of “Think it Build it” (In

works)

Identify a product (old or new).

Determine if there is a market for this product.

How much revenue it will generate.

How to improve product and continuously monitor

Product Management

Factors influencing change in a product

Constant need AssessmentMarket demandCost of productQuality of productCompetitors actions and reaction

AGILE Flavors

AGILE

Scrum : is an iterative and incremental agile software development methodology for managing product development.Kanban : developed by Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, as a system to improve and maintain a high level of production.Extreme Programming (XP): Quick implementation is intended to improve software quality and responsiveness to changing customer requirements.

Agile Manifesto

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation Responding to change over following a plan

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Agile Principles

Satisfy the Customer Welcome Change Deliver Value

Frequently Collaborate Daily Motivate & Trust Face to face

conversation Working code =

Progress Sustainable Pace Technical Excellence Simplicity is essential Self Organizing Teams Inspect and Adapt

Requirement gathering

Receive requirements from the stakeholder. Perform Requirement analysis Schedule meeting with the stakeholder,

address any concerns Ask as many questions as possible about the

product. Prepare a vision document.

Top management approves implementation of a project

Product Owner is assigned

Development team is also assigned.

Product Approved

The Vision is a clear, simple statement of what the customer, consumer or business wants.

Creating the vision collaboratively gives everyone a shared understanding of the business opportunity that needs a solution

Sharing the vision continually keeps everyone focused on the common goal.

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What's a Vision (Share your Vision)

Action:Write your vision and share

Create an elevator statement.

Imagine that you are riding in the elevator with an executive and they ask about your current project. What can you tell them in the 1-3 minute ride that sums up your project?

“FOR <target customer>

WHO <statement of need>

THE <product> IS A <product category> THAT <key benefit>.

UNLIKE <primary competitor>

OUR PRODUCT <further differentiation>.”

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Creating and Sharing the Product Vision

Action:Write your “Elevator speech” and share on index card

Scrum key actors:

Product Owner

Scrum Master

Scrum Team

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Product Owner Role

Ensure the right thing gets build at the right timeProvide the vision and business caseSteer the projectEvaluate the scope to ensure vision is metPrioritize continuously Provide good user stories with acceptance criteria

Just in time Just the right level of detail

Provide feature feedback as often as reasonableBe an integrated part of the team

Scrum Team Role A Scrum Team is a collection of individuals working

together to deliver the requested and committed product increments for a customer.

Scrum Team comprise of typical of 7 to 9 people (The team could comprise of the following:

Lead Developer/ Programmer Developer Lead Quality Assurance Quality Assurance /Tester User Experience/ User Interface (UX /UI) Business Analyst Front end developer

Scrum Master Role A scrum master is the facilitator for a product

development team that uses scrum, the scrum master manages the process for how information is exchanged.

Product key Relationships

Stakeholders

Product Owner

Development Team

Product Manger

Management

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Product Owner – Pre Grooming Meeting Prep

Prioritize the product backlog Notify the Team which stories will be groomed during

the meeting Ensure that stories to be groomed are in proper format

and proper requirements have been documented (work with BA/Dev)

Ensure that Acceptance Criteria is documented in user story

Be prepared to discuss user story with team for clarifications

We're All in This Together

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Team’s Attitude

Team own shippable software, hence we are in this together. We WIN or LOSE together.

Iteration ZERO Planning session

Visit the Vision document Team starts writing user story (Story card or

sticky notes) Stories can be Epic or small (If story is too big,

we break to smaller size) Identify the risks Identify the dependences Assumptions Ask as many questions while the stakeholders

are still present.

Ready for Iteration

Product Owner Participants

Vision document and Project Overview

Prioritization of User storiesEpic storiesDefects (bugs) around the

feature.Out of scopeWeb analytics

StakeholdersChannels that are

impactedExternal teamsDevelopment teamUser Experience

team (UX)

Iteration Zero continues for 1 through 4 weeks depending on the project

Product owner writes the user stories(some common tools are RALLY and JIRA)

Updates the Project OverviewTeam revisits the user story,

puts acceptance criteria's and sizes them

Team can break the stories into themes if available

Iterations could be within 1 week to 4 weeks depending on organization. Most iterations are 2 weeks.

Waterfall methodology

Requirement Analysis

Design

Implementation

Testing

Maintenance

Action:Write scenario where we may use hybrid of waterfall and AGILE.Waterfall is also called SDLC

Developing Cycle every two weeks

Grooming

Planning

Retrospective

Iterations/Sprints

Demo

Daily Standups

Questions asked:What did you do previous dayWhat are you doing today?Any roadblock

Sprint planning and release planning

User stories are groomed and prioritized

Questions asked:What are we doing well?What are the challenges?

Production release

Source :Dean Leffingwell

Release date varies from one organization to another.

Burn Down Chart A burn down chart is a graphical representation of work left to do versus

time. The outstanding work (or backlog) is often on the vertical axis, with time along the horizontal. That is, it is a run chart of outstanding work. It is useful for predicting when all of the work will be completed.

Source of diagram: (Google)

EPIC and User Stories

EPIC: The high level visionUser Stories: Details of the task

User Story Guide:AS A... (WHO)I WILL LIKE TO......(WHAT)SO THAT......(WHY)

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Acceptance Criteria (aka Confirmation)

Expresses conditions for the customer that need to be satisfied

Provides a platform for additional conversation about the story

Helps the team know when they are done Usually written by the customer/product

owner and refined by the team during backlog grooming and iteration planning

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Advantages of Acceptance Criteria

Continue the conversation between the Product Owner and the team

Helps solidify expectations for the story Spawns negotiation, trade-offs and options to

split a large story into smaller stories Establishes a high level test plan Provides a basis for solution design

User Stories Samples As an Online shopper, I want to be able to filter perfume prices in

descending order, so that I can get the lowest prices.

As a delta customer, I want to see different features on the home page, so that I can decided which one to select.

As an Online shopper, I want to be able to filter perfume prices in descending order, so that I can get the lowest prices.

Acceptance Criteria: Verify That (VT) when I click filter it changes VT filter gives lowest prices VT filter shows highest prices

Prioritization considerations for user stories

Legal Requirement/ Regulation Increase in Revenue Time savings Cost Savings Brand recognition Customer Retention

Code Refactoring

Code refactoring is the process of restructuring existing computer code – changing the factoring – without changing its external behavior. Refactoring improves nonfunctional attributes of the software. The developer/programmers usually performs this task on projects.

Source: Wikipedia definition

Product BacklogUser stories stack

Product Backlog contains all the user stories that the Scrum team came up with during iteration zero

These stories are be too big and needs to be broken down.

Owned and prioritized by the Product Owner

Might or might not have Acceptance Criteria or sized

Grooming exercise

Iteration zero continued grooming stories Team goes through every story Team rewrites any of the stories that are not clear Team puts acceptance criteria's Team sizes the stories

Fibonacci series 1,2 ,3, 5, 8, 13, 20 T Shirt size - S , M, L, XL

I independent:  Stories should be independent

N negotiable: A story is not a contract

V valuable: Must be valuable

E estimable: Able to size it

S small: Story should be small

T testable: Able to test to be done

INVEST acronym for User stories

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Different Sizing Approach for User storiesPoker sizing

T-Shirt sizing

White Elephant sizing

Time box sizing.

Relative sizing

1,2,3,5,8,13,20

White ElephantTime box

Fibonacci

T-Shirt sizing

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Story Points

Story 1

RiskComplexity

Effort

Story 2

Story 3Complexity

Effort

Risk

8Complexity

EffortRisk

Complexity35The sizing are determined by three (3)

underlying factors:Complexity of user storiesEffort required to complete storyRisk involved for the user story to be done.

After all the stories have been sized, the team can come up with features or themes.

The features or themes can be a release, or can be delivered one time.

Product Owner puts all the stories to the release and prioritizes them.

Product Backlog

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Make the Product Backlog DEEP

D detailed appropriately

E estimated

E emergent

P prioritized

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Release Backlog A Single User Story

Product Backlog Release BacklogOwned bythe Product Owner

Owned bythe Product Owner

Extract the release backlog from the product backlog

Point Release

A point release is a minor release of a software project, especially one intended to fix bugs or do small cleanups rather than add significant features. Often, there are too many bugs to be fixed in a single major or minor release, creating a need for a point release.

Example:A bug is discovered after a major release, appoint release was needed to deploy the bug at a

different time from the regular release cycle timeline.

Planning Session

Team grooms the stories that are in Release Backlog.

Team makes sure they understand what is expected and the acceptance criteria’s are defined.

Once the stories are sized, prioritized, then the user stories are ready to be brought into the iteration.

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Iteration/Sprint Session A Single User Story

Product Backlog Release Backlog

Iteration

Owned bythe Product Owner

Owned bythe Product Owner

Owned bythe Team *

* Development Team – All who are responsible for completing the work of the iteration

Definition of Ready

Definition of Ready for product owner to accept user stories:

Story has been groomed Story has acceptance criteria’s Not waiting for third party Mockup attached if needed/ Wireframe reviewed Testing adequately done and accepted Quality Improvement

.

Definition of DoneDefinition of Done for the work to be considered completed

Code is complete Unit testing passed Code review completed and no changes needed QA completed testing all the scenarios All tasks completed Story ready for acceptance

.

Working Agreement

Work agreements are the set of rules/disciplines/processes the team agrees to follow without fail to make themselves more efficient and successful.

Who sets the work agreements? Team members themselves set these. The Scrum Master may

have to play the role of facilitating the meeting that's held to come up with work agreements, but it is the team that decides on the agreements themselves. The team also reviews them periodically during retrospective meetings.

What is the best time to organize this meeting? We did this in our retrospective meetings. These can also be

separate meetings by themselves.

Product Interview Questions What is your approach end to end to product development? Walk

me through? What product management tools do you use? (JIRA, RALLY) Waterfall and Agile? what’s your preference and why? What is duration of your sprint? What do you do in daily stand ups? what do you do in Retrospective meetings How often do you do grooming session? What is your timeline for Release planning? What’s is your timeline for sprint planning? How do you determine criteria’s for selecting points for user stories?

(complexities, duration, and risk) What do we do in Demo sessions? who are the people involved. How do you work with cross functional teams? What API have you integrated with before?

Product Interview Questions What are typical challenges you have faced within scrum team and

how did you resolve it? How do you get business requirement BRD? When do you do iteration zero planning and what are the task

performed? What are working agreements? What is definition of done to accepted user stories? Waterfall or AGILE which will you use why? What are Marketing tools you have worked on? What is definition of Ready? Share with me your last project and explain how your experience fit

with this role? What is your understanding of this role? What is your understanding of what we do within our company? What interest you the most about this position? What will you say is your greatest accomplishment as a product

owner? what are the top three (3 ) attributes of a successful product owner in

your opinion? What will you say are your weakness as a product owner?

Key Documents

Vision Documents Product Roadmap Sprint/ Iteration (Time Box) Product Backlog Business Requirement Document (BRD) Sprint Planning Release planning Iteration zero Sizing (Fibonacci series) Discuss factors for sizing (Complexity, Duration

and Risk) Select each links to download.

Fundamental of IT

Application (SAP, Oracle financials) Database (Oracle database, DB2, MS SQL) Network (Connection of multiple devices) Operating system (UNIX-Solaris, Linux, Ubuntu,

Windows NT) Cloud Solutions: (AWS , RACKSPACE etc.) SAAS: Software as a solution PAAS: Platform as a solution IAAS: Infrastructure as a solution Platform- Ruby on Rail

Common Programming Languages

Programming Languages examples:

JavaJavaScriptPHPRuby on Railsc+.net

Analytical Tools:

Web /mobile analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage for business decision.

Samples:Google analyticsAdobe analytics/site catalystTableauPentaho

Heat map

A heat map is a graphical representation of data where the individual values contained in a matrix are represented as colors.

Samples:Crazy eggsInspectlet

Appendix 1: Exercises

Simulate Daily Stand Up

Questions Asked?What was done previous daywhat will be done todayAny road block

Action:Perform Daily stand up exercise

Demo SessionsDemo Session:

Meeting with stakeholders, sponsors and review the functionality

Action:Perform exercise demo

Software Demo

JIRA Software demoRALLY demoBALSAMIQ demo(wireframe)Power-point demo(Presentation and sales tool)

Action:Download trail versions of the tools and exercisePerform walkthrough exercise

Develop STAR guide for Interviews

Situation: The interviewer wants you to present a recent challenge and situation in which you found yourself.

Task: What did you have to achieve? The interviewer will be looking to see what you were trying to achieve from the situation.

Action: What did you do? The interviewer will be looking for information on what you did, why you did it and what the alternatives were.

Results: What was the outcome of your actions? What did you achieve through your actions and did you meet your objectives? What did you learn from this experience and have you used this learning since?

Source: Wikipedia

Keep It FUN! And Build Relationship

Team Happy Hour

Team Breakfast

Team LunchBirthdays of

team members

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Common Challenges in world of Product Lack of Strategic Vision

If you lack the understanding of how to meet the business needs to operate in the future or lose sight of the To Be vision for your product or If you can’t articulate the product vision to the team or other stakeholders.

Lack of Domain Knowledge If you don’t have enough domain knowledge to make good business

decisions or to understand how to write the stories and acceptance criteria.

Lack of Leadership If you don’t have the authority or decision- making ability to resolve

issues, prioritize the work or make scope decisions. Availability

If you are not routinely available to the team to answer questions, provide decisions in a timely manner or accept completed work and provide feedback.

Support If you are not getting the support you need from your peers or the team.

Team Location Lack of colocation can create a distance between team to communicate

effectively

Appendix 2: Acronyms

SM – Scrum Manager PO - Product Owner BA - Business Analyst QA – Quality Analyst Dev – Developers FED – Front End Developer IA – Infrastructure Architect

Appendix 3: Recommended Audible Books

The Power of Scrum, In the Real World, For the Agile Scrum Master, Product Owner, Stakeholder and Development Team by Paul VII

The Agile Samurai: How Agile Masters Deliver Great Software by Jonathan Rasmusson

60 Minute Scrum by Stewart Lancaster

Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Appendix 4: Vision Document

Appendix : Sample Vision Document: Dream of a Millennium to buy Bags

OnlineNovember 2015

(

Vision Document

Vision Statement

What is Needed? An Online Site to allow customers to buy bags. (Mobile & Web)

Why do we need it? The functionality will allow members to easily buy bags online

and increase sales for company

Who is it for? Millennium Online shoppers

Vision Statement

Scope

What does it include?

Includes Search functionality Includes filter functionality by Accessories, bag types Includes promotional functionality Includes community

Scope

Channel(s):

luggagepromo.com, Mobile Application

Path(s): Web and MobileLanguages: EnglishVersion(s): Web, Android and iOS6

Customer: US Millennium online shopper

Web Analytics:

Google analytics, Adobe Analytics

What is not in scopeExclusions

Non US Location Physical location

Business Value

Rationale There is currently no site offering customers ability to buy bags online

for millenniums Millennium Customers responded via survey in an overwhelming

response on the NEED for the online site

Quantifiable Business Impacts: Projection of 2 million dollars in first quarter of year 2016 (See detail

spreadsheet of pricing model)

Non-Quantifiable Impacts: Customer satisfaction Improvement in LuggageProsMo Branding.

Collaboration Team

Review History

Date Activity Comments6/2/14 Document created First draft8/18/14 Document created Second draft

Revision History

Date Version

Comments

8/18/14 1.0

Appendix 5: Third- Party marketing tools

3rd party marketing research tools:

eMarketerForresterGartner

Appendix 6: User Personas

A user persona is a representation of the goals and behavior of a hypothesized group of users. In most cases, personas are synthesized from data collected from interviews with users.

Persona: Contemporary Diaspora ChildrenStatus SingleGender Male/ FemaleAge 18- 25Occupation Student/

Young professionals

MOTIVATIONLove for Africa, hear stories about Africa from parents, Parents want me to visit Africa not to lose my roots, Continent prestige, Building a model Africa continent and countries successful.

DESCRIPTION•Born of African parents but only occasionally visit Africa with parents.•I know my Grand parents and families from African descents. •Learnt the value of hard work from Parents and Gran parents•I am constantly told about my African values and not to lose it.•I am expected to have a minimum of education to masters level, minimum to have a PhD..

GOALSTo contribute to the continent of Africa through education, entrepreneurship, employment, and Gender inclusion.

FRUSTRATION:•There is no platform to channel positive contribution to Africa•Originally imagined a return to Africa, but no conducive environment to utilize the new skillsets acquired.•There is no central place to get information about ways to contribute to continent•There are no clear mentorship programs to guide decision about the continent•There is a GAP between AU members and leadership..POTENTAIL GROUPS AFFILIATED WITH•LinkedIn•Black power Movement•International Arica Student body for his College

Personality

NeutralPro Africa

BIOShola (“Sholay”) is an articulate African American with strong root to the continent of African via the parents. She is a proud African and let people know her root is from Africa. She has strong work ethics imbibed from her African parents. Like many African children her aspiration was either going to be a Doctor, Engineer, Lawyer but she seems focused on her pre-med to become a Doctor . She wants to be a neurosurgeon , brain doctor.

Motto:“I am a slow walker , but I never walk backwards”

Extrovert Introvert

Open Minded Rigid

THE End

References

www.Scrumalliance.orgwww.Agilemanifesto.orgScrummethodology.com