These are the slides from my talk at the LESS 2011 conference in Stockholm, Sweden. Product Ownership is a multi-faceted responsibility that demands a broad set of perspectives combined with deep product and domain knowledge. Effective product ownership requires both an internal and an external perspective. The challenges are amplified for large complex organizations developing large complex products and systems. In different organizations, engineering, product management, user experience and other functional groups can all lay claim to the role with some legitimacy.This talk will describe the challenges of understanding product ownership in large organizations, and of filling the product owner role effectively. We present different models for filling the product owner role, including single product owner, proxy product owner, and product owner teams.

1. Product
Ownership
Challenges
in
Large
Organiza7ons

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3. • Is
responsible
for
the
success
of
the
product
• Be
available
to
the
Delivery
Team
throughout
the
Itera7on
• Represents
the
user
and
customer
• Decides
what
features
go
into
the
product
• Point
of
contact
for
Delivery
Team
to
get
ques7ons
answered
• Writes
requirements
in
the
form
of
user
stories
• Helps
team
make
decisions
• Maintains
the
product
backlog
• Never
(ever,
ever)
produce
es7mates
on
behalf
of
Delivery
Team
• Responsible
for
priori7zing
product
backlog
items
• Engage
customer
both
internal
and
• Decides
the
order
in
which
content
is
external
delivered
• Accepts
user
stories
using
the
Defini7on
of
• Works
with
Delivery
Team
to
determine
Done
and
acceptance
criteria
specific
itera7on
content
• Remains
engaged
and
responsive
• Communicates
expecta7ons
throughout
the
project
• Defines
project
goals
• Conducts
the
Sprint
Review
• Sets
project
vision
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4. January
‘08
December
‘09
September
‘10
Formal
Agile
Ongoing
Transi7on
Program
Agile
Office
Pilot
Projects
Established
Increased
Adop7on
con7nuous
Launched
improvement
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012+
• Teams
• More
Teams
• Commitment
to
• Expand
adop7on
• Build
on
successes
• Agile
Projects
• Agile
Program
sustainable
and
across
product
areas
• Learn
and
adapt
• Organic
Growth
Management
sustained
agility
• Improve
capability
of
• Refine
and
Improve
• System
Wide
Focus
• Broad
Organiza7on
organiza7on
• Expanded
adop7on
• Formal
Training
Plan
Focus
• Specific
areas
of
across
product
areas
• Formal
Exec
Support
• Focused
Stakeholder
focus,
including
• New
people
and
• Broader
Stakeholder
Engagement
architecture
in
lean/
Engagement
teams
agile
organiza7ons
• Scaling
across
• PorYolio
porYolio
Management
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5. • Lots
of
people

• Internal
Conferences,
Learning
Company
• Working
Team
• Transi7on
Team
• ~6000
people
• ~150+
Agile
Teams
Technology
Group
• Core
Working
Team
• Transi7on
Team
• ~600
People
Business
Unit
• ~35+
Agile
Teams
People,
Products,
PorYolios,
Systems
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7. Sprint
Planning
Design
Backlog
Delivery
Management
Test
Build
Demo
Acceptance
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15. • …
are
in
a
single
Scrum
Team?
• …
does
it
take
to
build
and
deliver
a
product?
• …
does
it
take
to
ship
a
product?
• …
does
it
take
to
ship
a
system?
• …
are
affected
by
the
crea7on
and
delivery
of
the
product?
ken.power@gmail.com
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17. Scrum
Master
Product
Cross-­‐Func7onal
Owner
Delivery
Team
Scrum
Team
Product
Owner
Team
System
User
PorYolio
Experience
Extended
Delivery
Team
Council
Team
Other
Business
Units
Product
Development
Beta
TME
Manager
Manager
GB
Channel
UE
Ramp
Program
Product
Lead
Alpha
Manager
Early
Sales
Access
Architect
Support
QA
Program
Manager
Engineers
Tech
Customer
Support
Engagement
Team
Product
Team
Marke7ng
ken.power@gmail.com
@ken_power

18. • Priori7za7on
• Technical
Requirements
• Customer
• Technology
Direc7on
Requirements
• Technology
Strategy
• Revenue
• Engineering
Investment
(People)
• Dependencies
Development
Product
(Tac7cal,
(Strategic)
Opera7onal)
Quality
(Product
Quality,
Program
Con7nuity,
(Organiza7on)
Customer
Focus)
• Engineering
Investment
• Process
Owner
(People)
• Stakeholder
Engagement
• Quality
Direc7on
• Dependency
Management
• Quality
Strategy
• Objec7vity
• Quality
Requirements
• Con7nuous
Inspec7on
&
Adap7on
ken.power@gmail.com
@ken_power

19. • The
Product
Owner
role
can
be
filled
by
a
collabora7ve
Product
Owner
Team
– Typically
a
Product
Manager,
Development
Manager,
UE
Lead,
Architect,
Program
Manager
• Meet
regularly
as
a
team
to
manage
the
backlog
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21. • Ronica
Roth
ar7cle
iden7fies
6
scenarios
for
filling
the
Product
Owner
role
– Scrum
101
(Single
Product
Owner)
– Scrum
1012
(Product
Owner
per
Team)
– Product
Manager,
aka
Uber
Product
Owner
– Dynamic
Duo
– Product
Council
– Product
Owner
Team
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22. • New
Features
• Technical
Debt
• Quality
Debt
• Spike
Tests
• Research
• Planning
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23. Investment
Technical
Debt
Quality
Debt
Features
Spike
Tests
Research
Planning
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24. Investment
Technical
Debt
Quality
Debt
Features
Spike
Tests
Research
Planning
ken.power@gmail.com
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25. “ Who
looks
outside,
dreams;
who
looks
inside,
awakes.”
Carl
Gustav
Jung
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26. Internal
&
External
View
of
Product
Ownership
External
FCS
Sell
Install
Day
2+
Product
Ownersip
Delivery
Customer
Teams
Engagement
Teams
Product
Internal
Product
Ownership
7me
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27. Execs Market focus
Management
Projects
Portfolio
Products
Strategy
Projects Themes
Epics
8.5 MR ES 8.6 MR MR 9.0 MR MR 10.0
User
Stories Portfolio
Councils
Product
Team
DeliveryTeams Internal focus
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27
Cisco Confidential

28. Cadence
and
Sequencing
Full
Product
Release
Release
Rhythm
Project Product
Rhythm
Increment
Itera7on
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@ken_power

29. Do something cool
As a
User
I want to
do something cool with the product
So that I can
benefit in some way
Concept
Happy
User
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30. Level
of
Focus
on
the
User
Story
Done
Ready
Product
Owner
Team
Concept
Start
Done
Accept
End
Ship
It
Time
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31. • User
Story
defined
• User
Story
Acceptance
Criteria
defined
• User
Story
dependencies
iden7fied
• User
Story
sized
by
Delivery
Team
• Team
accepts
UE
artefacts
• Performance
criteria
iden7fied,
where
appropriate
• Person
who
will
accept
the
User
Story
is
iden7fied
• Delivery
Team
has
reviewed
and
accepted
the
User
Story
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32. SycnhronizaCon
Point
Defini7ons
of
Ready
&
Done
act
as
focusing
anchors
for
teams,
Product
Owners,
and
everyone
involved
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35. • Consider
Product
Ownership,
not
just
Product
Owner
role
• Product
Owner
Teams
bring
balance
• Understand
and
Engage
Stakeholders
• Take
an
Internal
and
External
Perspec7ve
• Think
of
Product
Ownership
like
managing
an
investment
porYolio
• Understand
Your
System’s
Cadence
and
Establish
synchroniza7on
points
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36. Thank you.
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