Becoming an Effective Product Owner

Becoming an Effective
Product Owner
Mike Cohn
14 November 2006
1

© Mountain Goat Software, LLC
Four questions
2 What are some differences between the role
of the product owner and the ScrumMaster?
1 What are the primary responsibilities of the
product owner?
3 What skills should the ideal product owner
possess?
4 What things would you expect to happen on
a project without a product owner?
2

Traditional view of product management
Identify customer
needs
Generate
product concepts
concepts
Test product
concepts
3

Prior to Scrum and Agile, it was considered
prudent to understand what was wanted and
how it was going to be delivered at the very
start of the project.
All future work hung off, depended on this
work.
The theory was that changes at the start of the
project cost $1, but the same change made
when the project was 60% complete cost $100.
4

Means Uncertainty
EndUncertainty
High
Low
High Low
Waterfall
Means Uncertainty
EndUncertainty
High
Low
High Low
Agile
5

Emergence
advance
uncover some requirements, but
Every project has some
emergent requirements
Emergent requirements are those are users cannot
identify in advance
6

So what do we do?
We talk more, write less
But write some if you need to
Show software to users
Acknowledge that requirements emerge
And all that this implies
product
backlog
7

Strategy
Portfolio
Product
Release
Sprint
Daily
Agile Product
Management is
mostly concerned
with the space
from Product to
Sprint.
8

Telling Stories
with the
Product Backlog
9

Stories are traditionally written
on note cards.
May be annotated with notes,
estimates, etc.
Card
Source: XP Magazine 8/30/01, Ron Jeffries.
Details behind the story come
out during conversations with
product owner
Conversation
story was coded correctly
10

As a user, I want to
reserve a hotel room.
As a user, I want to
cancel a reservation.
As a vacation planner, I
want to see photos of the
hotels.
As a frequent flier, I
want to rebook a past
trip, so that I save time
booking trips I take
often.
11

As a user, I can cancel a reservation.
Does the user get a full or partial refund?
Is the refund to her credit card or is it site credit?
How far ahead must the reservation be cancelled?
Is that the same for all hotels?
For all site visitors? Can frequent travelers cancel later?
How?
12

The product owner’s conditions of satisfaction can be
added to a story
As a user, I can cancel a
reservation. Verify that a premium member can
cancel the same day without a fee.
Verify that a non-premium member is
charged 10% for a same-day
cancellation.
Verify that an email confirmation is
sent.
Verify that the hotel is notified of
any cancellation.
13

As a user, I can
cancel a
reservation.
As a premium site
member, I can cancel a
reservation up to the
last minute.
As a non-premium
member, I can cancel
up to 24 hours in
advance.
As a site visitor, I am
emailed a confirmation
of any cancelled
reservation.
14

You can start by identifying only a sprint’s worth of
backlog items
But, it’s often quick and easy to stock the product
backlog with most of its items
This is helpful for release planning, expectation setting,
The key is to write product backlog items with
different levels of detail
Fine-grained for stories about to be worked on
Coarse-grained for stories further in the future
15

User Story
A description of desired
perspective of the user or
customer.
Theme
user stories.
Epic
16

As aVP Marketing, I want
to review the
performance of historical
promotional campaigns
so that I can identify and
As aVP Marketing, I want to
select the timeframe to use
when reviewing the performance
of past promotional campaigns,
so that I can identify and repeat
As aVP Marketing, I can select
which type of campaigns (direct
mail,TV, email, radio, etc.) to
include when reviewing the
performance of historical
promotional campaigns.
An epic;
17

As aVP Marketing, I want to see
information on direct mailings when
reviewing historical campaigns.
information on television advertising when
information on email advertising when
18

Includes developers, users, customer, others
Brainstorm to generate stories
Goal is to write as many stories as possible
Some will be “implementation ready”
Others will be “epics”
No prioritization at this point
19

Start with epics and iterate
As a frequent flier,
I want to see check
my account.
I want to ...
Frequent
flier
I want to book a
trip using miles.
I want to rebook a
trip I take often.
I want to request an
upgrade.
I want to see if my
upgrade cleared.
I want to book a
trip.
20

Another approach
interface
Ask open-ended, context-free questions as you go:
What will the users most likely want to do next?
What mistakes could the user make here?
What could confuse the user at this point?
What additional information could the user need?
Consider these questions for each user role
21

“As a <user role>, I want <goal>
so that <reason>.”
MyCookSpace.com
Your team has been hired and given gobs ofVC money to
create a social networking site (like MySpace) for cooks.The
idea is that cooks will exchange recipes and tips.They’ll also
buy kitchen-related products from the advertisers on the
site.We want some novel way of rewarding cooks who post
the best and most popular recipes as noted by other cooks
on the site.
Write some user stories for MyCookSpace.com.
22

Fixed
Process
Fixed
Output
Must be described in just enough detail to
be turned into the output by the process
Input
Just-in-time
just-enough
23

What makes a good story?
IndependentI
NegotiableN
ValuableV
EstimatableE
Sized AppropriatelyS
TestableT
24

Independent
Dependenices lead to problems estimating and
prioritizing
Can ideally select a story to work on without pulling
in 18 other stories
Negotiable
Stories are not contracts
Valuable
To users or customers, not developers
customers
25

Estimatable
Because plans are based on user stories, we need to
be able to estimate them
Sized Appropriately
Small enough to complete in one sprint if you’re
about to work on it
Bigger if further off on the horizon
Testable
Testable so that you have a easy, binary way of
except”
26

Prioritizing the
Product Backlog
27

Three steps
1. Organize needs into themes
2. Assess importance of each theme
3. Prioritize themes
28

Why themes?
Often individual stories cannot be prioritized
against each other
What’s more important in a word processor?
The A key or the E key?
Tables or undo?
What’s more important on a car?
The left front wheel or the right front wheel?
Increased leg room or a larger engine?
29

Steps for organizing into themes
1. Write each story on its own note card or
post-it
2. Eliminate redundant stories
3. Group similar stories
4. Label each group with a theme name
5. If you have a lot of themes or have small
themes, consider making themes of themes
6. Review the results
If you started with
a story-writing
workshop you may
already have
themes.
30

Distribute cards equally to all participants
No particular pattern to how you do this
Someone reads a card and places in on wall /
table
Others look for similar cards and add them to it
Next person reads a card, places it, and others
place similar cards with it
Continue repeating until out of cards
31

..., I want to see if my upgrade cleared.
Be sure you are organizing stories around user needs;
not around how you’ll build the software or
how the company is organized.
32

5-10
themes
Smaller
items as
needed
Typical release
(6-9 months)
has 50-100
product backlog
items
3-10
backlog
items per
theme
33

Two general approaches
1. Team opinion
2. Survey users
Theme screening
Theme scoring
Relative weighting
Kano analysis
Financial analysis
Analytic Hierarchy Process
Step 2
Assess importance of each theme
We’ll look at
today.
34

Choosing your approach
Expert
Opinion
User
Interview
Theme screening
Theme scoring
Relative weighting
Kano analysis
Financial analysis
Analytic Hierarchy Process
✔
✔
✔
✔ ✔
✔
✔ ✔
35

Theme screening
Identify 5-9 (approximately) selection criteria
for what is important in the next release
Select a baseline theme
Likely to be included in the next release
Understood by most team members
Assess each candidate theme relative to the
baseline theme
36

+ + - 0 - +Importance to existing customers
Competitiveness with ABC Corp.
ThemeF
ThemeE
ThemeC
ThemeB
ThemeA
0
ThemeG
Net score
+ - 0 0 0 0 0
+ 0 0 0 + + +
3
Generates revenue in Q2 0 0 0 0 + 0 +
Themes
0 0 1 0 2
Rank 1 4 5 4 3 4 2
Continue? Y N N Y Y N Y
+ = better than
0 = same as
- = worse than
37

Theme scoring
weighted
Avoids compression of a category
Much worse than reference 1
Worse than reference 2
Same as reference 3
Better than reference 4
Much better than reference 5
38

25 3 0.75
Competitive. with ABC
Starts us integrating...
Weight
Net score
10
15
3.90
Generates Q2 revenue 50
Theme A
Importance to existing cust.
Rating
Weighted
Score
2 0.20
3 0.45
5 2.50
1 0.25
Theme B
Rating
Weighted
Score
3 0.30
4 0.60
2 1.00
4 1.00
Theme C
Rating
Weighted
Score
3 0.30
4 0.60
3 1.50
2.15 3.40
Rank 1 3 2
Continue? Yes No Yes
39

Prioritizing MyCookSpace.com
Assume we have a minimally functional site up
with 4,000 registered cooks
We want 400,000 cooks
As groups, decide whether you want to use theme
screening or theme scoring.
Identify 4-5 themes
Identify some selection criteria
What’s important to the company in making this
decision?
Complete a theme screening/scoring worksheet
40

41

∑
∑
8 6 14 40 64 44More investment choices
CostPercent
Estimate
91
Priority
9 2 11 31 40 27 115
1 9 10 29 42 29 100
35 100 146 100
Themes
42

8 6 22 41 64 44More investment choices
CostPercent
Estimate
Themes
93
Priority
9 2 20 38 40 27 141
1 9 11 21 42 29 72
53 100 14 100
2 1Weight→
43

Priority poker
An iterative approach to estimating:
44

A
2
3
4 5 6 7 8 9
Estimator Round 1 Round 2
Susan
Vadim
Ann
Chris
3 5
8 5
2 5
5 7
45

Relative weighting MyCookSpace.com
Using priority poker and the relative weighting
worksheet provided, prioritize the themes you’ve
46

Mandatory /
Baseline
Must be present in order for
Linear The more of it, the better
Three types of features
Exciters /
Delighters
Features a user doesn’t know
she wants, until she sees it
47

Surveying users
To assess whether a feature is baseline, linear,
or exciting we can:
Sometimes guess
Or survey a small set of users (20-30)
We ask two questions
A functional question
How do you feel if a feature is present?
And a dysfunctional question
How do you feel if that feature is absent?
48

form of
question
I expect it to be that way.
X
form of
question water, how do you
I expect it to be that way. X
49

Categorizing an answer pair
Q E E E L
R I I I M
R I I I M
R I I I M
R R R R Q
Like
Expect
Livewith
Like
Expect
Neutral
Live with
Dislike
Dysfunctional Question
FunctionalQuestion
M Mandatory
L Linear
E Exciter
Q Questionable
R Reverse
I Indifferent
50

3 11 31 1 3 2
4 22 20 4 1 0
21 9 14 5 1 1
Apply formatting themes
Automate report execution
Export reports to PowerPoint
Questionable
Reverse
Indifferent
Mandatory
Linear
Exciter
Theme
51

All of the baseline features
Some amount of linear features
But leaving room for at least a few exciters
52

Date What Where
February
London
March 1,
2007
Denver, CO
2007 CA
Register at
www.mountaingoatsoftware.com
53

Mike Cohn contact info
mike@mountaingoatsoftware.com
www.mountaingoatsoftware.com
54

Becoming an Effective Product Owner

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