Most companies don't have empowered product owners. Instead they work with some kind of distributed product ownership. The talk analyzes why distributed product ownership is so common, what problems it produces and how to make it work. The key message of the session is that one size doesn't fit all. For mission critical projects product ownership may be assumed by a top manager, for startup-like projects an empowered product owner in some kind of "sandbox" may be more appropriate and distributed product ownership is totally valid for more maintenance oriented projects.

1. PRODUCT OWNERSHIP
AS IF YOU MEANT IT
LKCE
04.11.2013, Hamburg
Stefan Roock
stefan.roock@it-agile.de
Twitter: @StefanRoock

2. About me
Stefan Roock
stefan.roock@it-agile.de
Twitter: @StefanRoock
coach / consultant
(and CEO) at

3. This session...
product
development
services, operations,
support, etc.
Main thesis of this session:
One size (type of product ownership) doesn‘t fit all.
Analysis of
different
types of
product
ownership.
Understanding
pros and cons
of product
ownership
types.
Finding the
appropriate
type of
product
ownership
for your
context.

4. often: before agile/lean
Stakeholder (e.g. Marketing, Finance, ...)
Requirements
decision
paralysis &
chaos
Team

5. first step towards agile/lean
Stakeholder
Single
Input
Queue
Team
Requirements

6. first step towards agile/lean
Stakeholder
Requirements
Single
Product Input
Owner Queue
Team

7. Product Ownership: single input queue
Manage stakeholders
Prioritize work for
development team to avoid
decision paralysis.
picture inspired by http:/
/www.romanpichler.com/blog/roles/picasso-product-owner/

8. Typical Scenario 1/3
Stakeholder
I want A.
Doesn‘t
match my prios
Product
Owner

9. Typical Scenario 2/3
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
I want A.
Doesn‘t
match my prios
Product
Owner
I want A.
OK
Manager

10. Typical Scenario 3/3
Stakeholder
Stakeholder
I want A.
Product
Owner
I want A.
OK
Manager
Do A!
Manager
Doesn‘t
match my prios
Hrmpf...
Product
Owner

11. The Job of Product Ownership
Create products that
delight customers by
making ROI optimizing
product decisions.

12. Typical Scenario 3/3
Stakeholder
Stakedelighted
holder
customers?
I want A.
Doesn‘t
match my prios
Product
Owner
I want A.
OK
Manager
Do A!
Hrmpf...
Manager
Who is the Product Owner?
Product
Owner

13. first step towards agile/lean
Stakeholder
Requirements
delighted
customers?
Single
Product Input
Owner Queue
Team

14. first step towards agile/lean
Stakeholder
Requirements
Make sure that
given features get
implemented.
Single
Project Product Input
Manager Owner Queue
Team

15. Product Ownership: the third eye
Know customers‘ needs
Manage stakeholders
Prioritize work for
development team to avoid
decision paralysis
picture inspired by http:/
/www.romanpichler.com/blog/roles/picasso-product-owner/

17. • Berlin located
• 250+ employees
• 70% of employees in independent
Game Teams (one team, one game)
• „You build it, you run it“ - Werner
Vogels (Amazon, CTO)

18. Product Ownership
Each team has one fully
empowered Product Lead
who is in charge of
product decisions.
Sandboxing: Limit risks
with predefined
boundaries (e.g. in terms
of money)

20. • Hamburg located
• 180+ employees, organized in
teams (no departments)
• One product (web construction
toolkit)

21. Team
Team
Team
Founders
Team
Team
Team
Team

22. Product Owner?

23. Team-Mission
Product
Owner?
Team-Mission
Team-Mission
Team-Mission

24. Team-Mission
Product
Owner!
Goal#1
Team-Mission
Team-Mission

25. and then...
Team-Mission
Product
Owner
Goal#1
Team-Mission
self-selected
Product Owner
Team-Mission

26. Product
Owner!
Team-Mission
Goal #1
Product Owner collaborates
Team-Mission
closely face-2-face with the
team.
Team-Mission

27. Meet „a german newspaper“
Value
Value
Advertising
Subscriptions
A
10
20
100
B
20
0
85
C
5
5
70
Stakeholders within the
company rate the values.
Automagical
prioritization
Feature
...
Aggregated
Value
...
Everybody may
add features

28. Meet „a german newspaper“
Value
Advertising
Feature
A
B
C
Value
Subscriptions
...
Aggregated
Value
Somebody (or a group of somebodies)
• defined the columns (value
categorization)
• defined the formula for computing
the aggregated value
...
Everybody may
add features
Product Owner
Stakeholders within the
company rate the values.
Automagical
prioritization

29. Meet „a german newspaper“
Value
Advertising
Feature
A
B
C
...
Value
Subscriptions
Aggregated
...
Value
Prerequisites
• mature business (customers needs
are well understood and change
slowly)
• solid understanding of business
value generation / value stream
Everybody may
add features
Stakeholders within the
company rate the values.
Automagical
prioritization

30. Types of Product Ownership
Example
Type of Product
Appropriate for...
Ownership
Wooga
Empowered Product
Innovative new products
Owner
with limited investment
Jimdo
„Top manager“ as
Innovative products with
Product Owner
major investment
newspaper
Product Decision
...
Mechanism
Mature business

31. Types of Product Ownership
Example
Type of Product
Appropriate for...
Ownership
Wooga
Empowered Product
Innovative new products
Owner
with limited investment
Jimdo
„Top manager“ as
Innovative products with
Product Owner
major investment
newspaper
Product Decision
Mechanism
Mature business
...
Combine models!

32. Types and Styles of Product Ownership
Style
Type
NonCooperative
Wooga
Jimdo
newspaper
...
...
Cooperative

33. Costs
by t
sts en
Co pm s
elo ence
ev ici
d ff
ine
Level of collaboration between
product owner and team

34. Costs
Co
re sts
qu b
i re y b
me ad
nt
s
by t
sts en
Co pm s
elo ence
ev ici
d ff
ine
Level of collaboration between
product owner and team

35. Costs
Co
re sts
qu b
i re y b
me ad
nt
s
Overall costs
by t
sts en
Co pm s
elo ence
ev ici
d ff
ine
Level of collaboration between
product owner and team

36. Costs
Co
re sts
qu b
i re y b
me ad
nt
s
Overall costs
by t
sts en
Co pm s
elo ence
ev ici
d ff
ine
Do we need more
or less
collaboration?
Level of collaboration between
product owner and team

37. From here to there

38. Product Board
CEO
Sales
...
Dev
...
Test
...
...
...

39. Product Board
CEO
All persons required to make
Vertrieb
tough product Dev
decisionsTest
come
together regularly (eg. biweekly).
...
...
...
...
...

40. Product Board
CEO
Product Ownership with a Product
Board is more reactive than „classic“
Vertrieb
Dev
Test
...
Distributed Product Ownership, but
still slower than Single Product
Ownership.
...
...
...
...

41. THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
Questions? Contact me!
Stefan Roock
stefan.roock@it-agile.de
@StefanRoock