Product Owners: Five Mistakes That Make Your Project #fail

Product Owners: Five Mistakes That Make Your Project #fail Nils Weisensee

What's this about? “ He is most powerful who has power over himself ” Seneca ( Roman philosopher)

“ Many people fall because they are afraid of letting go” Lisa Weisensee (German rock climber )

Who? [email_address]
Background in Media Studies, Political Science & International Journalism
Worked as web designer & online consultant
Did fun stuff totally unrelated to software
Joined The NetCircle as Community Manager in Shanghai (they build social networking software)
Did more fun stuff unrelated to software
Became Certified Scrum Product Owner at The NetCircle

Topics
Lack of Priorities
Lack of Planning
Lack of Product Vision
Lack of Presence
Lack of Trust

Mistake #1 Lack of Priorities Do everything at once!

Mistake #1: Lack of Priorities
Don't prioritize only by gut feeling or intuition
Don't let the team do your work in the Planning Meeting ____________________________________________
Prioritize by business value and risk

Mistake #1: Lack of Priorities
Don't prioritize only by gut feeling or intuition
Don't let the team do your work in the Planning Meeting ____________________________________________
Prioritize by business value and risk
Fail fast and reiterate

Mistake #2 Lack of Planning Surprise your team with new ideas in the middle of the sprint!

Mistake #2: Lack of Planning
Ideas are good, but sometimes have to wait
Don't disrupt the team because your ideas are running late
Disruptions have a price: Lower quality, delayed deployment
If a story change affects the estimated points, don't do it

Mistake #3 Lack of Product Vision Change direction as often as possible!

Mistake #3: Lack of Product Vision
No clear vision for your product? Urgh.
Lack of consistency in product vision? Confront the client! Realize the costs of disruption!

Mistake #3: Lack of Product Vision
No clear vision for your product? Urgh.
Lack of consistency in product vision? Confront the client! Realize the costs of disruption!
Agile flexibility is useless if efficiency is lacking

Mistake #4 Lack of Presence Get an office on the top floor!

Mistake #4: Lack of Presence
Problems: Lack of physical or intellectual presence

Mistake #4: Lack of Presence
Problems: Lack of physical or intellectual presence
Risks: Questions not asked during sprint, team members assume leadership
But: PO presence does not mean PO interference!

Mistake #5 Lack of Trust Make your team work harder!

Mistake #5: Lack of Trust
Pressuring the team will backfire
Lack of testing and refactoring, more bugs to fix later
Nobody hates fixing old code more than your developers
Trust the team. If they say it's a 20, don't argue

Conclusions
Don't be afraid of letting go where the team should function on its own
Know which tasks cannot be delegated
Be available when needed, but don't disturb
Trust your team

Thanks for listening!
Which mistakes did you make?
What lessons did you learn?
Nils Weisensee [email_address]

Product Owners: Five Mistakes That Make Your Project #fail

by Nils Weisensee on Oct 17, 2010

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Product Owners: Five Mistakes That Make Your Project #fail — Webinar Transcript