This webinar discusses, in depth, the product manager and product owner role in Agile. We’ll unpack goals, roles, and the skills needed to deliver great products with revenue impact. Read more at https://www.synerzip.com/webinar/demystifying-agile-product-management-webinar-january-2014/

1. Demystifying Agile
Product Management
Rich Mironov
CEO, Mironov Consulting
January 22, 2014

2. About Rich Mironov
• Veteran product manager/exec/strategist
– Business models, pricing, agile
– Organizing product organizations
– “What do customers want?”
• 6 startups, including as CEO/founder
• “The Art of Product Management”
• Founded Product Camp, chaired first
agile product manager/owner tracks
www.synerzip.com

3. Agenda
1. What is a product manager? An
agile product owner?
2. Finding and growing product skills
3. Product management/ownership in
distributed models
3
Demystifying
Agile
Product
Managemen
t
www.synerzip.com

4. The Set-up
• “Product manager” is a job title
– Org charts, HR category, not necessarily agile
– Reports to Marketing, Engineering or executives
• “Product owner” is an agile team role
– Part of self-organizing team
– Reports to Engineering or Program Office
• Work has to get done, regardless of title
– Sprint-level stories, backlogs, priorities,
acceptance…
– Engagement with users, buyers and corporate
priorities
4www.synerzip.com

5. What Does A Product Manager Do?
• For commercial / revenue software…
– Drives delivery and market acceptance of whole
products
– Targets market segments, not individual customers
– “Are we building the right thing?”
• For strategic internal development…
– Drives acceptance and adoption
– Resolves inevitable competing priorities
5www.synerzip.com

6. market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, epics,
user stories, backlogs,
personas, MRDs…
product
bits
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,
targets
Field input,
Market feedback
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Management
What Does A Product Manager Do?
www.synerzip.com

7. Feeding The Agile Beast
Steam engine
“fireman” needs to
keep shoveling coal,
otherwise the train
will stop
IMO, agile needs 40-
60% more product
management than
waterfall
7www.synerzip.com

8. What Does a Product Owner Do
• “…represents the customer’s interest in
backlog prioritization and requirements
questions... available to the team at any
time.”
• Feeds the hungry agile beast
• Provides intense sprint-level focus: stories,
backlog, prioritization, acceptance
• Wins adulation of development teams
• Does portion of product management that
developers see
www.synerzip.com

9. backlog, priorities,
epics, user stories,
personas, demo feedback
product
bits
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Owner
„small p‟ Product Owner
showcase
customers
www.synerzip.com

10. Product Owner‟s Calendar
From Catherine Connor, Rally
www.synerzip.com

11. Product Manager Has More Levers
• Engineering output
– Product features
– Order of delivery
• Whole
product/business
model
– Pricing
– Competitive positioning
– Distribution
– Services
11
Product
manager
Product
owner
After: Greg Cohen
www.synerzip.com

12. Why is Prioritization Hard?
• Customer/field demands
always far outstrip resources
– Likely discard 80%+ of
enhancement requests
• Decisions are semi-quantitative
– Huge error bars on revenue impact, market
reactions, development estimates, support costs
– Short-term vs. long-term
• Incremental features grow into crufty products
– Deal-driven vs. strategic “curating”
• People and organizations matters
Confidential 12www.synerzip.com

13. Product Manager Failure Modes
Product Manager fails agile team when…
• 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”
13www.synerzip.com

14. Product Owner Failure Modes
Product Owner fails the market when…
• Weak on market realities: pricing,
packaging, selling cycle, upgrades,
discounting, service models,
competitive dynamics
• Disconnected from Marketing,
Sales, Support/Services
• Trading off company strategy for product features
• Confusing showcase customers with broader
market
14www.synerzip.com

15. Market Failure Modes
• Delivering (big) products that don’t sell
• Commitment to outdated plans
• Urgency to start coding
• Assuming static markets
Independent of titles, how
do we reduce risk of
catastrophic failures?
15www.synerzip.com

16. Agenda
1. What is a product manager? An
agile product owner?
2. Finding and growing product
skills
3. Product management/ownership in
distributed models
16
Demystifying
Agile
Product
Managemen
t
www.synerzip.com

17. What PM Hiring Managers Want
Analyzed 41 recent technology product
manager job postings
• 76% want previous PM experience
(average of 3.3 years)
• 93% want excellent verbal and written
communication skills
• 93% want a BS (68% prefer CS/EE)
• 32% want MBAs
• 88% want experience in that
company’s market segment
17www.synerzip.com

18. How Development Managers Hire
• Look first for SMEs
• Huge premium on technical chops, story writing
• Rarely consider market-side experience
– Believe in rational/unemotional/technical customers
• Undervalue
organizational
“blocking” skills
• Can be
disastrous for
revenue
products
www.synerzip.com

19. Look for Balanced Set of Talents
• Product experience, ideally
in multiple markets
• Technical enough to
succeed with your Dev team
• Demonstrated empathy for
customers
• Can deal with different
styles/personality types
Confidential 19www.synerzip.com

20. Agenda
1. What is a product manager? An
agile product owner?
2. Finding and growing product skills
3. Product management/ownership
in distributed models
20
Demystifying
Agile
Product
Managemen
t
www.synerzip.com

21. Practical Reality
21
• Most development teams are
distributed
– Often in multiple locations
– Far from Marketing and Sales
• Agile development, waterfall validation
– Focus on timely delivery
• Need winning products, not just code
– Keep our product decisions agile
www.synerzip.com

22. Distinct Product Managers/Owners?
One way to split up work
• Product Manager
– Program-level responsibility for features, stories, teams
– Feature-level backlog, review, team-level escalations
– Intensive daily collaboration with product owners,
customer prospects
– 40% scrum-of-scrums, 40% customers, 20% overhead
• Product Owner
– 100% dedicated to 1 or 2 scrum teams
– Manage/groom team backlog, write/accept all stories,
sprint planning and reviews
– Solid line to product management
22www.synerzip.com

23. Minimal PM/PO “Organization”
23
VP or Founders
more technical more market-focused
Heroic Single
Product Manager/Owner
“management”
www.synerzip.com

24. Dysfunctional PO/PM Organization
24
VP Eng
Product
Owners
VP Marketing
Product
Managers
more technical more market-focused
“management”
www.synerzip.com

25. PM/PO Product Peers
25
PM Director/
Product Strategist
GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO
more technical more market-focused
“management”
www.synerzip.com

26. PM/PO: Market Mentoring
26
GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO
more technical more market-focused
“management”
www.synerzip.com

27. Delegating Stories and Acceptance?
• Varies with team, project, technical depth
• Which stories (design choices) are customer-
visible?
– Example: extra focus on UI, configuration options?
– Example: performance goal (epic) versus specific
performance improvements (stories)
• Plan ahead, negotiate a working agreement
– What kinds of story writing, to whom?
– Acceptance of which stories, to whom?
– Check in frequently: where are the bottlenecks?
27www.synerzip.com

28. Take-Aways
• Product management is a superset of
product ownership
• Successful products demand real market
validation, hard-nosed economic thinking
and uncomfortable trade-offs
• Product managers need to be
near customers and markets;
product owners need to
be near development
www.synerzip.com

29. Questions?
www.synerzip.com
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349

30. Synerzip in a Nutshell
1. Software product development partner for small/mid-
sized technology companies
• Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies, typically
venture-backed companies in growth phase
• By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients
• Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment
2. Dedicated & stable team of high caliber software
professionals for each client
• Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency
• Stable teams with very low turn-over
• NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery
• Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline
• Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage
5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking
offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option
www.synerzip.com

31. Confidential
Our Clients

32. Call Us for a Free Consultation!
Hemant Elhence
hemant@synerzip.com
469.322.0349
Thanks!
www.synerzip.com