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Lift-Off: keep everyone on board!
Lorenzo Cassulo
Product Owner @ lastminute.com Group
Vimercate 11 February 2017@lorenzocassulo

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A few things about me
Hi, I’m Lorenzo
I’m a Product Owner
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What a Product Owner does
@lorenzocassulo

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Challenges that a Product Owner face with a new product
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Product Owner’s tools
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Powerful questions and discussions
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A long enough and moderate session where you discuss about
scope, context and purpose using powerful questions and
facilitation techniques
because you want everyone on board
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WHAT is a Lift-Off?
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SESSION SETUP
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Guest list setup
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● Invite the right people
● Face to face invitation
● Share the value of having a lift-off

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Agenda setup
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● Better in the morning
● When everyone is comfortable
to invest his/her time in this activity
● It’s a rolling information

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Room setup
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Room setup

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Room setup

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Room setup

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Room setup

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Setup tips & tricks
@lorenzocassulo
● Arrive earlier
● Hang posters about topics, cover them and then uncover them when you discuss the
topic (this keeps focus)
● Bring the right food and beverage
● Provide post-its and markers (people should not be afraid to use them)
● Divide participants using ice-breaker tecniques
● NO LAPTOPS ALLOWED

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WHAT TO ASK?
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Why we build the product?
Examples:
● Profit
● Cost saving
● Tech improvement
● Fun
● [...]
@lorenzocassulo
PURPOSE
VISION
WHAT TO ASK
MUST HAVE

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Can you explain it in 30 sec?
PURPOSE
MISSION
Build an Elevator Pitch:
A sentence that explain your product
effectively in the time of a short
elevator ride.
WHAT TO ASK
@lorenzocassulo
MUST HAVE

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Can you explain it in 30 sec?
● Who are your Customers and their needs?
● What your product is and does?
● What are the difference between
you and your competitors?
@lorenzocassulo
PURPOSE
MISSION
WHAT TO ASK
MUST HAVE

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Can you explain it in 30 sec?
● For [Users]
● Who [Needs]
● [Product name]
● Is [Category]
● That [Solution]
● Unlike [Competitor]
● Our product
[competitive advantage]
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PURPOSE
MISSION
WHAT TO ASK
MUST HAVE

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Who are our neighbours? WHAT TO ASK
CONTEXT
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How do you sell it in a supermarket?
SCOPE
Build a product box to sell
your product in a supermarket
● Logo
● Reason why
● Ingredients
● Warnings
● Best before
CREATES A SHARED IMAGE OF THE PRODUCT
WHAT TO ASK
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What the News would say about your product?
PURPOSE
Pretend to provide the release news as a TV breaking news
HIGHLIGHTS THE IMPACT OF YOUR PRODUCT
WHAT TO ASK
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What keep us awake at night?
CONTEXT
WHAT TO ASK
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How we will build the solution?
SCOPE
WHAT TO ASK
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What we will NOT build?
SCOPE
Build a NOT TO DO list
Highlights what are you NOT going to do
WHAT TO ASK
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How long will it take?
CONTEXT
Try to run a simulation of the product development process
NOT A GANTT
WHAT TO ASK
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How big is this?
ALIGNMENT
NOT AN ESTIMATE
NOT A COMMITMENT
WHAT TO ASK
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What is more important?
ALIGNMENT
WHAT TO ASK
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AND AT THE END...
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...always ask for feedback!
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AFTERMATH
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Aftermath
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● Share the output using information refrigerator and information
radiator
● Keep those content alive
● Iterate

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KEY TAKEAWAYS...
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● Questions and discussion are powerful tools
@lorenzocassulo
Key takeaways

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● Lift-Off techniques are discussion tokens, discussions allow you to
keep everyone on board
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Key takeaways

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● It’s a process of discovery and sharing
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Key takeaways

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● It’s an iterative living practice
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Key takeaways

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REAL PICTURES FROM REAL
LIFT-OFFS
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MORE INFO & HELPS
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Lift-Off - Diana Larsen
https://pragprog.com/book/liftoff/liftoff-second-edition
https://www.infoq.com/interviews/larsen-agile-fluency
Agile Samurai - Jonathan Rasmusson https://pragprog.com/titles/jtrap/the-agile-samurai
Inception deck: https://agilewarrior.wordpress.com/2010/11/06/the-agile-inception-deck/
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Books & Links
@lorenzocassulo

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THANKS!
Let’s keep in touch!
lorenzocassulo
Thanks to my awesome workmates at lastminute.com for
their support and feedback!
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