Product owner is a critical role for agile/scrum teams, as a key stakeholder and representative of users, customers or markets. Commercial software companies have a broader role -- product manager -- responsible for identifying market needs/opportunities, making product-level decisions about offerings/benefits/pricing/packaging/channels/financial goals, and managing sales/customer relationships on behalf of executives. Since products often span multiple scrum teams, some products have a mix of product owners and product managers. We'll introduce product owners, map that against software product managers, and talk through approaches to meet all of the product needs for a market-successful product.

1. Intro to Agile Product
Management
Rich Mironov
5 August 2015
©
Rich
Mironov,
2015
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2. • Veteran
product
manager/so<ware
exec
• “What
do
customers
want?”
• Business
models,
pricing,
agile/lean
• Organizing
product
organizaCons
• 6
startups,
including
as
CEO/founder
• “The
Art
of
Product
Management”
• First
agile
product
manager/owner
tracks
About Rich Mironov
w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m 2

3. • What’s a Product Manager? Product Owner?
• Scope and Failure Modes
• Starter Organizational Models
Agenda
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4. • Commercial software companies
• Responsible for technical delivery AND revenue results
• Scaled-up agile organizations
• At product / portfolio / strategy levels
Usually a formal position
Focus on jobs-to-be-done and skills, not titles
Where Do We Find
Agile Product Managers?
4w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m

5. Scrum Teams
5ScrumTeam.jpg (from Exploring Scrum- the Fundamentals, by Dan Rawsthorne & Doug Shimp)

6. • Usually one PO per team, not one PO per product
• Provides intense sprint-level focus: stories, backlog,
prioritization, acceptance
• Represents the customer’s interest in backlog
prioritization and requirements questions... available
to the team at any time
• Balances interests of competing stakeholders
• Feeds the hungry agile beast
What Does a Product Owner Do?
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7. Steam engine
“firemen” need to
shovel coal
constantly, otherwise
the train will stop
Feeding the Agile Beast
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8. Product
Backlog
Epics
&
User
Stories
Release
Backlog
Epics
&
User
Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User
Stories
Poten5ally
releasable
so8ware
So8ware
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospec-ve
Process
improvement
1
day
Daily
Standup
Sprint:
1
to
3
weeks
No
changes
in
dura5on
or
goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter
Release
Retrospec-ve
Process
improvement
N
sprints
Agile/Scrum: Product Owner Focus
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product owner focus

9. • Drives delivery and market acceptance of whole
products
• Targets market segments, not individual customers
• “What does this segment need/what will it pay for?”
• Technical features, acceptance and adoption
• Resolves inevitable competing priorities
• Motivates/aligns functional groups
beyond development (marketing, sales,
support, partners, finance…)
What Does a Product Manager Do?
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10. w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m 10

11. • By definition, commercial software has many customers
• Profitability is completely about scale
• 2nd copy of identical software costs $0 to build
• Customers rarely compute value/ROI for us
• We propose value to prospects during sales process
• “If you use our ergonomic standing desks, your staff will be 15% healthier
and 10% more productive”
• We segment markets for similar customers
• Exclude those who want very different solutions
• Exclude those who don’t accept our proposed value
Product Managers Define Value for
Specific Target Segments
11w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m

12. Conversations, market information,
priorities, requirements,
roadmaps, epics, user stories,
backlogs, personas…
product
bits
strategy, forecasts,
commitments, roadmaps,
competitive intelligence
budgets, staff,
targets
Field input,
Market feedback
Segmentation, messages,
benefits/features, pricing,
qualification, demos…
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Management
What Does a Product Manager Do?
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13. • ACTIVITY and OUTPUT (what people see)
• Write epics/stories, meet customers, cajole, pitch prospects, call
meetings, accept epics/stories, praise teams, distract Sales, present
roadmaps, catch arrows
• OUTCOME (where we earn our salaries):
• Make technical/market trade-offs for revenue and adoption
• Deflect interruptions
• Turn away poor deals, customers and partners
• Think about this quarter and next year; revenue and architecture
What Does a Product Manager Do?
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14. • Logic and facts are not sufficient
• Engineering demand >> supply
• Sales teams paid to
close individual deals
• HIPPO
• Responsibility
without authority
• Where strategy meets
implementation
Product Management:
Inherently Political
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15. • Business value error bars > engineering error bars
• Blending of
• Promises of future revenue
• Promises of future operational savings
• Promises of future development efficiencies (tech debt)
• Quality forced onto a linear scale
• Simplistic models of buyer behavior
• Gaming, logrolling
Allocating our scarcest, most valuable resource
Someone (some team) must force-rank programs
Business Value: Slightly Estimatable
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16. Hypothesis:
• Epic/project business value estimates are +/- 70%
• 1 in 10 will deliver zero value
How would that change your portfolio planning?
Your interactions with stakeholders?
Discussion/Exercise (5 Minutes)
16w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m

17. There’s nothing more wasteful
than brilliantly engineering a
product that doesn’t sell,
or a project that
doesn’t matter.
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18. • Pulls into product station every day
• From customers, sales, support, execs, engineers, analysts…
• Delivers hundreds of “good ideas” each day
• Few are new or earthshaking
Good Idea Train
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19. • Emotional needs vs. commitment
• Japanese “hai” is alternative to “NO”
• "Thank you! That's a really interesting
idea. Let me put it into the idea backlog.
And let’s talk more about the root cause
of the problem you have.”
• NEVER agree without Dev sizing
Humbly Accepting Input
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20. backlog, priorities,
epics, user stories,
personas, demo feedback
product
bits
Markets &
CustomersDevelopment
Marketing
& Sales
Executives
Product
Owner
‘Small p’ Product Owner
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showcase
customers

21. • Engineering output
• Product features
• Order of delivery
• Product/market/business model
• Pricing
• Competitive positioning
• Partners and Channels
• Services and Support
• Fit with corporate strategy
• Product split, merge or EOL
Product Manager Has More Levers
Product
manager
Product
owner
A@er:
Greg
Cohen
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22. Not what we intended, but…
• Most product management
teams are already understaffed
• Product ownership adds
40-60% more critical work
• Urgency of stories, backlog grooming,
sprint planning, standups, acceptance
• One person can “do it all” for a single agile team
• But typical Dev:PDM ratio is 25:1, not 10:1
Product Managers: Oversubscribed,
Overcommitted, Burning Out
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23. Not what we intended, but…
• Selection (hiring) focuses on SME/BA, technical
skills, story writing
• Little appreciation for market-side experience
• Engineering’s belief in rational/technical customers
• Requirements are out there to be “gathered”
• No recognition of organizational blocking skills
• Short-term assignments or career path?
Product Owners: Typically Under-Spec’d,
Underpaid, Lacking Clout
23w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m

24. Product Manager Failure Modes
Product Manager fails agile team(s) when…
• Part-timer, not engaged with team(s)
• Lack of detail on stories/handwaving
• Stale backlog
• Best of intentions, but pulled in
too many directions

25. Product Owner Failure Modes
Product Owner fails “the business” when…
• Weak on market realities: whole
product, competitive dynamics, value
error bars, benefits, pricing models
• Unable to hold back interrupt stream
• Confuses showcase customers with broad market

26. Commercial Product Failures
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Product
Backlog
Epics
&
User
Stories
Release
Backlog
Epics
&
User
Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User
Stories
Poten5ally
releasable
so8ware
So8ware
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospec-ve
Process
improvement
1
day
Daily
Standup
Sprint:
1
to
3
weeks
No
changes
in
dura5on
or
goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter
Release
Retrospec-ve
Process
improvement
N
sprints
Most
product
failures
happen
here

27. Shared PO/PDM Scope
w w w . M I R O N O V . c o m 27
Product
Backlog
Epics
&
User
Stories
Release
Backlog
Epics
&
User
Stories
Sprint
Backlog
User
Stories
Poten5ally
releasable
so8ware
So8ware
release
Accepted
story
(“DONE”)
Review
Demo,
feedback
Retrospec-ve
Process
improvement
1
day
Daily
Standup
Sprint:
1
to
3
weeks
No
changes
in
dura5on
or
goal
Release
planning
Sprint
planning
Charter
Release
Retrospec-ve
Process
improvement
N
sprints
product manager focus
product owner focus

28. Minimal PDM/PO “Organization”
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VP or Founders
more technical more market-focused
Heroic Single
Product Manager/Owner
+ team
“management”

29. Dysfunctional Product Organization
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VP Eng
Product
Owners
+ team
more technical more market-focused
VP Marketing
“management”
Product
Managers

30. PDM/PO Organizational Map:
Product Peers
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PDM Director/
Product Strategist
GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO
more technical more market-focused
“management”

31. PDM/PO Organizational Map:
Market Mentoring
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GM / VP Eng / VP Products / CPO
more technical more market-focused
Product
Owner + team
Senior Product
Manager
“management”

32. • Product management scope includes market success
as well as technical delivery
• Agile stretches/stresses commercial
product organizations
• Teaming, collaboration and skills more
important than titles
• Find balance among collaboration,
deflection, buffering, interrupts
Agile Product Take-Aways
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33. CONTACT
Rich Mironov, CEO
Mironov Consulting
233 Franklin St, Suite #308
San Francisco, CA 94102
RichMironov
@RichMironov
Rich@Mironov.com
+1-­‐650-­‐315-­‐7394