Two techniques to help you survive as a Product Owner. First, learn how to deal with seagull stakeholders. Second, learn how to easily and mathematically determine the complexity of your user stories and pare them down for your development team.

1. Tampa Bay Agile Product Owner Group – 12th June, 2019
South University, Tampa
Product Owner Survival Strategies

2. Agenda
Introductions & Announcements
PO Survival Tactics 30 mins
Activity 40 mins
Retrospective <5 mins

3. About Us…
Mike Miller
Mike is an Agile enthusiast who is deeply committed to realizing the tangible benefits of agile software development. He is
one of only a handful of Scaled Agile Framework Program Consultants working in the Tampa Bay area. Mike has over 14
years of experience in the IT sector in roles ranging from Senior Technical Writer to Product Manager for Web and Mobile
to Enterprise Agile Coach. Mike is the type of agilest who actively works with teams and organizations to show them how
to realize the benefits of agile software development. From training for Scrum, Kanban, and SAFe, to organizational design
at the team, program, and portfolio levels, to proper tool configuration and even DevOps, Mike is there for his clients. He
has coached and trained over 30 teams, led multiple agile transformations, and in every case, has left his clients in a better
position than when he walked in the door.
Hemant “Om” Patel
Om is an agile evangelist with a fervent passion for coaching teams to improve their effectiveness. He has over 25 years of
experience in delivering successful technology projects using waterfall, hybrid and agile methods. His career roles span
developer, tester, business analyst, project manager, program manager, scrum master, and agile coach roles. Om holds
several certifications including CSM, CSPO, CSaSP, PMP and ACP. He has participated in agile transformation efforts at
clients like Atex, Disney, EY and PwC. Philosophically, he meets the organization where it is and works to develop
incremental improvements in a pragmatic manner based on the change tolerance of the organization. As a continuous
learner, Om is actively involved with various agile communities, and regularly attends meetups and trainings to expand his
knowledgebase and expertise.

4. About Us…
Our Mission
Transform our customer’s businesses using Agile methodologies and principles to help them succeed in a flexible,
collaborative, self-organizing and fast-paced environment.
What we do…
• Agile Coaching
• Agile Training
• Software Development
Contact Us…
ClearlyAgile
201 E Kennedy Blvd, Suite 1700, Tampa, FL 33602
1-800-228-9144
https://www.clearlyagileinc.com/

5. Seagull Stakeholders
By Mike Miller

6. The Seagull Manager

7. The Seagull Stakeholder
Is the same thing, but this
time a stakeholder.
Your stakeholder!

8. The Seagull Stakeholder
Story time!
- Have you had a stakeholder like this?
- What behaviors did they exhibit?
- How did that make you feel?

9. The Seagull Stakeholder
How do you deal
with
this
much
poop
on a recurring
basis?!?!

10. Product Owner Saves the Day!
Use a collaborative product
prioritization framework to …
• Put guardrails on your seagull
stakeholder by using a system
• Dilute the influence of your seagull
stakeholder with other non-seagull
stakeholders by making the system
collaborative

11. Product/Feature Prioritization Frameworks
• Inject some systemicity into your
stakeholder interactions
• Take the ‘gut check’ out of
prioritization
• Use math!
• Play a game!
Pick your poison from 20 different
options
https://foldingburritos.com/product-prioritization-techniques/

12. Product/Feature Prioritization Frameworks
• Don’t like canned prioritization
frameworks?
• Would you rather roll your own?
• Use the University of Wisconsin,
Madison’s Department of IT
framework to create your own!
https://www.ssc.coop/cms/lib/MN06000837/Centricity/
Domain/9/ProjectPrioritizationGuide.pdf
http://oira.cortland.edu/webpage/planningandassessm
entresources/toolsforassessmentandplanning/Project_P
rioritization_Guide_v_1.pdf

13. Roll Your Own
• Identify all critical stakeholders
• Help them establish prioritization
criteria
• Help them rank (i.e., weight) the
criteria
• Work with them to define the score
definitions
• Get them to help you score your
product features!

14. Still want more?
• ICE – Impact, Confidence, Ease
• GIST – Goals, Ideas, Step-
Projects and Tasks
https://medium.com/@nimay/inside
-product-introduction-to-feature-
priority-using-ice-impact-confidence-
ease-and-gist-5180434e5b15

15. Zombie PBIs
By Mike Miller

16. The Zombie PBI
• It never seems to close
• It just keeps rolling
from sprint to sprint
• It’s never production-
ready
• Every time the
development team tries
to work it, they seem to
choke

17. The Zombie PBI
There could be many
reasons, but the most
common is that the PBI is
just too big

18. The Zombie PBI
You need this…
But you have this…

19. SPIDR
You could use Mike Cohn’s
SPIDR technique…
• Spikes
• Paths
• Interfaces
• Data
• Rules
But who can remember all that?

20. The Mike Miller User Story Complexity Litmus Test™
Or the MMUSCLT!
Easy, right?!
Actually…
1 x 1 x 1 = 1

21. Simplicity is amazing!
1 actor multiplied by
1 action multiplied by
1 target equals
A complexity of 1

22. Let’s give it a try…
As a registered or unregistered (guest) user, I want to pay for
my purchase with a debit card or a credit card or my PayPal
account, so that I can use the payment option that works best
for me.
• How many actors are listed?
• How many actions?
• How many targets?
Can we simplify this by focusing on a single actor, a single action and a
single target?

23. Let’s give it a try… Take 2
As a registered or unregistered (guest) user, I want to pay for
my purchase with a debit card or a credit card or my PayPal
account, so that I can use the payment option that works best
for me I don’t have to use my credit card or PayPal account.
• How many actors are listed now?
• How many actions are listed now?
• How many targets are listed now?
Do you think your development team will choke on this PBI?

24. Don’t believe me?
Try it!
Anything with high complexity more closely resembles a
product feature, not a PBI.
Any PBI with a complexity of 1 will usually be
welcomed by your development team.

25. Remember!
1 actor multiplied by
1 action multiplied by
1 target equals
A complexity of 1

26. Thank you!

27. Activity
1) Self-organize in groups of 10
Group discussion:
2) What particular challenges have you faced as a PO/dealing with a PO?
3) How did you overcome these?
Discuss your challenges among the team and pick 2
Drawing of a PO representing the characteristics (optional) 20 mins
4) Someone from each group shares their stories with rest of the room 20 mins

28. Retrospective
1. Write what made you Glad / Sad / Mad on stickies
2. Place them on the Retro sheet

29. Thank you!