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1. @ramonguiu 1
Lost In Translation
The Product Manager in Agile Organizations

2. Ramon Guiu
@ramonguiu
linkedin.com/in/ramonguiu
• 13 years building sofware
• Director of Product Management, Xyleme
• SaaS CMS and Mobile for Learning
• Completely Virtual
• Barcelona

3. @ramonguiu 3
SaaS & Mobile for learning
Semi-Agile
3 Products + 2 Apps +
3 Services
130 employees
Agile
1 Platform + 1 Apps
Semi-Agile
2 Products + 1 App
Semi-Agile
2 Products + 2 Apps +
1 Services
35 employees
Waterfall
1 Product + 1 App
2011
20132012
20152014

4. @ramonguiu
$94m
$292m
$1,700m
Initial
Budget
Before
Launch
Actual
• Launched in 1 October 2013. That day only 6
people could enroll
• 1% of users could enroll the first week
• For those, some mandatory information
missing
• Still many errors in January 2014
• UX and Architecture design problems
• Unexpected Load - was not tested enough

5. @ramonguiu
3 People Launch v1: UX Added Enrollments 3% of enrollments
8 people
Oct 2013 Nov 2013 Mar 2014 2015
“The Health Sherpa makes it ridiculously easy
for anyone to compare health care plans
covered under Obamacare in 34 states”
… it does cast light on the difference between what can be
done by a small group of experts, steeped in Silicon Valley's
anything-is-possible mentality, and a massive government
project in which politics and bureaucracy seem to have helped
create an unwieldy mess.

7. @ramonguiu 7
Waterfall
Requirements
Implementation
Maintenance
Design
Verification
Makes a lot of sense!

8. @ramonguiu
The Traditional Product Manager
8
Go To Market
Vision & Strategy
Requirements &
Specs
Profitability

9. @ramonguiu 9
Management Waterfall
Predictability of the process
Deliverables - sense of progress

12. @ramonguiu

13. @ramonguiu 13
Waterfall
Requirements
Implementation
Maintenance
Design
Verification
Many months, even years
Not as good as we thought :(

14. @ramonguiu
Waterfall Fails in Software
14
Validation too late
in the Process
Change is expensive,
disruptive
Slow respose to
market changes

15. @ramonguiu 15
How do we address these problems?

16. @ramonguiu 16
Technical
Excellence
Customer
Satisfaction
Sustainable
Development
Simplicity
The Agile Manifesto
Continuous
Improvement
Self-
organization
Progress
=
Software
Face-to-face
Trust
Business
+
Development
Continuous
Delivery
Changing
Requirements

17. @ramonguiu 17
SCRUM
Isn’t this just a sequence of mini-waterfalls?

18. @ramonguiu
The Principles Are Different
18
Shared Ownership
Reduce Waste
Continuous Colaboration
Experiment and Measure
Detailed requirements and solution design are
defined as later as possible
The whole team is responsible for delivering
successful software
Release early, measure and adapt. The same
principle is applied to the product and to the
All members of the team discuss regularly, often
daily to ensure they are aligned

19. @ramonguiu
The SCRUM Product Owner
19
Share Knowledge
Product Backlog
User Stories
Maximize Value

20. @ramonguiu
The Traditional Product Manager
20
Go To Market
Vision & Strategy
Requirements &
Specs
Profitability

21. @ramonguiu
So the Traditional Product Manager is
now called the SCRUM Product Owner
Wrong!

22. @ramonguiu
The Product Owner is a new role that
may or may not be performed by the
Product Manager

23. @ramonguiu 23
Scenario 1
One person acts as Product
Manager and Product Owner

24. @ramonguiu 24
Scenario 2
Split responsibilities between
Product Manager (strategic)
and Product Owner (tactical)
with very close collaboration

25. @ramonguiu 25
Scenario 3
Go To Market handled by
Product Marketing, the Product
Manager does the rest

26. @ramonguiu
Don’t Get Lost in Translation!
26
A great Product Manager is still key
Don’t be sectary: Experiment and Adapt
Embrace Agile Principles