Agile Product Mgmt, Dublin Jan2012

The Agile Product Manager / Product Owner Dilemma Rich Mironov 19 January 20121 www.mironov.com

About Rich Mironov Veteran product manager/exec/strategist  Business models, pricing, agile  Organizing product organizations  “What do customers want?” 5 startups, including as CEO/founder Author of “The Art of Product Management” and Product Bytes blog Founded Product Camp, chaired first product stage at annual Agile conference 2 www.mironov.com

Agenda What does a product manager do? Agile overview Agile and product managers/owners Conclusions 3 www.mironov.com 3

Disjoint Communities Product Agile Community Managers Still nearly empty, very lonely4 www.mironov.com

What Does a Product Manager Do? For commercial / revenue software…  PM drives delivery and market acceptance of whole products  PM targets market segments, not individual customers For strategic internal development…  PM resolves competing priorities  PM drives acceptance and adoption 5 www.mironov.com

What Does a Product Manager Do? budgets, staff, strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps, targets competitive intelligence Executivesmarket information, priorities,requirements, roadmaps, MRDs, Field input,personas, user stories… Product Market feedback Management Mktg & Markets & Development Sales Customers software Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos… 6 www.mironov.com

Product Mgmt Planning Horizons many years Strategy years Exec Portfolio many mons Product PM Release 2-9 mon Sprint 2 wk Dev Team Daily7 www.mironov.com

The ideal candidate for a tough job…8 www.mironov.com

Pragmatic Marketing® Framework Dir, Prod Strategy Prod Mktg Mgr Business Marketing Positioning Plan Plan Market Market Buying Customer Pricing Problems Definition Process Acquisition Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention Distinctive Product Product User Program Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness Market Strategy Business Planning Programs Readiness Support Competitive Product Require- Launch Sales Presentations Innovation Landscape Roadmap ments Plan Process & Demos Technology Use Thought “Special” Collateral Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls Status Lead Sales Event Dashboard Generation Tools Support Tech Prod Mgr Referrals & Channel Channel References Training Support9 www.mironov.com © 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved

Nature of PM Role No natural sequence for PM  Must work all aspects in parallel  Entire planning onion Intensely interrupt-driven Bottoms-up shapes top-down, top-down shapes bottoms-up Product Management must provide strategy, judgment and integration as well as execution 10 www.mironov.com

What is Agile? Umbrella term for various software project management and engineering practices  Iterative and collaborative  More frequent delivery of smaller increments  Building quality in, not adding it at the end  Goal of potentially shippable at every iteration  Active user involvement (or customer proxy)  Self-managing teams  Incremental process improvements 12 www.mironov.com

Agile is an Umbrella Agile Methods Extreme Feature Driven Test Driven Crystal Scrum Programming Development Development Methods (XP) (FDD) (TDD) Dynamic Agile Project Rapid Rational Systems Lean Management Application UnifiedDevelopment Development Framework Development Process (RUP)Model (DSDM) (APM) (RAD)13 www.mironov.com

Discussions about Agile… Part philosophy and religion Part process, tools, techniques, methods Part organizational design14 www.mironov.com

Why Not Waterfall? Waterfall projects Requirements and estimates rarely deliver according to plan Design Coding and unit test System integration & QA Operation and maintenance15 www.mironov.com

Fixed Vs. Variable Waterfall Agile Fixed Requirements Resources Time Value Plan Driven DrivenEstimated Resources Time Features The Plan creates cost/schedule Release themes and feature estimates intent drive estimates16 www.mironov.com

Agile’s Inner Loop (Development) After: Mike Cohn17 www.mironov.com

Agile’s Strategic Outer Loop (PM)•Markets •Customers•Customers •Sales•Biz Models •Marketing•Strategy •Support•Portfolios •Upgrades•Funding •EOL/EOS 18 www.mironov.com

Product Owner, Product Manager Most agilists think about “product owners”  Formal part of agile team  Needs to be physically present  Driving user stories and sub-iteration decisions  Showcases are primary method of customer input Most product managers are not agilists  Majority of work to deliver products (revenue) happens outside Engineering  Interacts with markets directly, not filtered through Sales or Marketing  Servicing multiple inbound and outbound queues 20 www.mironov.com

Product Owner’s Calendar21 Borrowed from Catherine Connor, Rally www.mironov.com

“small p” product owner Executives priorities, requirements, personas, user stories… product owner Marketing/Sales Development Customers software22 www.mironov.com

Adapted Pragmatic Marketing® Framework •Business •Marketing •Positioning Plan Plan •Market •Market •Buying •Customer •Pricing Problems Definition Process Acquisition •Win/Loss •Distribution •Buy, Build •Buyer •Customer Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention •Distinctive •Product •Product •User •Program Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness •Busines •Plannin •Readines •Market •Strategy •Programs •Support s g s •Competitive •Product •Require •Launch •Sales •Presentation •Innovation Landscape Roadmap ments Plan Process s & Demos •Technology •Use •Thought •“Special” •Collateral Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls •Status •Lead •Sales •Event Dashboard Generation Tools Support product owner •Referrals & •Channel •Channel References Training Support23 www.mironov.com

Product Manager Failure ModesSolo Product Manager fails the agile team if… 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” 24 www.mironov.com

Product Owner Failure ModesSolo Product Owner fails the market if… Weak on market realities  Pricing, packaging, selling, upgrades, service models, discounting, competitive dynamics Missing from outbound teams: Marketing, Sales, Support Trades off company-wide strategy for product features Confuses showcase customers with broader market 25 www.mironov.com

PO/PM Organizational Map GM - VP PM - VP Eng/CTO Product Management Organization product owners more market-focused more technical26 www.mironov.com

Conclusions Product management bridges engineering, markets and strategic planning Agile’s focus is on improving development processes Success requires strongly technical but market-oriented product managers  …who mentor product owners 28 www.mironov.com

Contact Information +1-650-315-7394 rich@mironov.com www.mironov.com @RichMironov www.linkedin.com/in/richmironov29 www.mironov.com

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Agile Product Mgmt, Dublin Jan2012

by Rich Mironov on Jan 29, 2012

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