1. Product Managers, Product Owners,
and Scalable Models for
Agile Product Teams
SV-ALN, 10 June 2014
1
© 2014. This presentation and all derivative works copyright Rich Mironov | mironov.com

2. About Rich Mironov
• Veteran product manager/exec/strategist
• Business models, agile, organizing product teams
• 6 startups as “product guy” or CEO
• Ran first Product Camp, first agile
product manager/owner tracks
2

3. Agenda
1. Product Managers ≠ Product Owners
2. Failure Modes
3. Small and Large
Organizational Maps
3

4. Organizational Context
• “Product manager” is a job title
• “Product owner” is an agile team role
• Overlapping, but very different scope and skills
• “One-per-scrum-team” does not match complexity of
large-scale commercial software
• Software companies often don’t assign/train anyone
• Work needs to get done, regardless of title
4

5. What Does a Product Manager Do?
For revenue software…
• Drives delivery and market
acceptance of whole products
• Targets market segments, not
individual customers
5

6. What Does a Product Manager Do?
market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, epics,
user stories, backlogs,
personas, MRDs…
product
bits
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence…
budgets, staff,
targets
field input,
market feedback
segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Markets &
Customers
Development Marketing&
Sales
Executives
Product
Management
6

7. Product Management: Inherently Political
• Logic and facts are not sufficient
• Sales teams get paid for
closing individual deals
• HIPPO
• Responsibility without authority
• Keep the process moving
7

8. What PM Hiring Managers Want
Tech product manager job postings
• 76% want 3+ years PM experience
• 93% want excellent verbal and
written communication skills
• 93% want a BS (68% prefer CS/EE)
• 32% want MBAs
• 88% want experience in their segment
8

9. Agile Methodology with Scrum
9
Product
Backlog
Features &
User Stories
Release
Backlog
Features &
User Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User Stories
Potentially
releasable
software
Software
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospective
Process
improvement
1 day
Daily
Standup
Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks
No changes in duration or goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter Release
Retrospective
Process
improvement
N sprints

10. What does a Product Owner Do?
• “…represents the customer’s interest in backlog
prioritization and requirements questions... available to
the team at any time.”
• Provides intense sprint-level focus: stories, backlog,
prioritization, acceptance
• One product owner per team, not per product
• Wins development admiration and inclusion
• Feeds the hungry agile beast
10

11. Feeding the Agile Beast
Steam engine “fireman”
needs to constantly shovel
coal, otherwise the train
will stop
11

12. ‘small p’ Product Owner
12
backlog, priorities,
epics, user stories,
personas, demo feedback
Markets &
Customers
Development Marketing&
Sales
Executives
Product
Owner
showcase
customers

13. SEGMENTATION EXERCISE
13
Apple Coca-Cola
TurboTax Publix
SAIC Sysco
IBM John Deere

14. PO/PM Scope
14
Product
Backlog
Features &
User Stories
Release
Backlog
Features &
User Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User Stories
Potentially
releasable
software
Software
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospective
Process
improvement
1 day
Daily
Standup
Sprint: 1 to 3 weeks
No changes in duration or goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter Release
Retrospective
Process
improvement
N sprints
product manager focus
product owner focus

15. Product Manager Has More Levers
• Engineering Output
• Product features
• Order of delivery
• Product / Market / Business Model
• Pricing
• Competitive positioning
• Partners and Channels
• Services and Support
• Fit with corporate strategy
• Product split, merge or EOL
15
Product
manager
After: Greg Cohen
Product
owner

16. Agenda
1. Product Managers ≠ Product Owners
2. Failure Modes
3. Small and Large
Organizational Maps
16

17. Absenteeism
• Teams with no formal product owner
• “Our engineering lead writes the stories”
• Short-term borrowing of untrained SMEs
• One product-somebody
per 3-10 teams
17

18. Product Management: Oversubscribed,
Overcommitted, Burning Out
• Most product management teams
are already understaffed
• Product ownership adds
40-60% more critical work
• Urgency of stories, backlog
grooming, sprint planning,
standups, acceptance
• One product manager can “do it all” for a single team
• But typical Dev:PM ratio is 35:1, not 10:1
18

19. How Development Organizations
Typically Pick Product Owners
• Internal borrowing
• SMEs with technical chops,
story writing experience,
“already know” the market
• No organizational blocking
or market-side skills
• Belief in rational/unemotional/technical customers
• Slant toward smartest users
19

20. Product Management Failure Mode
Product Manager fails agile team when…
• Part-timer, not engaged with team
• Lack of detail on stories
• Stale backlog
• Handwaving and bluster
• Best of intentions, but pulled in
too many directions
• “Build what I meant”
20

21. Product Owner Failure Modes
Product Owner fails markets when…
• Weak on market realities: pricing,
packaging, selling cycle, upgrades,
discounting, competitive dynamics
• Disconnected from Marketing,
Sales, Support
• Sees showcase customers as typical
21

22. Organizational Failure Mode
22
• Absent/understaffed product team
• Lack of market direction
• Technically complete
products that don’t sell

23. Agenda
1. Product Managers ≠ Product Owners
2. Failure Modes
3. Small and Large
Organizational Maps
23

24. Minimal PM/PO “Organization”
24
VP or Founders
Heroic Single
Product Manager/Owner
more technical more market-focused
“management”

25. Dysfunctional PO/PM Organization
25
VP Eng
Product
Owners
VP Marketing
Product
Managers
more technical more market-focused
“management”

26. PM/PO Product Peers
26
PM Director/
Product Strategist
GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO
more technical more market-focused
“management”

27. PM/PO: Market Mentoring
27
GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO
more technical more market-focused
Product
Owner
Senior Product
Manager
“management”

28. 90 Person Project (1 Product, 8 Teams)
28
Product
Manager
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM POSM
TEAM
PO
SM

29. What Does Each Team Do?
29
Product
Manager
HEADLINE FEATURES PERFORMANCE
RE-ARCH
DRIVERS &
CONNECTORS
UX/UI
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM
PO
SM
TEAM POSM
TEAM
PO
SM

30. Right Product Owners?
30
Lead Prod
Manager
PERFORMANCE
RE-ARCH
DRIVERS &
CONNECTORS
UX/UI
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
Product
Mgr?
HEADLINE FEATURES
TEAMSM
UX
Lead?
TME?
Two
Performance
Architects?

31. Wrong Product Owners!
31
PERFORMANCE
RE-ARCH
DRIVERS &
CONNECTORS
UX/UI
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
TEAM
SM
UX
Lead
HEADLINE FEATURES
TEAMSM
TME
Perf
Arch
Product Mgr
Lead Prod
Manager

32. Delegating to Product Owners
• No cookie-cutter solution, no magic formula
• Varies with scope, teams, technical depth, skills…
• What is this team working on? Who brings right talent mix?
• Full-time owners, not borrowed 10%
• Solid or strong dotted line to product management
• Vigorous daily discussion among product team
• Product management keeps whole-product responsibility
32

33. Takeaways
1. Must fully staff product owner roles
• Not a sideline, not an add-on, not an afterthought
2. On large projects, product managers are not default
product owners for every team
3. Need to thoughtfully select/hire/train POs and PMs
4. IMHO, cookie-cutter assignments endanger products
33

34. Rich Mironov
Mironov Consulting
233 Franklin Street, Suite 308
San Francisco, CA 94102
34
/in/RichMironov
@RichMironov
Rich@Mironov.com
+1-650-315-7394