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Scaling the Product Owner RoleTimo Punkka

15+ years of professional development

10+ years of Agile development

Certified Scrum Professional

Certified Scaled Agile Framework Program

Consultant

Timo Punkka

timo.punkka at ngware.eu

ng-embedded.blogspot.com

@tpunkka

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What is needed to harness the power of delivering agile teams?

Embrace the hierarchy

Complex, distributed, customer chain

Trusted development

Delivery Cadence

Development requests (“Projects”) arriving in series

Happened so far…

3

1.

Teams that

do things

right

2.

The things

are the right

ones

3.

Company wide

continuous

improvement

Exercise #1

On post-it notes, write down activities and responsibilities outside the development teams that affect the success of the product.

(Free) Tips:

Around does not mean only before

Around does not mean only in immediate proximity to development

10 mins

4

Business Plan PositioningMarketing

Plan

Market

Problems

Market

DefinitionPricing

Buying

Process

Customer

Acquisition

Win/Loss

Analysis

Distribution

Strategy

Buy, Build, or

Partner

Buyer

Personas

Customer

Retention

Distinctive

Competence

Product

Portfolio

Product

ProfitabilityUser Personas

Program

Effectiveness

Competitive

Landscape

Product

RoadmapInnovation Requirements Launch Plan Sales Process

Presentations

& Demos

Technology

AssesmentUse Scenarios

Thought

LeadershipCollateral “Special” Calls

Status

Dashboard

Lead

GenerationSales Tools Event Support

Referrals &

References

Channel

Training

Channel

Support

Market PlanningBusinessStrategy SupportReadinessPrograms

Business

Technical

Strategy Execution Pragmatic Marketing Framework ™

http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com/

Quick quizz;

What kind of problems may arise, if these are

not taken care of?

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(Some) real-life outcomes;

• Development investments without commitment

from the marketing partner

• Miss-aligned development between product lines

• Missing the long term direction

(going back and forth)

• Difficulties in customer dialogue

Organization’s

Stretch Goals

Organization’s

Stretch Goals

SW Development Marketing

HR

Missed PotentialHardware Development

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What is needed to harness the power of delivering agile teams?

Embrace the hierarchy

Complex, distributed, customer chain

Agile Planning Onion

Day

Predictable Uncertain Unpredictable

Time

(Smits, 2007, Cohn 2005)

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Exercise #2

Use the templates provided.

Think about the timeframe for each of the activity or responsibility you listed in Exercise #1.

Divide the actions and responsibilities to few groups based on time span. For each group mark the time span and name the responsible role.

(Free) Tips:

Agile planning onion is not the only truth

10 mins

Business Plan PositioningMarketing

Plan

Market

Problems

Market

DefinitionPricing

Buying

Process

Customer

Acquisition

Win/Loss

Analysis

Distribution

Strategy

Buy, Build, or

Partner

Buyer

Personas

Customer

Retention

Distinctive

Competence

Product

Portfolio

Product

ProfitabilityUser Personas

Program

Effectiveness

Competitive

Landscape

Product

RoadmapInnovation Requirements Launch Plan Sales Process

Presentations

& Demos

Technology

AssesmentUse Scenarios

Thought

LeadershipCollateral “Special” Calls

Status

Dashboard

Lead

GenerationSales Tools Event Support

Referrals &

References

Channel

Training

Channel

Support

Market PlanningBusinessStrategy SupportReadinessPrograms

Business

Technical

Strategic Tactical

Product Owner

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Product Owner (PO) Agile Product Manager (PM)

Business Owner (BO)

Sensitivity for ProductImplements values

MarketImports business values

BusinessImports corporate and strategy values

Level of acting Development flowFocus on current development

ProductFocus on roadmap and strategy

CorporateFocus on vision, portfolio and strategy

Time Span Less than a year Year Many years

Major responsibility

Transform business requirements to development stories

Voice of the customer Vision (development direction)

Typical tasks • Manage product backlog priorities

• Represents customer view for development teams

• Market analysis• Competition and trends• Roadmap definition• Launching

• Internal sales and marketing• Price and channel management• Vision, strategy and portfolio definitions

Business Story (Epic)

Portfolio Story (Feature)

Product Owner

Agile Product Manager

Business Owner

Roadmap Story (Feature)

- Possibly spans releases

- Fits a release

- Fits a Sprint

Vision / Strategy / Direction

Development Story

(User Story)

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Meta-model

Leffingwell (2011) Shalloway, Beaver

and Trott (2009)

Galen (2009) Keith (2010) Vlaanderen

et. Al. (2011)

Gorscheck

and Wohlin

(2006)

Pla

nn

ing

Le

ve

ls (

Sm

its

20

07

, C

oh

n 2

00

5)

Company

Strategy Level of investment in

a strategic product

theme

VisionVision and

Mission(Vision) Vision

-

Product

Portfolio -

Product

Roadmap Epic Business CapabilityEpic

Saga

Epic

Theme Goal

ReleaseFeature

FeatureConcept Feature

IterationStory Story Story Story Function

DayTask Task Task Task - Component

(Laanti, 2012)

Hierarchy

Time span

Product Owner decision impact

Agile Product Manager decision impact

Business Owner decision impact

Releases…

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What is needed to harness the power of delivering agile teams?

Embrace the hierarchy

Complex, distributed, customer chain

Product Management

Marketing

Sales

Technical Support

Product Management

Marketing

Sales

Technical Support

Partner

End-User/

Buyer

Development

Front-Offices

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Exercise #3

In feedback path matrix;

1. List the roles from E2 in rows

2. List different customer representatives in columns

Start filling the matrix with possibilities for acquiring feedback

(Free) Tips:

List categories in order of time span

List customer representatives in order of “distance” from the development

10 mins

Surveys (static)

Expert opinion (proxy)

Customer panel (sample)

Usability research

Field trips

…

Warmth

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Front-Office(s) Partners End-User

Product Owner

(Development)

Sprint Planning and Review Expert opinion Field tripsUsability research

Product Manager

(Roadmap)

Sprint Planning and ReviewRelease planning and Demo

Expert opinionCustomer panel

Usability researchField trips

Business Owner

(Portfolio)

Release planning and DemoPortfolio workshopsSurveys

SurveysExpert opinionCustomer panel

Expert opinionSales figuresCustomer satisfaction surveys

The feedback path matrix

Let’s Wrap-Up

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1.

Teams that

do things

right

2.

The things

are the right

ones

3.

Company wide

continuous

improvement

Scaled Agile Framework™ Big Picture

http://scaledagileframework.comhttp://scaledagileframework.comhttp://scaledagileframework.

com

http://scaledagileframework.com

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E

P

IC

F

E

A

T

U

R

E

S

T

O

R

Y

SSAT

Portfolio

management

Product

management

Release

management

Development teams

Customer

feedbackRoadmap

R R + 1 R + 2

Sprint backlog Product backlog

Years

Months

Days

Weeks

4 months 4 months 4 months

Business portfolio

Architecture

Customer business development

Frequent re-synchronizing points for alingment

Workstation/

Supervision

Field devices

Hardware

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Knowledge workers must

understand:

• What is our business?

• Who is our customer?

• What does our customer

consider valuable?Peter Drucker

Teams doing things right is not enough

Hierarchy in defining direction can be a good thing, when based on time span

Customer is a role in Agile organization, it is played by multiple persons

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Thank You