Deliver It Cast

Finishing up Season 6 with a Q&A session. Any/all questions on PO, Product, Agile, Podcast, anything really. Thank you everyone who stuck with the show through this crazy season with all the changes going on in your life and work. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Douglas Squirrel and Jeffery Fredrick - Agile Conversations Joshua Kerievshy - Why are component Teams still so popular?

EP117 [117] - Speaking in Percentages? When Product Owners start asking questions or talking about an activity, what type of questions do we ask? Are they open-ended, exploratory or curious ones, or are they binary quick answers with little to no requests for information? In this episode, we'll explore a small section of David Marquet's latest book and the implications it might have on how the PO's can change the way we search for better connections and data with our teams, customers, and products. Would it help if we starting looking for more probabilistic or percentage-based answers? Could we really make some impactful changes by rephrasing our questions? Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju David Perira - Why many companies will never hire a good Product Owner Janna Bastow - Reframing backlogs and roadmaps for good David Marquet - How to Avoid Groupthink - Leadership Nudge 228 David Marquet - Quality Questions - Leadership Nudge 214 David Marquet - Leadership Is Language Gizmodo - What It Really Means When There's A 50 Percent Chance Of Rain

It's time for an updated look at a PO Maturity index. In this episode, Bob Galen returns to review the recent changes he made to his Agile Journey Index Maturity Model" and discuss why some of those changes happened. There's some feedback, some challenges, and some learning that we discuss along the way. Grab a sufficiently mature whisky and follow along. Maybe you and your organization can learn a thing or two about Product Ownership. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Bob Galen - Twitter - Blog - www.rgalen.com Bob's Model - Scrum Product Ownership AJI Scotch Whisky - How do you define maturity in whisky? Jim, Kim, Bob - Organizational Agility Unleashed - Getting work done in an increasingly Complex Digital World Marty Cagan - Discovery - Judgment

How much time do you, as a Product Owner, spend thinking about your user's core problem? How much time does the rest of the team spend exploring ideas and different approaches to solving them? Why don't you spend more time doing that? In this episode, we talk with Ant Murphy about some of the reasons that we need to spend more time, effort, and energy on the depth of our problem-solving. What would it look like if PO's and companies did go deep on understanding, iterating, and experimenting more? Our products will be better for it, users of our applications happier with it, and business will benefit more from it. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Ant Murphy - Twitter - Blog Ant's Sketch - "Depth of Problem" Joe Van Os - The Art of the Strategic Product Roadmap AilgeLeanLife - The 5 Whys technique – dig deep to find the root cause of any problem InfoQ - How Lean Problem Solving Increases Agile Team Productivity: a Mobile Applications Startup Example Alistair Cockburn - How I saved Agile and the Rest of the World Maryanna Quigless - PURSUIT: Framework for your next great product idea

The Product Owner's brain is a complicated thing. Some of the practices and patterns that we try to make it easier, can also cause us to miss some key elements or information. These Cognitive Biases show up in our shortcuts or established ways of thinking every day. It's important to understand, acknowledge, and find ways to counter those biases when needed. In this episode there are some of the main ones PO's might have themselves, see in others, and deal with during your work. Have one that you struggle with? Send it in. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Very Well Mind - 10 Cognitive Biases That Distort Your Thinking Buster Benson - You are almost definitely not living in reality because your brain doesn't want you to PhD Insights - 4 Cognitive Biases Every Product Manager Needs to Combat Gil Bouhnick - 84 cognitive biases that will help you design better-converting products Brad Wray - Cognitive Bias Song Jeff Payne - Why Setting Priorities Is a Core Agile Practice Savage Books - The Incredibles- Pixar's Dark Magnum Opus

A common career path when companies start to become more agile is Business Analysts looking to become Product Owners. Sometimes that's by choice and sometimes that is how the organization and teams first move towards using agile methods and practices. In this episode, we welcome Lisa Williams to the show to talk about how she went through that transition and how she has worked with teams and companies to move other BA's into the PO role. There might still be some places where BA's can work on agile or scrum teams successfully. Have any examples? Send them in. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Lisa Williams - @lcw927 - LinkedIn Jacqueline Sanders-Blackman - The Yin and Yang of the Business Analyst and Product Owner Roles IPL - Moving from a Business Analyst to a Product Manager role David Pereira- The road from Business Analyst to Product Owner Angela Wick - https://www.ba-squared.com/ Simon Bates - Scrum in practice: the role of the Business Analyst Adrian Howard - Scrum doesn't say… David Hoang - Zoom out of Zoom

A lot of PO's, teams, and organizations struggle with the principles of the agile manifesto. One in particular causes so many issues, that of simplicity. Adding instead of removing, more instead of less, trivial many over the essential few. In our products, systems, and structures you've seen the added parts that build more and more complexity and complications. Why do we collectively do that? What can you do to help simplify some of those items or start with a simple item to begin with. In this episode, there are some suggestions for how to engage your focus, some steps to work toward simplicity, and tips to keep it there. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Des Traynor - Product Strategy: Revisited Chris Davies - Simplicity — the least understood Agile Principle Ron Jeffries - YAGNI, yes. Skimping, no. Technical Debt? Not even. Cognitive edge - Cynefin framework introduction Christopher Laine - Advice to Product Owners from a Developer Gee Paw Hill - Re-Balancing Made, Making, and Makers

Another technical topic that PO's either get drafted into or need to know more about, is Security. In all its various forms, needs, and issues, Product Owners need more information about how to work with the team, organization, and users on having a solid baseline and making improvements. In this episode, Coveros CEO Jeff Payne joins to talk about how he has seen the PO help and hurt security efforts, some things to think about during planning and daily activities, and who to partner with to get better. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seektaiju Jeff Payne - @jefferyepayne - Coveros Coveros - From Chaos to Successful Distributed Teams Coveros - Continuous Security in Agile Development LeanAgile Training - Question about the PO, vague requirements and team members HBR - Develop Agility That Outlasts the Pandemic Zack Bonaker - Do you need an "Agile Coach"? Probably not.

Even though you as a Product Owner are surrounded by teams, customers, and stakeholders, sometimes things can happen that leave you feeling like your all alone. It's a nasty feeling and not knowing who to turn to, who can help, and what to do next. A situation of isolation is something that POs can find themselves in for one reason or another. Todd Miller is back on this episode to share his stories and examples of when he was Lonely as a PO and what he did to find his way through that. We also talk about some studies and information on how some leaders find themselves or make themselves isolated and keys to eliminating that feeling of you against the world. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju - http://seektaiju.com/index.html Todd Miller - @todd_miller11 - Fixing Your Scrum Craft Brewed Agile - YouTube Scrum.org - Lessons Learned from Implementing Evidence-Based Management Forbes - Do You Feel Lonely As A Leader? Study Says You're Not Alone. HBR - The Strange Relationship Between Power and Loneliness Psychology Today - 7 Types of Loneliness, and Why It Matters Full Story - What Drives Rage Clicks? How Users Signal Struggle, Frustration Online Anthony Marter - Why we need to rethink Product Management in an agile practice

Looking back at the scrum guide is a good idea for a Product Owner. One of the foundational elements of scrum is the philosophy that it is built on, that being empirical process controls. What is empiricism and how can POs and others benefit from it? In this episode, some of the ideas around empiricism are explored and why they are important. Also some of the related and competing concepts are recognized for thought. If you have any favorite stories or empirical examples please share so we can continue to learn. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Scrum Guide - Scrum Guide Mark Noneman - The Empirical Product Owner ThoughtCo - Philosophical Empiricism Jason Fried - Take a tour of Hey ScrumMaster Toolbox - The PO who threw the team under the bus (Steve Jaccaud)