Effective, experienced technical product management is crucial to make software engineering hum: Engineering and Product Management are symbiotic. When engineering is chaotic, many times applying a product management “fix” can do the trick. Ron Lichty has repeatedly been brought in to transform chaos to clarity in software development. Here’s a set of diagnoses, each with a product management fix that product managers can apply to make engineering hum.

1. Engineering Challenges /
Product Management Solutions
Ron Lichty, principal, Ron Lichty Consulting
author, Managing the Unmanageable
www.RonLichty.com www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net

2. Ron Lichty,
Managing Development Product Teams
SOFTWEST
2

3. Annual Study
of Product Team Performance
http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html© Ron Lichty 3

4. * Addison Wesley
*
© Ron Lichty 4

5. Training Teams: Agile
1-4 weeks
© Ron Lichty 5

6. Debugging Software Teams
Transforming Chaos to Clarity
© Ron Lichty 6

7. Debugging Software Teams
Transforming Chaos to Clarity
• Product Management is essential
© Ron Lichty 7

8. Debugging Software Teams
Transforming Chaos to Clarity
• Product Management is essential
– Technical
– Effective
– Experienced
© Ron Lichty 8

9. Scattershot, Hit-or-Miss Development
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 9

10. Scattershot, Hit-or-Miss Development
• It’s PdM that supplies consistent direction
– vision
– roadmap
– prioritized backlogs of stories
– theming sprints
© Ron Lichty 10

11. Development Is Distracted
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 11

12. Be an umbrella to the noise
--John Evans photo
© Ron Lichty 12

13. Be an umbrella to the noise
--John Evans photo
• Speed of Ideation exceeds the Speed of Development
© Ron Lichty 13

14. Be an umbrella to the noise
--John Evans photo
• Speed of Ideation exceeds the Speed of Development
• Courage: “Great idea! I’ll put that in the backlog”
© Ron Lichty 14

15. Let developers focus
© Ron Lichty 15
pixabay.com

16. Source: Mike Cohn, citing Steven C.Wheelwright and Kim B.Clark (1993), Revolutionizing Product Development: Quantum Leaps in Speed, Efficiency and Quality, 1993
Don’t Be a Source of Multitasking
© Ron Lichty 16

17. taking communications overload into account
Source: Rob Maher, “Increasing Team Productivity: A project focus creates waste and leaves value on the table”, Scrum.org Whitepapers
Rob Maher, surmising that email, texts, IRC, chat, smartphones together represent a second “task”
Source: Mike Cohn, citing Steven C.Wheelwright and Kim B.Clark (1993), Revolutionizing Product Development: Quantum Leaps in Speed, Efficiency and Quality, 1993
Don’t Be a Source of Multitasking
© Ron Lichty 17

18. --Larry Maccherone, The Impact of Agile Quantified, Rally, 2013
Don’t Be a Source of Multitasking
© Ron Lichty 18

19. Developers Are Lackluster
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 19

20. Connect the vision with the team’s work
http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
© Ron Lichty

21. Create an Agile Culture
© Ron Lichty 21

22. Developers Aren’t Following the Plan
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 22

23. Order the Backlog by Value
© Ron Lichty 23
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24. Development Is on a Death March
© Ron Lichty 24

25. Provide Clarity: Scope or Deadline???
© Ron Lichty 25

26. What You’re Getting ≠ What You Wanted
© Ron Lichty 26

27. What You’re Getting ≠ What You Wanted
• Clear requirements
• Always based on the customer
• An answer to every ambiguity
• The “what”; for context the “who” the “why”
• Never the demotivating “how”
• How we’ll know we’ve achieved success: UATs
• 3rd ‘C’ in Planning Meeting 3 C’s: Confirmation
© Ron Lichty 27

28. Team Doesn’t Get the Vision
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 28

29. Engage Developers with Real Users
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 29

30. Developers Go Unheard
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 30

31. Developers Go Unheard
“If you’re just using your engineers to code,
you’re losing half their value.”
“The single biggest innovator in many
companies is the tech lead.”
--Marty Cagan
© Ron Lichty 31

32. Listen, Ask
pixabay.com
• Developers want to delight customers, too
• They see opportunities in the code
• Give them context / expect rich options
© Ron Lichty 32

33. Cost of Adding Features Spikes
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 33

34. Groom the Backlog in Collaboration
with your Tech Lead!
• PdMs are responsible for the backlog
• Critical technical Product Backlog Items:
– just-enough architecture
– resolving technical risk
– automating building and testing
– fixing critical bugs
• Either
– collaboratively interweave technical PBIs
– assign nn% every sprint to tech team stories
© Ron Lichty 34

35. Sprints Are a Mishmash of Stuff
pixabay.com
© Ron Lichty 35

36. Theme Your Sprints
© Ron Lichty 36
pixabay.com

37. Debugging Software Teams
Transforming Chaos to Clarity
Product Management is essential
© Ron Lichty 37

38. Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*
* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html
© Ron Lichty 38

39. Ron Lichty Consulting
• Interim acting CTO/VP Eng roles / making development hum
– http://ronlichty.com, Ron@RonLichty.com
• The book:
Managing the Unmanageable:
Rules, Tools Insights for Managing Software People Teams
– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
• The study:
The Study of Product Team Performance
– http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html
• Training: Agile for Teams
The Agile Manager
Managing Software People and Teams© Ron Lichty 39