Agile Product Management Basics
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www.synerzip.com Agile Product Management Basics Rich Mironov July 22, 2010
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Transcript of Agile Product Management Basics
www.synerzip.com
Agile Product Management Basics
Rich MironovJuly 22, 2010
About Rich Mironov
• Veteran product manager/strategist– Business models, pricing, roadmaps– “What do customers want?”– Agile meets business
• Executive at four software start-ups• Author of “The Art of Product
Management” and Product Bytes blog• Chair of product stage at
Agile 2009 and 2010 conferences
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Discussion Topics
• What is a Product Manager?• Product Managers and Product Owners• Failure Modes and Organizational Models• Conclusions
Disjoint Communities
Product Managers Agile Community
Nearly empty, very lonely
Agile’s Inner Loop (Development)
Agile’s Strategic Outer Loop (PM)
•Markets•Customer
s•Biz
Models•Strategy•Portfolios•Funding
•Customers•Sales•Marketin
g•Support•Upgrade
s•EOL/
EOS
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What Does a Product Manager Do?
• For commercial / revenue software…– PM owns market acceptance of whole products– PM targets segments rather than individual
customers
• For strategic internal development…– PM resolves competing priorities– PM drives acceptance and adoption
Confidential
Development Mktg & Sales
Executives
ProductManagement
What Does a Product Manager Do?
market information, priorities,requirements, roadmaps, MRDs,personas, user stories…
software
strategy, forecasts, commitments, roadmaps, competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,targets
Field input,Market feedback
Segmentation, messages, benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos…
Markets & Customers
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Discussion Topics
• What is a Product Manager?• Product Managers and Product Owners• Failure Modes and Organizational Models• Conclusions
Product Owner, Product Manager
• Most agilists think about “product owners”– Formal part of agile team– Needs to be physically present– Driving user stories and sub-iteration decisions– Showcases are primary method of customer input
• Most product managers are not agilists– Majority of work to deliver products (revenue) happens
outside Engineering– Interacts with markets directly, not filtered through Sales
or Marketing– Servicing multiple inbound and outbound queues
What Does a Product Owner Do?
• “In Scrum, a single person must have final authority representing the customer's interest in backlog prioritization and requirements questions. This person must be available to the team at any time, especially during the sprint planning meeting and the sprint review meeting.”
• Responsible for– Defining and prioritizing features– Deciding release dates and content– Accepting or rejecting work results
• How developers define product management
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What’s In a Name?
• No consistency of titles or tasks across organizations
• May assign some product work to– Business analysts– Requirements analysts– Program managers
• Should focus on activities and responsibilities, not titles
Confidential
Much More to Do
• Agile adds 40-60% more product management work
• Most Product Owners promoted from technical roles with no market training or field experience
• New POs typically great at sprint-level issues, very weak at product/market planning
Product Owner’s Calendar
Borrowed from Catherine Connor, Rally
Good Product Owners Must…
• Be telepathic• Represent true market needs
without spending a lot of time “in the field”
• Manage complexities of detailed stories as well as complex market tradeoffs
• Very difficult to do without some product management experience
DevelopmentMarketing/Sales
Customers
Executives
productowner
“small p” product owner
priorities, requirements,personas, user stories…
software
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Discussion Topics
• What is a Product Manager?• Product Managers and Product Owners• Failure Modes and Organizational Models• Conclusions
Product Manager Failure Modes
Solo Product Manager fails the agile team if…• Part-timer, not fully engaged in team• Lack of detail on stories, acceptance tests• Stale items in backlog• Handwaving and bluster• Best of intentions, but pulled in
too many directions• “Build what I meant”
Product Owner Failure Modes
Solo Product Owner fails the market if…• Weak on actual economic value: pricing,
packaging, upgrades, professional servicemodels, discounting, competitive dynamics
• Disconnected from cross-functional teams that turn software into products (Marketing, Sales, Support…)
• Trading off company-wide product strategy in favor of product-level features
• Assuming a few customers at showcase / demo represent the market
PO/PM Organizational Map
GM - VP PM - VP Eng/CTO
product owners
Product Management Organization
more technicalmore market-focused
Scalable PM/PO Models
1. Small product, co-located team• Agile product manager is the product owner
2. Complex product• PM covers strategic/outbound, PO for inbound
• Report up through same PM management chain
3. Distributed teams• One or more PMs at main Engineering location
• Every remote team has a PO (or PM)
• Frequent, intense collaboration among all PMs/POs
4. Pool of PM/PO talent with strategic leadership• Larger departments, enough resources to allocate
• Pair up, mix and match, share, share, share
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Discussion Topics
• What is a Product Manager?• Product Managers and Product Owners• Failure Modes and Organizational Models• Conclusions
Conclusions
• Agile makes the product job much bigger– But one reason why Agile
delivers better software!– Incompletely framed as
Product Owner• PM/PO needs deep and complex market
inputs• Challenge for PO to cover both roles• Think about skills mix and geo-distribution
Agile PM
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Questions?
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence, [email protected]
469.322.0349
Agile Software Product Development Partner
Confidential
Synerzip in a Nut-shell
1. Software product development partner for small/mid-sized technology companies
• Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies• By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients• Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment• Technology and industry domain agnostic
2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals • Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency• NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery• Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline• Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking
offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option
Confidential
Our Clients
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Thank You!
Call Us for a Free Consultation!
www.synerzip.com
Hemant Elhence, [email protected]
Agile Software Product Development Partner
Rich Mironov, [email protected]
650.315.7394TW: @RichMironov
