From JFall 2014 http://www.nljug.org/jfall/session/how-to-talk-to-your-product-owners-and-get-them-to/115/

1. HOW TO TALK TO YOUR
PRODUCT OWNER
AND GET HIM/HER TO DO WHAT YOU WANT

2. Engaged
leader
Accessible
for team
Knows product
inside & out
Empowered
Humble
Responsible
Prepared
Understands
customer
Understands
the company
Team
player
Knows and
understands
scrum
Naturally
communicative
Interested in IT
Visionary
Decision
maker
Fun
Feels ownership
of product
Reasonable
Business case
driven
Financially
responsible
Likeable
Excellent
stakeholder
manager
Passionate
Fire
Understands software
development lifecycle
Makes
roadmaps

3. Engaged
leader
Accessible
for team
Knows product
inside & out
Empowered
Humble
Responsible
Prepared
Understands
customer
Understands
the company
Team
player
Knows and
understands
scrum
Naturally
communicative
Interested in IT
Visionary
Decision
maker
Fun
Feels ownership
of product
Reasonable
Business case
driven
Financially
responsible
Likeable
Excellent
stakeholder
manager
Passionate
Fire
Understands software
development lifecycle
Makes
roadmaps

4. Engaged
leader
Knows product
inside & out
Accessible
for team
Empowered
Humble
Passionate
Excellent stakeholder
manager
Prepared
Responsible
Understands
customer
Understands
the company
Naturally
communicative
Team
player
Knows and
understands
scrum
Interested in IT
Visionary
Feels ownership
of product
Decision
maker
Fun
Reasonable
Communicator
Business case
driven
Financially
responsible
Likeable
Fire
Understands software
development lifecycle
Agile
Mindset
Business
knowledge
Vision
IT
Available Planner
Ownership
Makes
roadmaps

5. I need this new stuff ASAP! When will it be done?
Does this actually help our customers/users?
What are these n3rds saying??!!
How do I solve this budget problem??!
What can I promise the stakeholders?

7. THE DICTATOR
(MISSING A G I L E
MINDSET)
• Explain the agile process
and values
• Be firm on the agile
process and values
• Visualize your process and
progress
• Keep asking why

8. THE LEAF
(MISSING V I S I O N )
• Create a team and product
vision wall
• Share your enthusiasm
• Spend time and energy on
your demos
• Organize hackathons

9. THE
UNEMPOWERED
(MISSING OWNERSHIP)
• Help the product owner make
decisions on his/her own
• Create a united front with
the product owner against
outside pressure
• Visualize problems and
inform product owner on
impediments early on
• Be predictable and
trustworthy in your process

10. THE GEEK
(MISSING BUSINESS
KNOWLEDGE)
• Create user personas
together with your product
owner
• Organize field trips to see
your product used in action
• Oh, and btw: your product
owner should never tell you
how to implement a user
story (helpfull suggestions
occasionally allowed)

11. THE N00B
(MISSING I T
KNOWLEDGE)
• Be patient :)
• Take your time explaining
technical issues
• Create a business case for
technical user stories
(team is stakeholder too!)
• Be transparent

12. THE GHOST
(MISSING IN ACTION)
• Organize ready sessions and
help PO get user stories ready
• Visualize and virtualize as
much as possible
• Try to co-locate as much as
possible
• Limit the definition of ready to
INVEST
• If it really cannot be helped:
install a proxy PO

13. THE ANARCHIST
(MISSING PLANNING)
• Know your velocity and
backlog size
• Be as predictable as
possible in your
development process
• Help the PO with creating
business cases

14. THE LONE RANGER
(MISSING
COMMUNICATION)
• In the team:
• Force PO to attend (most of) the
scrum meetings
• Address the issue during the
retrospective: remember that the
team is a stakeholder too!
• Outside the team
• Have progress reports and backlog
burndown prepped and ready for all
stakeholders
As a single point of contact,
communicating is essential to the PO
role, maybe this is not the right fit for
him/her….

15. Lieve Lieke
ASK AT YOUR OWN RISK