5. Who is a Product Manager?
…who investigates,
selects and develop
one or more productsone or more products
for an organization...
…Delivers more value
than the competition
…Creates a sustainable
competitive difference
…Creates a sustainable
competitive difference
…Generates business
benefit to the
organization
Wikipedia
6. World of Product Management
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,budgets, staff,
Development
Mktg &
Sales
Executives
Product
Management
market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, MRDs,
personas, user stories…
software
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,
targets
Field input,
Market feedback
Markets &
Customers
11-Sep-11 6
software
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Inspired from Rich Mironov, author of “The Art of Product Management”
7. Product Management in Large Tech Companies
Talks to
the Market
Builds the
Listens to
the Market
11-Sep-11 7
Builds the
Product
8. “We are Agile”
Product Managers became Product Owners…who makes decisions about
what the product should do while taking into account whatwhat the product should do while taking into account what
people who make buying decisions actually want... Jeff
Patton
• Assure team is pursuing a common vision
• Establish priorities to track business value
11-Sep-11 8
• Establish priorities to track business value
• Act as ‘the customer’ for developer questions
• Work with product management to plan releases
• Plan, elaborate and accept user stories and iterations
9. Product Owner Attributes
•Subject Matter Expert
– Understand the domain well
enough to envision a product
•Business Advocate
– Understand the needs of the
organization paying for theenough to envision a product
•End-User Advocate
– Describe the product with
understanding of users and use,
and a product that best serves
both
organization paying for the
software and selects a mix of
features that cater to their goals
•Communicator
– Capable of communicating
vision and intent to the team and
the stakeholders alike
11-Sep-11 9
both
•Customer Advocate
– Understand the needs of the
business buying the product and
select a mix of features valuable
to the customer
•Decision Maker
– Given a variety of conflicting
goals and opinions be the final
logical decision maker about
what goes into a release
10. market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, wireframes,
personas, user stories
Holistic View of Product Management
personas, user stories
alpha launch, beta testing,
minimum viable product,
build know-how
monitoring and
ideas /
refinement
five whys, product
roadmap, forecast,
competitive intelligence,
Stakeholder inputs
Real-time monitoring,
alerts, funnel analysis,
pricing feedback,
segmentation
monitoring and
listening
analyze product-
market fit
refinement
11. Challenge#1: Product Owners’ Influence Spheres
Portfolio
Division level
objectives and goals
Prioritized product
road map
Strategy
Product roadmap and
business strategy
Daily
Release
What business
objectives will each
release achieve?
What capabilities will
the release offer?
Release plan
Product
Business objectives
fulfilled by the product
Product Vision
Product life cycle
road map
business strategy
11-Sep-11 11
Daily
story
backlog
Story Details
Acceptance
Tests
Sprint
Planning
What stories must
be included in the
sprint to achieve
release objectives?
Iteration Plan
Sprint
velocity/capacity
12. Spheres of Influence Symptoms
Absentee Product Owner
-No clear product vision-No clear product vision
-Limited interaction and
showcases
-Too many conflicting
priorities
13. Challenge#2: Organizational Model & Culture
• Innovation & Risk taking• Innovation & Risk taking
• Stability & Control
• Attention to detail
• Outcome orientation
• People orientation
• Team orientation
Aggressiveness• Aggressiveness
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/primary-characteristics-of-organizational-culture.html
14. Organizational Culture Symptoms
Un-empowered Product
Owner
-Decisions are
overridden by other
departments and
individuals
-No power to influence
technology or staffingtechnology or staffing
choice
-This is the way things
get done around here
16. Business Model Symptoms
•Limited or no engagement by the Product Owner with Strategy team
•Too many process / organizational hurdles to get buy-in•Too many process / organizational hurdles to get buy-in
•No clear product or release vision prepared or shared
•Absentee stakeholders
•Continually delayed launch dates
11-Sep-11 16
•Extensive rework just before and after launch
18. Arrogant PO Symptoms
•Limited or no engagement with engineering team
•Too much hand-waving instead of accepting realities•Too much hand-waving instead of accepting realities
•No respect for any metric
•Public reversal of tactical team decisions
•Treats humans as machines
19. Connect the Challenges
Spheres of
Influence
No Business
Model
Validation
Organizational
Model
and Culture
11-Sep-11 19
Arrogance
and
Ignorance
and Culture
20. Connect the Dots
Spheres of
Influence
No Business
Model
Validation
Organizational
Model
and Culture
11-Sep-11 20
Arrogance
and
Ignorance
and Culture
21. Slow to move or change vs. Moving fast
Focus on process vs. Focus on outcome
Product Owners in large corporations vs. startups
Focus on process vs. Focus on outcome
Risk averseness vs. Risk adoption
Pass the buck vs. Yes, we can
Low participation vs. High-impact per personLow participation vs. High-impact per person
Lack of innovation “soul” vs. Pivoting ideas for new markets
Existing business models vs. Searching for new and repeatable ones
www.SteveBlank.com
No mentoring vs. Constant learning
26. Keep focus on business
value
-Continually balance
all stakeholder risksall stakeholder risks
against business
value
-Execute iteratively
and incrementallyand incrementally
- Use metric
intelligently
29. Product Centric Development Teams
“…high-performing class of “product-centric” development
teams that characteristically support their company’s value
chain, partner with both their customers and business
stakeholders, and own the business results that their
software delivers… “
Forrester Research on Product Centric Development
11-Sep-11 29
Forrester Research on Product Centric Development
31. People-centred than process centred
Customer focused
Innovation inclinedInnovation inclined
Move fast
Respond to feedback
Self-organizing
High trust
Quality obsessedQuality obsessed
Collective Ownership
(sounds like Agile principles)
34. Anupam Kundu
Lead Consultant, ThoughtWorks
www.Linkedin.com/in/Anupam
#mydibba
THANK YOU
#mydibba
Tale of Two Product Owners
(http://bit.ly/fQMkXR)
Plight of Product Owners
(http://bit.ly/agileproductowners)
2020 Best CIO Acceptance Speech2020 Best CIO Acceptance Speech
(http://bit.ly/duxAgy)
Product Road-mapping using
Agile Principles
(http://bit.ly/abfM4X)
35. Image Courtesy
•Orchestrate, don’t manage (ThoughtWorks Studios)
•Build Cross-functional Teams (http://www.flickr.com/photos/activefree/137467210/)
•Spawn Entrepreneurial Culture (http://www.geoffsnyder.com/the-entrepreneurial-rift)
•Business Model Image (Jason Furnell, ThoughtWorks) / Alexander Osterwalder:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvashttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas
•Organizational Culture Symptoms (http://www.blacktomato.co.uk/44035/taiwan-art/)
•Focus on Business Value (Life Magazine Photography)
•Big Corporations Funding Start-ups (http://www.flickr.com/photos/nichollsphotos/2906834393/)
•Lean Start-up Book (www.theleanstartup.com)
•Arrogant Bastard Ale (http://sandiegopho.com/menus/beers.html)
•Challenge#2:Organization Culture (http://www.designofsignage.com/application/symbol/hands/largesymbols/number-
seven-7.html)
•Changing Perspectives (http://www.productmarketing.com/productmarketing/magazine/1/2/07sj.asp)
• Think Differently (http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2008/07/stack-overflow-private-beta-begins/)
