Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus: A Practical Guide to Working With Product Owners on Agile Projects

Slide 1: Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus: A Practical Guide to working with Product Owners on Agile Projects Programmersnare from Mars,oProduct Owners ares from Venus - Slide 1 excelle ce and inn vation with pas ion A Bit About Me Angela Martin 13 + Years Industry Experience (Past) Director of Agile Alliance PhD Candidate – A Grounded Theory on the Role of Customers in XP Projects Contact Details – e: angela@martinitconsulting.com – p: 07717 653 971 Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 2 Coming up … You’ll develop a realistic understanding Game of the complexity and difficulty of the (75 minutes) Product Owner role You’ll develop an understanding of the Community product owner community and the roles (60 minutes) that develop and why they matter You’ll develop an understanding of Practices some product owner practices – think (30 minutes) “XP practices” BUT for product owners Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 3

Slide 2: Why Study the Agile “Customer”? “All the best talent and technology and process in the world will fail when the customer isn’t up to scratch” — Kent Beck, Martin Fowler [2001] Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 4 Product Owners Speak “I think it’s worked very well, but … I don’t know how long [I can] keep this pace up” — Product Owner, EagleCorp “Overall – I love this approach … and I’d certainly like to use it again … We probably needed about three of me … it’s been my life … look at these grey hairs” — Product Owner, KiwiCorp “I’ve always worked at least 70 [or] 80 [hrs a week] I don’t even mind it, its like what I do” — Product Owner, RavenCorp Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 5 Game Overview Goal of the game – Walk a mile in product owner’s shoes !! (second iteration) Mechanism – To develop a 5 minute presentation (for a book proposal) with visual aids covering your best & worst product owner / end-user / stakeholder(s) experience Timings – You have 10 mins to write stories and prepare materials – You have 05 mins to plan the sprint X2 – You have 15 mins to design the visual aids Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 6

Slide 3: Reflection So, how did that work for you? — “Dr Phil” Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 7 Community Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 8 Product Owner Community Scrum Master Stakeholders Product Owner & Scrum Team An informal community forms around the Product Owner Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 9

Slide 4: Roles Direction Negotiator . Diplomat . Steward Collaboration Skill Guides Specialists Geek Interpreter . Technical Liaison . Political Advisor Acceptance Tester . UI Designer . Technical Writer Role Job Title A role can have just one person doing it or many people doing it A person can do just one role or may be doing multiple roles Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 10 Collaboration Guides Collaboration Guides Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 11 Geek Interpreter H3Y D00DZ, L3TZ C0D3 UP SUM ST0R1Z Product Owners who are not themselves (ex-) programmers often lack expertise in the jargon of programmers The Geek Interpreter provides a “sounding board” or sanity check for the Product Owner Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 12

Slide 5: Technical Liaison Most projects don’t exist on their own They have to deal with existing organization technical infrastructures Product Owners who attempt to deal with all of the technical liaison quickly become overloaded This liaison task deserves a person to be responsible for it Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 13 Political Adviser Product Owners are often project focused and so cannot be involved in organization politics Product Owners need help to identify players & rules – Who needs to say “yes!”, Who needs to stop saying “no!” – Which rules to follow, Which rules to break The Political Advisor(s) works with the Product Owner to ensure they succeed: – This role is always unofficial and a wise Product Owner will find Political Advisors they can trust quickly Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 14 Direction Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 15

Slide 6: Diplomat Product Owner teams require organizational representative(s), including: – Subject matter experts, End-users, Senior Stakeholders – Architects, Marketing, Operations They are responsible for representing their organizational area or perspective on the project The people fulfilling this role may be full-time or part-time Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 16 Steward The person everyone approaches when the product owner is not available They know the stories intimately – Keep them organized! – Track the stories through their lifecycle, often with a sticker system with different colors representing each stage Supports the Product Owner team with all of the non- story tasks too – For example, organizing meetings Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 17 Negotiator The Product Owner is always identified Characteristics of successful Product Owners: – Good (active) listeners, confident and decisive – Comfortable working at the “big picture” and detailed levels – Know their limitations and work with a community – Handle intense pressure … workaholics should apply! – Create shared understanding between multiple perspectives We named the role Negotiator to emphasize the interaction with the larger product owner community Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 18

Slide 7: Practices Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 19 Practices Product Owner Road Show Acceptance Testing Daily Stand-ups Product Owner Pairing Diplomat Recharging Counselor Product Owner Telling the Story Programmer Holiday Boot Camp Product Owner’s Three-Month Calibration Programmer On-Site Apprentice Magic Happens Here Look Before You Leap Sprint Planning Envision . Collaboration . Negotiation . Learn Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 20 Programmer On–Site Programmers need to understand and respect their users Very old advice – get the programmers into the field: – “Boeing offers all its avionics programmers seats on an early test flight” – “I worked with a social worker, doing a death review. This is what she does every day” Not about making decisions! – Understanding the end user and context of use – Making your suggestions actually helpful Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 21

Slide 8: Product Owner Apprentice Programmers need to understand the Product Owner “To understand someone, walk a mile in their shoes” So, rotate programmers to act as the Product Owner Apprentice: – Writing stories, being secretary – Attending meetings with users & stakeholders Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 22 Programmer Holiday Scrum is intense Product Owners sometimes need some time to get ahead of programmers – The stay ahead dynamic is REALLY important Product Owners sometimes need to send the programmers on holiday – For example, an iteration focused on technical refactoring and / or technical debt Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 23 Product Owner Practices Product Owner Road Show Acceptance Testing Daily Stand-ups Product Owner Pairing Diplomat Recharging Counselor Product Owner Telling the Story Programmer Holiday Boot Camp Product Owner’s Three-Month Calibration Programmer On-Site Apprentice Magic Happens Here Look Before You Leap Sprint Planning Envision . Collaboration . Negotiation . Learn Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 24