11. TopSol Playbook
Recipes, with ingredients, flexible, with options
Playbook: humble, simple, serious game
TopSol: To - P - Sol
to: target
P problem
Sol solution
12. Managing expectations
Once upon a time
Novel
Screenwriting
Elevator pitch, investor pitch
Products & services, marketing, sales,
technical teams
Organisations, customer service,
intra/inter-team
15. Basic playbook
● Target: who is your solution for? What types
of roles, what personas/profiles?
● Problem: what is their most painful issue?
Spend MOAR time here!Not the lack of your solution!
● Solution: your solution. Spend LESS time
here!
18. Expanded playbook
● Empathy: what do they see, hear,
feel everyday? Walk in their shoes
● Consequences: impact of the
problem on their everyday life
● Benefits: better, stronger, fast (facts
27. Your turn: Basic playbook
● Target: who is your solution for? What types
of roles, what personas/profiles?
● Problem: what is their most painful issue?
Spend MOAR time here!Not the lack of your solution!
● Solution: your solution. Spend LESS time
here!
28. Your turn: Expanded playbook
● Empathy: what do they see, hear,
feel eveyday? Walk in their shoes
● Consequences: impact of the
problem on their everyday life
● Benefits: better, stronger, fast (facts
29. Your turn: Full playbook
● Context: in what environment do they evolve? What is
their history, geolocation, vertical/industry?
30. Transcendance
Mad, Sad, Glad
● What I hated, disliked
● What I suggest to improve
● What I liked, loved
What did I learn tonight?
How will you use Story Telling from tomorrow on?
Merci à School of PO, merci à Dragos, merci à vous toutes et tous ! ;-)
https://www.meetup.com/fr-FR/preview/School_of_PO/events/243974023
Who I am, what I do: I do product (in relations with tech, sales, marketing, management), news writer for open source website, lean startup promotion, and I design workshops & serious games
=> this is the slide I was told to put, in order to “underline my legitimacy” ;-)
Shuhari, from japanese martial arts, "first learn, then detach, and finally transcend":* shu: traditional wisdom - learning fundamentals, techniques, heuristics, proverbs* ha: breaking with tradition - detachment from the illusions of self* ri: transcendence - there are no techniques or proverbs, all moves are natural, becoming one with spirit alone without clinging to forms; transcending the physicalThis workshop articulates around the three learning styles:* Visual: pictures, symbols* Auditory: listening, reading* Kinesthetic: do, practice
Selfie! ;-)
The PO deals with: Scrum Master, product team, sales, marketing, management, accounting, shareholders, lawyers…
AAAAAND customers and users!
Quite a complex world to be in middle of, isn’t it?
That’s a very common schema that allows to somehow structure the complexity.
So you use GIVEN-WHEN-THEN, huh?
But… that is just describing a transition between one state and another…
So you add this blurry language, on top of GIVEN-WHEN-THEN, in your user stories?
With more stuff and stuff and stuff, like Acceptance Criteria or Conditions of Satisfaction, story points through planning poker, etc.
It all becomes this.
You put humans into cells.
Enter story telling! ;-)
(please note the “TAAADAAA” effect, and the switch to a white background, in order to flash and “wake up”)
Here is the name and my little technique.
No, with TopSol Playbook, you will no write planetary successes, whether that’s a movie or a novel…
Also, forget about the elevator pitch, it is very academic, you will find plenty of resources for this.
There is three stages in building a story with TopSol Playbook.
Aim High, Start Small, and Keep Going
This is the most basic articulation.
Remove one, and you end up having an incomplete story.
People spend LOTS of time on their solution.
Indeed they have put so much energy and heart…
But you need a setup in order to make it the right solution.
So please calm down with the solution. Spend more time and effort in the target and the problem (which is veeery difficult to express).
Just a transition slide...
Just a transition slide...
Yes, target is the persona, empathy is the empathy map. Even a non-exhaustive one helps a lot.
Empathy is important to generate and trigger an emotional connection of the audience to the story.
Problem is difficult to express, so telling the consequences of the problem on the target, this helps a lot.
Like wise, telling the solution in a few words, it only rings bell to domain experts. So express the benefits of your solution: cheaper, faster, nicer, whatev-er.
Just a transition slide...
Just a transition slide...
The context introduces the target, which introduces empathy, which introduces the problem, etc.
The why represents your contribution to the world, your legacy when you’re dead, what you do to make the world a better place.
Something BIG!
It is widely argued that the why should be at the beginning.
Test your story repeatedly, and consequently invalidate or confirm. We’ll get back to this.
Maybe not for user stories in agile context...
Allows you to pitch and pitch and pitch, almost cost-free and effort-less.
Continuously testing the story to many audiences (1 person to 10.000) is key to get a feeling/understanding if it “works” as expected.
Of course feedback helps, once you have spoken, shut up and listen (ask questions to precise, repeat/paraphrase to check your understanding).
All my blog posts today are written with this articulation.
I suggest and encourage people to use it, I do not push if people are not trained or do not “feel it”.
Any other story telling technique works, this one is LEAN and AGILE, not generic, dedicated to the workplace and business context.
Enough visual and auditory content sent to your brains by the speaker.
Your turn to do/make.
In this stage you will apply the rule, strictly, or not, it’s your choice.
But please do learn.
Take an A4 piece of paper, place three sticky notes vertically, in the middle center.
These are you Target Problem Solution articulation.
Place three more sticky notes, right of the Target Problem Solution articulation.
Place two more sticky notes: top-left, bottom-left.
Enjoyed the practicing?
Now let’s discuss.
Another selfie? That would make a “before” vs “after”.