product - Managing Agile

Get Your Own Way

by Charl Dreyer on July 14, 2009 · 0 comments

If you had to say to your Team that fewer than 8 out of 100 people know the difference between a search engine and a browser, would they believe you? Would it make a difference to how you built software? You know, those geeky bits that express technical prowess, but user ignorance?

“How do you get your boss to approve something, the customer service people to understand the pain a system is causing, or the folks in engineering to see things your way?” asks Seth Godin in a recent blog. [click to continue…]

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Tagged as: colleague, customer, effectiveness, market, need, product, remarkable, software

Product Visions

by Charl Dreyer on July 7, 2009 · 0 comments

in Documents

I am often concerned during Executive reviews for example, that product visions are not well communicated to stakeholders. They are often not able to quote the vision for the products that make up their businesses. The visions don’t even make it onto the slides!

As Product Owners, you form and hold your product’s vision — but please don’t keep it a secret. Certainly every one in your team should be able to quote the vision verbatim, but I am disappointed if that’s as deep as it goes. In every presentation given about your product, your product vision should be the central theme. After all, your product is your business.

As a suggestion to get your product vision better known, why don’t you create an email signature that quotes it?

I know Product Owners know that forming a product vision is a key responsibility of theirs; what I don’t know is why it’s not used to unify and motivate the team and stakeholders alike.

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Tagged as: management, product, product owner, strategy, vision

Six Faithful Serving Men

by Charl DreyerJune 30, 2009 Documents

Many business cases I’ve read are framed in the solution domain, which should concern us because the business case may propose solving the wrong problem. As technology derives its value from the underlying business problem solved, solving the wrong problem will result in a sub-optimal ROI. And solving the wrong problem means the solution will fail because it’s implemented in the wrong context.

Tagged as: agile, benefit, business case, documents, need, product, product owner, remarkable

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What Are You Doing?

by Charl DreyerJune 17, 2009 Responding to Change

It is a good idea for each product to have a product positioning statement. Both you and those on your product team should be able to quote this verbatim. They should revisit this every morning before they start work. Then compare what you’re doing, or more likely should be doing, to honor this statement.

Tagged as: market, product, strategy, vision

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Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation

by Charl DreyerJune 2, 2009 Documents

The Agile Manifesto values working software over comprehensive documentation. In agile projects working software is the ultimate quantification of your project’s status. This may take some getting used to. The agile leader though, may be more interested in artifacts describing the project’s functional effectiveness: The ‘why’ of the business. This is because you are responsible for the software beyond its manufacture: Why you invested in it, and why it complements your broader business plan.

Tagged as: agile, agile manifesto, cio, cto, leadership, management, product, product owner

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Product Owner Themes

by Charl DreyerMay 16, 2009 Individuals and Interactions

Introspection is usual early on in an implementation of any new role. But be careful that you don’t leave customers and competitors unattended while you craft the perfect job description.

Tagged as: agile, competition, competitor, customer, efficiency, introspection, organization, product, product owner, strategic, strategy