I gave this talk + breakout sessions for the Hamburg chapter of the agile coaching circle. It´s on the product owners or product managers role and competencies.

1. PRODUCT OWNERS ROLE &
COMPETENCIES
AGILE COACHING CIRCLE HAMBURG
“as a company I want to…”
September, 2016 Petra Wille, @loomista

2. 2|
Agenda
18:30
Agile Coaching Circle, Oktober 2016
18:45 19:15
Networking Talk Breakout Sessions
20:30
Networking
19:45
Demo

3. Why do we talk about this?
Product Manager is not a new role or job description. It´s really
common in the consumer goods industry since a long time ago.
Product Management in the online/IT context got more and more
professional over the last 20 years. Many things have been tried, a
lot of stuff has been written about it.
But companies still struggle with finding the right people or
implementing a strong product role in their organisation

4. Why do I talk about this?
Many companies, many product managers, many role descriptions...

5. My goal tonight
• Giving you an idea in how many ways the Product
Management role can be defined.
• Presenting two ways for how to come to a PM role
definition within your company.
• More insights on how other companies think about
the PM role.

6. What role name is your
answer?

7. Who decides to tackle
a new type of
customer?

8. Who decides if a
feature will be built?

9. Who decides if a
feature gets shipped?

10. Who decided to stop
investing in further
development of a product?

11. There is no “one size
fits all” solution

12. You need to find a
good solution for
your company or
team

13. 4 Steps
will get you there

14. Read and
understand how
others do it.

15. Source: https://www.intercom.io/

16. This is what most
people refer to.
But this is not a
detailed description!
It´s not actionable!

17. Scrum PO vs. „be the CEO of your product“
Many role models, different “schools”

18. Source:ProductManagementJournalVolume6

19. Create a flexible model

20. But not alone!

21. Create. Then inspect & adapt
• get the mgmt on board
• foster discussions
• hold workshops
• define something
• try it
• refine it
Can be done by anyone in the company who has a
stake. By HR, Mgmt, POs, … just do it!

22. Competencies &
responsibilities

23. A - Select necessary competencies
• Competencies are role independant!
• FYI is a great guide for coaching and
development. And I think it helps do define
roles as well!
• It contains 67 Competencies, 19 Stallers and
Stoppers, and 7 Global Focus and it is used by
thousands of companies.

24. Action Oriented
Peer Relationships
Drive for Results
Integrity and Trust
A – FYI Examples
Assessment:
• Unskilled
• Skilled
• Overused
Development:
• Remedies
• Development Plan
Assignments
• Suggested Readings

25. A - Individuum, Team, Company
• How are your PMs?
• How should new ones be?
Are you aiming for a more
divers or more heterogene
setup?
• Which competencies
should PMs develop? What
competencies are well
settled in other people /
parts of the company?
Action Oriented
Peer Relationships
Drive for Results
Integrity and Trust

26. B - Define the main activities
Source: Product Management Journal Volume 6
• I‘ve used a model
by the Product
Management
Journal und added
activities
companies often
argue about.

27. B - Define responsibility
R Who is Responsible the person assigned to the
activity (doing it)
A Who is Accountable the person who makes the final
decision (sign-off) and has the
ultimate ownership of the activity
C Who is Consulted someone who should be
consulted before an activity
takes place
I Who is informed Someone who should be
informed after an activity has
happened but does not need to
be consulted
New school
companies don´t
need this separation

28. Note - If you like titles and levels…
• ...map competencies +
activities + responsibilities to
jobtitles or seniority levels.
• Holocracy  only roles
„Dynamic Roles Replace
Static Job Descriptions“

29. Note - Methods can be learned!
The definition of which methods a product manager should
use to get her work done should not be a main thing to focus
on. Of course it helps if there is some kind of alignment. But
this is not key in hiring. And methods can easily be learned!

30. BE THE PARROT
• Make sure everybody is aware of his/her
role
• repeat often (use it for employee reviews,
1:1s, …)
• explain it to every new employee
• refine with the feedback!

31. To sum it all up:
• There is no "one size fits all" solution - create your
own definition of the product manager
• Read and understand how others do it
• crate a flexible model... but not alone
• Select competencies & responsibilities
• Be the parrot, use it, refine it

32. Competencies groups
• 3 groups, 30 Minutes
• 1 set of cards per group
• 2 books to share
• Create two piles: relevant + non relevant competencies
for product managers (discussions in your group)
• Take the relevant ones, rank them from “more relevant”
to “less relevant”  take a picture, #acchhfyi
@loomista
• Pick you groups top 10
• Present to the audience (5-10 Min)
Most relevant
Less relevant

33. RACI groups
• 3 groups, 30 Minutes
• 1 printout per group
• Go through the activities and decide if the PM is “raci”
(discussions in your group)
• (optional) if the PM is not r or a what role takes this
activity then?
• What activities where the hard ones to decide on?
• Present to the audience (5-10 Min)

35. Take this home…
Competencies ActivitiesSlides will be on
slideshare

36. Questions?
Thank you!