Michael Bonamassa Presentation AgileCamp Dallas 2015

1. Dallas Agile Camp - 2015
Integrating Product Management with
Product Ownership

2. 2
Workshop Objectives
Aligning and Empowering Product Management
• Why do we need the Product Manager / Product Owner roles?
• How do you identify your customer and product?
• Grooming a backlog (Prioritization and Socialization)

3. 3
In order to be successful teams must…
1. Have a shared vision
2. Create an understandable mental model that realizes the vision
3. Be able to learn as a team
4. Teams members must exhibit personal mastery
5. Engage in “Systems Thinking”
-- 5 Characteristics of a Learning Organization [Senge 1990]
Knowledge Work is not characterized by a strong physics model…
Software is notoriously complex – the end product is an abstraction. To deliver a
functional system, every member of a software team must reference a shared
mental model that every team member understands.
-- Dan Mezick “The Culture Game”

4. 4
Without a strong physics model we are left with shared understanding
As a Commuter I need a car that flies so I can avoid the
traffic on highways
Mental Models Filters Assumptions
lead
to
that
drive

5. 5
If it was only our Bias we Need to Overcome…
Unconscious
Incompetence
Conscious
Incompetence
Conscious
Competence
Unconscious
Competence
Source: Wikipedia

6. 6
Great Product Managers are integrative thinkers
They integrate the Human, Business, and Technical dimensions to deliver breakthrough products that delight and improve the lives
of our customers
Human-Centered Design Business Strategy & Analysis Technology
Lead and frame product efforts in
terms of key consumer insights
and needs
Define and ship products that are
strategically bold and important
to our business(es)
Be fluent in current/emerging
technologies and understand
implications on product and
business strategy and execution
• Business leaders should be
developing “table stakes”
knowledge in H & T dimensions
to move from Point A  B
• Complement yourself with team
members who spike in H & T
dimensions
A
Human
Business Technical
Great Product
Managers operate
here
Business leaders are
typically here
B

7. 7
They apply different levels of involvement in defining and focusing on
each
PM PO
LevelofInvolvementandFocus
WHY WHAT HOW
Strategy Execution
PMs need to be
grounded in “How” as
it informs progress on
“What”
Both product managers and product owners must care about
and account for the why / what / how but…
POs need to be
grounded in “Why” as
it informs value
behind “What”
Together the Why,
What & How need to
be balanced.

8. 8
Shared disciplines that span from strategic to tactical
Human
Business
Technical
Product
Owner
Product
Manager
• Provides thought leadership
to reveal unmet needs and
develop innovative solutions
• Designs for the entire
customer journey
• Clearly understands
customer needs through
objective analysis
• Understands key business
outcomes and how
technology drives that value
• Communicates business
outcomes in a way that
enables manageable
features and user stories
• Incorporates customer
insights into feature design
• Acts as the voice of the
team, empowered to make
on the spot decisions
• Defends the end to end
customer experience
• Ensures strategic alignment
between business outcomes
and technical capabilities
• Develops core positioning
and messaging for the
product
• Is an expert on the
competition
• Effectively engages in
technical decision making
• Considers key
interdependencies across
systems
• Understands current and
target architectures
• Ensures delivery of
necessary business
outcomes
• Prioritizes and sequence the
team’s work to maximize
value
• Works in a 1 to 1 ratio,
leading a specific
development teams
• Looks outside the industry for
innovation and capabilities
• Aligns business and
technology strategies
• Clearly understands
customer needs
• Creates and directs highly
performing work teams
• Understands current and
target architecture
• Possesses a working
knowledge of systems
Product Management Family

9. 9
Skills Responsibilities
• Work with executive leadership and enterprise
architecture to align products with the portfolio vision
• Develop and maintain a product strategy, vision and
roadmap aligned with overall business strategy
• Lead efforts with branding and marketing teams to
derive the product’s key capabilities and benefits
• Work closely with leadership to define architecture,
expectations for user experience, and innovations
• Specify objectives for current and future products
• Lead multiple teams, ensuring alignment of iterative,
incremental development across multiple work
streams and functional areas
• Effectively collaborate to ensure prioritization of new
features, maintenance and non-functional requirements,
technical debt and architectural enhancements
• Develop and maintain executive reporting, removing
impediments as necessary
Product Manager Role - Skills and Responsibilities
• Ability to shape and sequence new intent while
keeping in mind the needs of the customer
• Proven leadership within the business and market
• Deep, systemic knowledge of critical business
interfaces
• Influence executive leadership to garner support and
funding for initiatives
• Ensure alignment of end customer needs and
proposed solutions
• Able to motivate and lead multiple teams and product
owners through effective program management
• Able to anticipate program risks and misalignments
• Possess an entrepreneurial, startup, or corporate
innovation mindset
• Proven track record of thought leadership and
practices, looking outside the business and industry for
innovations and best practices

10. 10
Skills Responsibilities
• Work with product leadership and enterprise architecture
to align product plans with the portfolio vision
• Develop and maintain a product vision and roadmap
aligned with business epics
• Work to communicate the product’s key capabilities
and benefits to enhance adoption of the product
• Effectively incorporate architecture, user experience,
and innovative product capabilities into design
• Specify requirements for current and future products
• Lead the product management team in the iterative,
incremental development
• Effectively collaborate to manage the distribution of
backlog items to development teams
• Balance priorities between new features, maintenance
requirements, non-functional requirements, reduction of
technical debt and architectural enhancements
• Develop and maintain program measures, removing
impediments as necessary
Product Owner Role - Skills and Responsibilities
• Possess a holistic understanding of the business and
product market
• Influence stakeholders and product managers
• Understands end customer needs and perspectives
and works to define solutions in the simplest possible
way
• Understanding and ability to speak to technology
domain
• Intellectual curiosity and ability to work in fast-paced,
complex and ambiguous environments
• Able to motivate and lead a team through energetic
collaboration
• Well organized, able to multi-task, and able to prioritize
Compelling and effective communication with team
and stakeholders
• Excellent negotiation and relationship building skills
• Excellent judgment and decisiveness
• Able to anticipate risks, manage issues and clear
obstacles

11. 11
Workshop Objectives
Aligning and Empowering Product Management
• Why do we need the Product Manager / Product Owner roles?
• How do you identify your customer and product?
• Grooming a backlog (Prioritization and Socialization)

12. 12
Agility Spans the Organization and Value Stream
Uncertainty increases

13. 13
Value Stream Mapping
Submit Loan for
Processing
Send to
Underwriting
Send for Final
Approval
Wait for
Disbursement
Do Something Valuable for
Customers
Generate Income from
Customers

14. 14
Typical Value Stream Mapping Activities
Define High-Level Process
Steps
Use Simple Use Case to Add
Processing Details
Identify End Product
Include Additional
Complexity
Identify Barriers, Issues and
Opportunities
Add Environmental and Tool
Details
• What flows from idea to production?
• What is the final product?
• Map out the steps necessary to move
from idea to production
• Take basic use case through the
process
• Add necessary details (e.g. cycle time,
touch time, WIP, defects)
• Add server names, tools used
• Document timelines, how teams
handle builds/testing/deployments
• Work though remaining use cases to
uncover dependencies and external
interfaces
• Include exception handling and defect
process
• Include all the steps necessary to get
ideas out the door
• Highlight opportunities, pain points
and bottlenecks

15. 15
Team
Scaling Level
Portfolio
From Needs to Value: Intent Flow
Epics
Features
/ Sub-
Epics
Features
/ Sub-
Epics Features
/ Sub-
Epics
Stories
What / How
Hierarchy
2+ Program Increments
2-3 Sprints
1-3 Days
Evidence of
Progress & Success
Wha
t
How
Wha
t
How
Success
Criteria
Acceptance
Criteria
AC Every
Sprint
Every
Increment
Major
Release
Localized
Execution
Strategic
Execution

16. 16
Workshop Objectives
Aligning and Empowering Product Management
• Why do we need the Product Manager / Product Owner roles?
• How do you identify your customer and product?
• Grooming a backlog (Prioritization and Socialization)

17. 17
What is a backlog?
• If something is in the backlog it MAY
get done
• If something is not in the backlog it
WON’T get done
• A backlog is a prioritized queue
– Queues create variability
– Avoid overwhelming team with
never-ending backlogs
• Coupled backlogs reduce
predictability (covariance)
– Cross backlog coupling must be
resolved either at prioritization or at
planning and monitored through
localized execution
Higher
Priority
Lower
Priority
Fine grained, detailed,
well understood, ready
for implementation
Coarse grained, less
detailed (Socialization)
Items can be added,
modified, removed or
re-prioritized
Intent

18. 18
What are the elements of a backlog?
• Functional Intent
– Describes what we need the solution to do
– Form: Epics
• Temporal Intent
– Describes when we need the Epics completed
– Form: Roadmap (updated and informed through execution)(captured on the epic)
• Intentional Architectural Intent
– Describes constraints to the way the solution must work (Constrains and informs the
“How)
– Form: Architectural Epics & Features
• Evidence of Completion
– Describes what the success criteria would be for the solution
– Form: Acceptance Criteria on Epics, Features and Stories, Demos (in execution)

19. 19
Success
Criteria
How do the Elements Come Together into Backlog?
Intentional Architecture Evidence of Completion
Temporal Intent
Business
EpicBusiness
EpicBusiness
EpicBusiness
Epic
Functional Intent
Architectural
EpicArchitectural
EpicArchitectural
EpicArchitectural
Epic / Feature
Business
Epic
Architectural
Epic
Business
Epic
TimeWhat is
Needed
Constraints
on How
Proof its
Done
When
its
Needed
When it
Can be
Done
NFRs
Backlog

20. 20
A Backlog IS a Prioritized Queue – How do we Prioritize it?
• Loudest Voice
– Not a great way but the way most immature teams do it
• Using Relative Estimation
– T-Shirt Sizing, Modified Fibonacci, etc.
• Moscow
– Must, Should, Could, Won’t
• Business Value
– Impact on Value Stream, Subjective Relative Estimation
• Lean Economics – Weighted Shortest Job First
– Cost of Delay (Time Criticality + Opportunity + Business Value) / Size
• Learning / Experimentation
– Very useful in competitive an/or novel solutions
You Must Pick one

21. 21
Relative Estimating
Adapted from Mike Cohn. Agile Estimating and Planning. 2005
Estimating poker combines expert opinion, analogy, and disaggregation
for quick but reliable estimates
Each
estimator
gets a deck
of cards
Product
owner reads
a story
Estimators
privately
select cards
Cards are
turned over
Discuss
differences Re-estimate
 Participants include all team members
 The product manager/owner participates, but does not estimate
Steps

22. 22
The Fibonacci Sequence
A modified Fibonacci sequence is used to reflect the
inherent uncertainty in estimating large items
1 + 0 = 1
1 + 1 = 2
2 + 1 = 3
3 + 2 = 5
5 + 3 = 8
8 + 5 = 13
20
40
100
?
Accuracy vs. Precision
 If we continued the true
Fibonacci sequence, we would
have the following numbers:
 21
 34
 55
 89
 144
 This implies precision which
can result in a false sense of
accuracy

23. 23
How Much Time to Spend Estimating
 A little effort helps a lot
 A lot of effort only helps a
little
50%
100%
Accuracy
Effort
It’s better to be approximately right, than precisely wrong!
Diminishing Value

24. 24
Socialization using the 3 C’s
Card, Conversation and Confirmation
Card
 Can be a Epic,
Feature, Story
 Contains all
the 4 forms of
Intent
 Defines the
scope of the
conversation
 Informs as to
who should be
involved in the
conversation
Conversation
 Ongoing dialog between Intent
Owner and How supplier
 Dialog is n-way among aligned
stakeholders (Dev, Arch, PM,
PO, Test, AE, etc.)
 Various How discussions may
modify the Acceptance Criteria
or identify new Architecturally
Significant Capabilities
Confirmation
 Captured as
Acceptance
Criteria on the
Card
 In ATDD can be
Tests
 Agreed upon
through
conversation
 Will have
evolving meta-
data (Size,
Backlog Priority,
etc.)

25. 25
Questions?