APLN Product Roadmap Talk

A Conversation AboutAgile Product Roadmaps

1© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000

Presented to BayAPLN

March 17th, 2009

Tonight's Flow

• I talk about me

• I talk about Enthiosys

• I talk about gifts for you


• We talk about product roadmaps

• We talk about tonight’s task

• You do tonight’s task

• You get gifts

Scott Gilbert

• President of Enthiosys and Agile practice lead– Satisfy customers, Manage partnerships, Run the office

– Delivered several major software releases using Agile

– Coached 12’s of teams, through 100’s of sprints


– Coached 12’s of teams, through 100’s of sprints

– Blessed by Scrum Alliance with CSM, CPO & CSP

• Helped start-ups raise $11M in venture capital

• Founding member of Inferscape, Inc. a predictive analytics software company in the CRM space

• BearingPoint’s High Technology Strategy Practice

Enthiosys Overview


Just the Basics

Enthiosys, Inc.

• An Agile product management consulting firm founded in 2003 by Luke Hohmann.


• We help clients achieve business agility: delivering great results, not just great software.

• Services designed to improve products, processes and the people who drive them.

A Set of Services

continuous customer collaboration to understand complex markets and provide input throughout the development process

agile transformation of your entire company to leverage the power of Agile product development and management


pricing, licensing and creation of business models to capture the full value of your solutions

product roadmaps for individual products and portfolios with processes and best practices to sustain them over time

service design to improve the customer experience by delivering a whole product solution and additional revenue

Designed for Business Agility


Enthiosys Team

• 20 F/T and P/T consultants– Luke Hohmann, Founder/CEO

– Scott Gilbert, President

– Rich Mironov, CMO


– Rich Mironov, CMO

– Dan O’Leary, CTO

• Thought leaders– 4 books, monthly newsletter, Agile blog

– Frequent webinar and conference speakers

– Leaders in our industry associations

Our Experience Covers…

• Software solutions including single user, enterprise, infrastructure, consumer, web

• Hardware platforms as embedded systems, consumer electronics, industrial, on-chip


consumer electronics, industrial, on-chip

• Roles as product managers, developers, marketers, sales, service and support

• All levels of management in public, private, and venture-backed companies

Engagement Types

• Collaboration – We jointly define goal, creating results with client

• Projects– Customer defines goal, we deliver a result to client


– Customer defines goal, we deliver a result to client

• Interim management– Enthiosys experts as product managers or executives

• Training– Mostly private but some public classes

Selected Clients


Gifts for You


Cesar will distribute at the end

The Gifts

• Left over P-Camp Schwag

• The old book

• The practical book


• The fun book

• The new book

• The good book

Agile Product Roadmaps


Let’s Talk About Em’

Agile Planning Is…

• About participating in the infinite game

• Top down, bottoms up and continuous

• Emergent yet deterministic


• Emergent yet deterministic

• About making/reversing decisions

• Focused on the future while acting inthe present

• About the planning not the plan

Planning Time Horizons

Strategy

Portfolio

Product 18-24 Months

3-5 Years

5+ Years

Exec’s


Daily

Sprint

Product

Release

2-4 Weeks

2-9 Months

18-24 Months

PM’s

Dev’s

Connects to and Correlates withthe Backlog

Sprint

INVEST

Release


Release

Epics, Stories, Use Cases, Themes

Roadmap

Epics, Features, Big Ideas

Inspired by Mike Cohn

Roadmaps are Scary

• Forces you to articulate what you are not going to build

• Makes you commit to an


• Makes you commit to an uncertain future

Benefits of a Roadmap

• Roadmaps can identify and clarify both the tactical and strategic intent of your product

• Internally:– Becomes a filter for prioritizing development activities


– Becomes a filter for prioritizing development activities

– Builds consensus around direction

– Ensures the “ship is headed in the right direction”

– Avoids the “last/loudest” priority problem

• Externally:– Provides customers with access to near-term commitments and

long term “points of view”

– Binds customers to your company (especially in B2B markets)

Thundercloud

June 09 Sept 09 Dec 09 Mar 10 June 10

Idaho

Typically See Feature Wish Lists


Thundercloud

Jayko

Version 4.0SaaS OfferingExtra fast installComprehensive PlatformsMulti-site CollaborationOracle Support

Version 3.2New platform supportSecurity Management Scalability enhancementsUsability improvementsBetter Integration*

Version 3.01Security PatchBetter ScalabilityClient Access SDK

Typical Roadmap Failures

• No visible logic

• Created unilaterally– Lack of buy-in

– Poor technical and market inputs


– Poor technical and market inputs

• No plan for internal or external sharing

A Roadmap Should Be…

• A living internal planning document designed to answer strategic questions such as:– Who are my markets/segments?

– What do they care about?


– What do they care about?

– When should I serve them?

– What factors must I consider?

– What technologies / systems can I leverage?

– How should I adjust my plans and goals relative to the answers to these and possibly other questions?

Features & Benefits

Support Linux Biometrics

What technology should we use?

Architecture & Systems

Physical Security

auto send supplies

A Simple TemplateQ1 Q2 Q3 Q4


Markets & Users

Benefits

Events & Rhythms

Small Office Enterprise

Saves time & money

Audit Trails

Build it Iteratively

Features & Benefits


Events & Rhythms


Markets & Users

Look for A Release Window

25© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000 Taken by this Flickr guy

A More Complex Template

Features

Managed services

Support Linux

BiometricsArchitecture

Capabilities

Physical auto send

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4


Markets

Features

Events & Rhythms

Small Office

Schedule

Benefits

Physical Security

Enterprise

auto send supplies

Saves time & money

Audit Trails

Still Build it Iteratively

Markets & Users

Events & Rhythms


Benefits

Architecture & Systems Features

Schedule

Capabilities

Look for A Release Window

28© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000 Same picture, same guy

A Low-Tech Approach to Start

• Speeds collaboration

• Easy to change

• Can be transcribed into tools for easy digital


tools for easy digital sharing once the plan settles

Market Events & Rhythms

• These are things that are knowable but out of your direct control.

• However, you might be able to influence them.


• Market events occur on a one time basis

• Example: Regulatory-related dates

• Market rhythms occur on a recurring basis

• Example: Industry conferences

Markets & Users

• Provide short name and possibly some short description or segmentation characteristics

• These can be very simple. You can attach common Personas found in each segment


common Personas found in each segment

• Focus on the markets this product serves

• Example: Small Office• < 75 employees

• Limited CapEx budgets

• Need support and services

• Buy from trusted referrals

Features & Benefits

• Features– Only list major features that motivate customers to

take the release / pay you $

• Benefits


• Benefits– Describe in business terms what benefits each feature

will deliver to the customer or to the company• Reduce costs, Avoid costs, Increase revenue


• Typically just the large pieces – Required product technologies

– Required back-office or operational systems

• Break “development” into exploration and proof of


• Break “development” into exploration and proof of concepts. Have them span several quarters

• Example: VoiceXML for voice service features

• Example: Billing and accounting systems to support foreign currencies

Capabilities

• Major components of the application that enable multiple features

• Not all systems will have these, so don’t force it

• Example: Notification Engine


• Example: Notification Engine– Allows users to send schedule, event, or conditional

based notifications via any communication channel.

Schedule

• Internal events & rhythms

• Knowable, limited control, possible to influence

• Holidays & vacations


• Customer commitments

• Product dependencies

• Other SDLC milestones

• Example: Quarterly earnings calls

• Example: Annual peer reviews

Example Process


Example Interim Result


Example Final Result


Other Benefits Include

Team CollaborationTeam Collaboration Builds TrustBuilds Trust


Some Good Practices

• Extended in-person working sessions– Start by scheduling two session 1 month apart

– Need time to research issues that come out of first

• Participation by key constituents


• Participation by key constituents– Product Management, Engineering, Marketing

– Document participants that created each version

• Should align with business plan & model

• Quarterly reviews and updates to keep alignment

Some More Better Practices

• Use versions & dates

• Document who helped create each version

• Document key assumptions, facts & decisions

• Use legends to make it walk up easy to


• Use legends to make it walk up easy to understand. Colors, shapes, etc.

• Use corporate rules to make it walk up easy to understand. 6+ months is uncommitted, no selling

• Have clear distribution and communication plan

• Easy to say, hard to do…consistently!

A Few Agile Characteristics

• Built by x-functional teams, hopefully face to face

• Takes an iterative approach

• Makes a great information radiator to promote transparency and communication


transparency and communication

• Helps identify the release time box or window

• Provides good opportunity for initial prioritization

• Maps to the User Story pattern (who, what, why)

• Makes architecture explicit in planning and always gives technologists an early voice

Now You Go


Shape the Future of BayAPLN

It’s A Flexible Concept

• We use it for our company planning– http://www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools/we-roadmap


Our Proposed Template

• Constituents – Our market segments

• Services & Benefits – What we do for the above and what they get from it

• Platform – This is our infrastructure website, etc.


• Platform – This is our infrastructure website, etc.

• Events & Rhythms – Other things that happen

• People – Folks who make all of the above real

• Time – 1 calendar year, in quarters starts in April

Supplemental Info on Flip Charts

• Decisions

• Assumptions

• Action Items


• Your name & contact info (optional)

Our Process

1. Self organize into groups at one of the stations

2. Cesar will provide the vision and inspiration

3. You will have XX minutes to iterate through your plan and capture supplemental information


your plan and capture supplemental information

• You can pick a leader to facilitate

• You can do a group splat, then rationalize

4. You can change the template (time & rows)

5. You can capture other supplemental info

6. We will de-brief each map at the end

Cesar Will Give You Gifts


Contact Information

Enthiosys, Inc.615 National Ave., Suite 220Mountain View, CA 94043650.528.4000 Office650.528.4004 Fax


650.528.4004 Faxfollow us at www.twitter.com/Enthiosysfollow me at www.twitter.com/AgileProductMgr

www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools for Books, Bytes, Blogs

www.InnovationGames.com for Innovation Games Online

Extra Topics


Roadmap of Roadmaps


Sometimes you want to see

the forest and the trees.

Roadmap of Roadmaps

• A look at a portfolio of products over the same time period

• Identify possible synergies or conflicts

• Plan for roll-outs of product bundles / lines


• Plan for roll-outs of product bundles / lines

• Creates a strategic view that can be driven back down to individual products.

Building a Roadmap of Roadmaps

• Slightly different set of participants– PM Directors, Senior Architects, Business Unit

Managers, other senior stakeholders

• Roll up individual roadmaps


• Roll up individual roadmaps– Show releases of all products w/ major features

– Architecture may include systems & infrastructure

• Adjust based on decisions or observations

• Changes roll back down to individual products

Scenario Planning With Roadmaps


Predicting the future is hard

but it can’t hurt to try.

Exploring Possible Futures

• Scenarios are descriptive narratives of plausible alternative futures.

• Useful for:– Identifying potential opportunities / threats


– Identifying potential opportunities / threats

– Limiting “business as usual in the future” behavior

– Testing roadmaps against various possible futures

– Understanding how and when to react to changes

– Staying focused on the likely case while building 1st

drafts of primary / current roadmaps

Roadmapping for Scenarios

Roadmap Scenario A

Release Release

Scenario A1. This2. That3. The Other4. Then

Primary Roadmap

Release Release


A B5. Finally….Release

ARelease

B

Scenario B1. This2. That3. The Other4. Then5. Finally….

Primary Roadmap

ReleaseA

ReleaseB

Roadmap Scenario B

ReleaseA

Generating Useful Scenarios

• Articulate questions that will have long term consequences.

• Create a detailed scenario (story) to illustrate the risk/change


risk/change

• Explore alternative roadmaps to address scenarios

• Map the decision point: what events should trigger adoption of alternative strategy?

Example Scenario Questions

• What if we lost our largest customer?

• What if the market demands the product early?

• What if labor unions curb outsourcing?


• What if regulatory changes impact us?

• What if we acquire one or more competitors?

• What if we expand internationally?

References & Influences


On-Line Agile Resources

Agile Alliance: http://www.agilealliance.org/

Scrum Alliance: http://www.scrumalliance.org/

Agile Project Leadership Network: http://www.apln.org/

Agile Journal: http://www.agilejournal.com


Agile Journal: http://www.agilejournal.com

Enthiosys Blog Roll: http://www.enthiosys.com/

Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/

APLN Product Roadmap Talk

Documents

Transcript of APLN Product Roadmap Talk