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AGILE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
  ESSENTIALS FOR PROJECT
CLICK
  AND PROGRAM MANAGERS
TO            Rich Mironov
EDIT        13 September 2012

MASTE PMI Agile Community of Practice


R TITLE
ABOUT ME



• “Product guy” at 6 startups
  • Most recently as CEO/founder
  • Software as revenue
• Author
  • “The Art of Product Management”
  • Product Bytes blog
  • Business models, agile, organizing product teams
• Chaired first Agile product stages
• Founded Product Camp
                        W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M    2
DISJOINT COMMUNITIES



Not enough overlap
 or shared thinking



                 Product                     Agile
                Managers                  Communities




                      W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M       3
AGENDA



•   What does a product manager do?
•   Product vs. Project/Program Management
•   Agile, product managers and product owners
•   Take-aways
WHAT DOES A PRODUCT
MANAGER DO?


• For commercial / revenue software…
  • Drives delivery and market acceptance of whole products
  • Targets market segments, not individual customers




• For strategic internal development…
  • Drives acceptance and adoption
  • Resolves inevitable competing priorities
WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER
   DO?
                            budgets, staff,                              strategy, forecasts,
                               targets                                commitments, roadmaps,
                                                                       competitive intelligence
                                                   Executives



       CLICK
  market information, priorities,
requirements, roadmaps, epics,
    user stories, backlogs,
       personas, MRDs…                             Product
                                                                                Field input,
                                                                              Market feedback


       TO                                        Management



       EDIT                Development
                                                                Marketing
                                                                 & Sales
                                                                              Markets &
                                                                              Customers



       MASTE                           product                 Segmentation, messages,


       R TITLE                           bits                  benefits/features, pricing,
                                                                 qualification, demos…

                                              W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
PRAGMATIC MARKETING
      FRAMEWORK

               Director of                                                                                    Product
               Product Strategy                    Business
                                                                  Positioning
                                                                                 Marketing
                                                                                                             Marketing
                                                     Plan                          Plan

                  Market           Market                          Buying        Customer
                                                                                                             Manager
                                                    Pricing
                 Problems         Definition                       Process       Acquisition

                 Win/Loss        Distribution     Buy, Build       Buyer         Customer
                 Analysis         Strategy        or Partner      Personas       Retention

                Distinctive       Product           Product         User          Program
               Competence         Portfolio       Profitability   Personas      Effectiveness

                  Market          Strategy        Business        Planning       Programs       Readiness        Support

               Competitive         Product                         Require-       Launch          Sales        Presentations
                                                  Innovation
                Landscape         Roadmap                           ments          Plan          Process         & Demos

                Technology                                           Use          Thought                        “Special”
                                                                                                Collateral
                Assessment                                        Scenarios      Leadership                        Calls

                                                                    Status        Lead            Sales           Event
                                                                  Dashboard     Generation        Tools          Support
               Technical Product Manager                                        Referrals &      Channel         Channel
                                                                                References       Training        Support       7
© 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved
Good product managers
 drive customer-relevant
decisions (choices) despite
     uncertainty and
   contradictory goals
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT RHYTHM



• No natural sequence
• Intensely interrupt driven
• Bottom-up meets top-down

• Demands strategy, judgment and
  integration as well as execution


                  W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M   9
IDEAL CANDIDATE




 CLICK
 TO
 EDIT
 MASTE
 R TITLE    W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M   10
AGENDA



•   What does a product manager do?
•   Product vs. Project / Program Management
•   Agile, product managers and product owners
•   Take-aways
PRODUCT, PROJECT, PROGRAM?



Disclaimers
• No role/title consistency
• Unclear division of labor
• Execs create novel organizations
• Each tech company is
  uniquely dysfunctional
• Good teams make things work
  in spite of titles and roles
ONE PROBLEM, TWO VIEWPOINTS



• Project/Program Managers
  tasked with how to deliver
  • Not-so-secretly worry about
    market success
• Product Managers tasked with
  what to build (and when)
  • Not-so-secretly worry about delivery,
    quality, completeness
IN A PERFECT ORGANIZATION…



• Product Management: more outward-facing market-visible
  decisions
   •   What FEATURES/BENEFITS are market segments demanding?
   •   How are we POSITIONED and PRICED versus competitors?
   •   WHICH must-ship feature will we DROP first?
   •   SALES impact of slipped dates? Commitments?
• Project/Program Management: more inward-facing
  resource allocation decisions
   •   HOW should we get this done? WHO works on what?
   •   WHEN will it actually ship?
   •   Have we defined and met QUALITY goals?
   •   What outside RESOURCES could speed things up?
LIVING THE CUSTOMER’S REALITY



Product managers sense the market by…
• Helping close deals
• Trading off conflicting
  customer commitments
• Sweating price/volume forecasts
• Identifying novel (or terrible) user cases
• Anchoring opinions with lots of
  first person customer/field input                 Source:
                                               Pragmatic Marketing
AGENDA



•   What does a product manager do?
•   Product vs. Project / Program Management
•   Agile, product managers and product owners
•   Take-aways
DISCUSSIONS OF AGILE



We tend to mix…
• Philosophy and religion
• Process, tools, techniques, methods
• Organizational design




                  W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M   17
AGILE METHODS




 CLICK
 TO  Extreme
    Programmi
      ng (XP)
                Crystal
                Methods
                              Scrum         Feature
                                             Driven
                                           Developme
                                                        Test Driven
                                                        Developme
                                                         nt (TDD)


 EDIT
                                            nt (FDD)
     Dynamic     Lean         Agile          Rational     Rapid
    Systems &   & Lean       Project         Unified    Application


 MASTE
    Developme
     nt Model
     (DSDM)
                Startup    Managemen
                                t
                           Framework
                                             Process
                                              (RUP)
                                                        Developme
                                                         nt (RAD)



 R TITLE
                             (APM)


                     W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M                      18
DIFFERENT MOTIVATORS



• Why development teams want Agile
  •   Focus more on developing, not SDLC
  •   More quality, fewer peaks and valleys
  •   Build what customers want
  •   Move the bottleneck elsewhere

• What executives want from Agile
  • Get more done (more “ROI”)
  • Faster, more predictable
  • “More responsive to market” means
    they can juggle the roadmap more often
WHY NOT WATERFALL?



  Requirements                                      Waterfall projects
  and estimates
                                                      rarely deliver
                                                    according to plan
                  Design


                           Coding and
                            unit test


                                             System
                                        integration & QA


                                                           Operation and
                                                           maintenance
                                                                           20
AGILE’S INNER LOOP




                                           From Mike Cohn




             W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M                    21
AGILE’S STRATEGIC OUTER LOOP
    (PdM)




•   Markets                                    •   Customers
•   Customers                                  •   Sales
•   Biz Models                                 •   Marketing
•   Strategy                                   •   Support
•   Portfolios                                 •   Upgrades
•   Funding                                    •   EOL/EOS




                                                      22
                 W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
PRODUCT MANAGER, PRODUCT
OWNER


• Most agilists think about “product owners”
   •   Formal part of agile team
   •   Needs to be physically present
   •   Driving user stories and sub-iteration decisions
   •   Showcases are primary method of customer input

• Most product managers are not agilists
   • Majority of work to deliver products (revenue) happens outside
     Engineering
   • Interacts with markets directly, not filtered through Sales or Marketing
   • Servicing multiple inbound and outbound queues



                            W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M                    23
PRODUCT OWNER’S CALENDAR




 Borrowed from Catherine Connor, Rally

                                         W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
‘Small p’ PRODUCT OWNER



                                             Executives




    CLICK
market information, priorities,
    epics, user stories,
   backlogs, personas…                        Product

    TO                                      Management



    EDIT
                                                          Marketing   Markets &
                          Development                      & Sales    Customers



    MASTE                         product


    R TITLE                         bits

                                     W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
ADAPTED PRAGMATIC
FRAMEWORK


                                 Business                      Marketing
                                                Positioning
                                   Plan                          Plan

    Market        Market                         Buying        Customer
                                  Pricing
   Problems      Definition                      Process       Acquisition

   Win/Loss      Distribution   Buy, Build       Buyer         Customer
   Analysis       Strategy      or Partner      Personas       Retention

   Distinctive    Product         Product         User          Program
  Competence      Portfolio     Profitability   Personas      Effectiveness

    Market        Strategy      Business        Planning      Programs        Readiness      Support

  Competitive      Product                       Require        Launch          Sales      Presentations
                                Innovation
   Landscape      Roadmap                         ments          Plan          Process       & Demos

  Technology                                       Use          Thought                      “Special”
                                                                              Collateral
  Assessment                                    Scenarios      Leadership                      Calls

                                                  Status        Lead            Sales         Event
                                                Dashboard     Generation        Tools        Support
                 product owner
                                                               Referrals &     Channel       Channel
                                                               References      Training      Support
                                                                                                           26
PdM/PO FAILURE MODES



Product Manager fails agile team             Product Owner fails marketplace if
if                                           • Weak on market realities: pricing,
• Part-time, disengaged                        packaging, selling, upgrades,
• Stories lack detail                          service models, discounting,
• Stale backlog                                competitive dynamics
• Best of intentions, but pulled in          • Disconnected from Marketing,
   too many directions                         Sales, Support
• Not buffering team from                    • Trading off company-wide strategy
   customer/ sales interruptions               for product features
• “Build what I meant”                       • Confuses showcase customers
                                               with broader market

                             W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M                   27
ONE PdM/PO ORGANIZATIONAL MAP



                GM / VP Eng / VP Prod / CPO


 CLICK                        Product

 TO                          Managers


 EDIT          Product
               Owners


 MASTE
 R TITLE
   more technical

                     W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
                                                   more market-focused

                                                                         28
TAKE-AWAYS



• Product management struggles with
  market success, product sufficiency and
  inconsistent customer segments
• Project management struggles with
  resources, timelines and unreasonable
  commitments
• IMHO, simple product owner role fails to
  address market complexities
• We need to work together to ship great
  products!
                      W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M   29
Mironov Consulting
CONTACT
CLICK     233 Franklin St, Suite #308
          San Francisco, CA 94102
TO
EDIT             Rich@Mironov.com



MASTE            RichMironov



R TITLE
                 @RichMironov

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Agile ProDUCT Management Essentials for ProJECT and ProGRAM Managers

  • 1. AGILE PRODUCT MANAGEMENT ESSENTIALS FOR PROJECT CLICK AND PROGRAM MANAGERS TO Rich Mironov EDIT 13 September 2012 MASTE PMI Agile Community of Practice R TITLE
  • 2. ABOUT ME • “Product guy” at 6 startups • Most recently as CEO/founder • Software as revenue • Author • “The Art of Product Management” • Product Bytes blog • Business models, agile, organizing product teams • Chaired first Agile product stages • Founded Product Camp W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 2
  • 3. DISJOINT COMMUNITIES Not enough overlap or shared thinking Product Agile Managers Communities W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 3
  • 4. AGENDA • What does a product manager do? • Product vs. Project/Program Management • Agile, product managers and product owners • Take-aways
  • 5. WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO? • For commercial / revenue software… • Drives delivery and market acceptance of whole products • Targets market segments, not individual customers • For strategic internal development… • Drives acceptance and adoption • Resolves inevitable competing priorities
  • 6. WHAT DOES A PRODUCT MANAGER DO? budgets, staff, strategy, forecasts, targets commitments, roadmaps, competitive intelligence Executives CLICK market information, priorities, requirements, roadmaps, epics, user stories, backlogs, personas, MRDs… Product Field input, Market feedback TO Management EDIT Development Marketing & Sales Markets & Customers MASTE product Segmentation, messages, R TITLE bits benefits/features, pricing, qualification, demos… W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
  • 7. PRAGMATIC MARKETING FRAMEWORK Director of Product Product Strategy Business Positioning Marketing Marketing Plan Plan Market Market Buying Customer Manager Pricing Problems Definition Process Acquisition Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention Distinctive Product Product User Program Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness Market Strategy Business Planning Programs Readiness Support Competitive Product Require- Launch Sales Presentations Innovation Landscape Roadmap ments Plan Process & Demos Technology Use Thought “Special” Collateral Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls Status Lead Sales Event Dashboard Generation Tools Support Technical Product Manager Referrals & Channel Channel References Training Support 7 © 1993-2009 Pragmatic Marketing, Inc. All rights reserved
  • 8. Good product managers drive customer-relevant decisions (choices) despite uncertainty and contradictory goals
  • 9. PRODUCT MANAGEMENT RHYTHM • No natural sequence • Intensely interrupt driven • Bottom-up meets top-down • Demands strategy, judgment and integration as well as execution W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 9
  • 10. IDEAL CANDIDATE CLICK TO EDIT MASTE R TITLE W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 10
  • 11. AGENDA • What does a product manager do? • Product vs. Project / Program Management • Agile, product managers and product owners • Take-aways
  • 12. PRODUCT, PROJECT, PROGRAM? Disclaimers • No role/title consistency • Unclear division of labor • Execs create novel organizations • Each tech company is uniquely dysfunctional • Good teams make things work in spite of titles and roles
  • 13. ONE PROBLEM, TWO VIEWPOINTS • Project/Program Managers tasked with how to deliver • Not-so-secretly worry about market success • Product Managers tasked with what to build (and when) • Not-so-secretly worry about delivery, quality, completeness
  • 14. IN A PERFECT ORGANIZATION… • Product Management: more outward-facing market-visible decisions • What FEATURES/BENEFITS are market segments demanding? • How are we POSITIONED and PRICED versus competitors? • WHICH must-ship feature will we DROP first? • SALES impact of slipped dates? Commitments? • Project/Program Management: more inward-facing resource allocation decisions • HOW should we get this done? WHO works on what? • WHEN will it actually ship? • Have we defined and met QUALITY goals? • What outside RESOURCES could speed things up?
  • 15. LIVING THE CUSTOMER’S REALITY Product managers sense the market by… • Helping close deals • Trading off conflicting customer commitments • Sweating price/volume forecasts • Identifying novel (or terrible) user cases • Anchoring opinions with lots of first person customer/field input Source: Pragmatic Marketing
  • 16. AGENDA • What does a product manager do? • Product vs. Project / Program Management • Agile, product managers and product owners • Take-aways
  • 17. DISCUSSIONS OF AGILE We tend to mix… • Philosophy and religion • Process, tools, techniques, methods • Organizational design W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 17
  • 18. AGILE METHODS CLICK TO Extreme Programmi ng (XP) Crystal Methods Scrum Feature Driven Developme Test Driven Developme nt (TDD) EDIT nt (FDD) Dynamic Lean Agile Rational Rapid Systems & & Lean Project Unified Application MASTE Developme nt Model (DSDM) Startup Managemen t Framework Process (RUP) Developme nt (RAD) R TITLE (APM) W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 18
  • 19. DIFFERENT MOTIVATORS • Why development teams want Agile • Focus more on developing, not SDLC • More quality, fewer peaks and valleys • Build what customers want • Move the bottleneck elsewhere • What executives want from Agile • Get more done (more “ROI”) • Faster, more predictable • “More responsive to market” means they can juggle the roadmap more often
  • 20. WHY NOT WATERFALL? Requirements Waterfall projects and estimates rarely deliver according to plan Design Coding and unit test System integration & QA Operation and maintenance 20
  • 21. AGILE’S INNER LOOP From Mike Cohn W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 21
  • 22. AGILE’S STRATEGIC OUTER LOOP (PdM) • Markets • Customers • Customers • Sales • Biz Models • Marketing • Strategy • Support • Portfolios • Upgrades • Funding • EOL/EOS 22 W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
  • 23. PRODUCT MANAGER, PRODUCT OWNER • Most agilists think about “product owners” • Formal part of agile team • Needs to be physically present • Driving user stories and sub-iteration decisions • Showcases are primary method of customer input • Most product managers are not agilists • Majority of work to deliver products (revenue) happens outside Engineering • Interacts with markets directly, not filtered through Sales or Marketing • Servicing multiple inbound and outbound queues W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 23
  • 24. PRODUCT OWNER’S CALENDAR Borrowed from Catherine Connor, Rally W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
  • 25. ‘Small p’ PRODUCT OWNER Executives CLICK market information, priorities, epics, user stories, backlogs, personas… Product TO Management EDIT Marketing Markets & Development & Sales Customers MASTE product R TITLE bits W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M
  • 26. ADAPTED PRAGMATIC FRAMEWORK Business Marketing Positioning Plan Plan Market Market Buying Customer Pricing Problems Definition Process Acquisition Win/Loss Distribution Buy, Build Buyer Customer Analysis Strategy or Partner Personas Retention Distinctive Product Product User Program Competence Portfolio Profitability Personas Effectiveness Market Strategy Business Planning Programs Readiness Support Competitive Product Require Launch Sales Presentations Innovation Landscape Roadmap ments Plan Process & Demos Technology Use Thought “Special” Collateral Assessment Scenarios Leadership Calls Status Lead Sales Event Dashboard Generation Tools Support product owner Referrals & Channel Channel References Training Support 26
  • 27. PdM/PO FAILURE MODES Product Manager fails agile team Product Owner fails marketplace if if • Weak on market realities: pricing, • Part-time, disengaged packaging, selling, upgrades, • Stories lack detail service models, discounting, • Stale backlog competitive dynamics • Best of intentions, but pulled in • Disconnected from Marketing, too many directions Sales, Support • Not buffering team from • Trading off company-wide strategy customer/ sales interruptions for product features • “Build what I meant” • Confuses showcase customers with broader market W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 27
  • 28. ONE PdM/PO ORGANIZATIONAL MAP GM / VP Eng / VP Prod / CPO CLICK Product TO Managers EDIT Product Owners MASTE R TITLE more technical W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M more market-focused 28
  • 29. TAKE-AWAYS • Product management struggles with market success, product sufficiency and inconsistent customer segments • Project management struggles with resources, timelines and unreasonable commitments • IMHO, simple product owner role fails to address market complexities • We need to work together to ship great products! W W W. M I R O N O V. C O M 29
  • 30. Mironov Consulting CONTACT CLICK 233 Franklin St, Suite #308 San Francisco, CA 94102 TO EDIT [email protected] MASTE RichMironov R TITLE @RichMironov

Editor's Notes

  • #9: per David Thompson: Earn your pay on days when you make decisions, not just oversee processes
  • #13: Valley does not check with me before assigning roles, titles or work mix
  • #15: Essential question: who worries about market acceptance? Sales targets? Competition?
  • #23: PdM = Product Management