Deliver It Cast

If you are a Product Owner working on a large product, then there likely multiples of you. Many PO's working with various teams to achieve different goals along the same path. How can you work better with each other and change the organization to focus on the problems your customers have? In this episode there's a bit better dive than before on what different team setups look like and how Product Owners can work together and help frame the outcomes. Along with a fantastic new book recommendation, this episode will hopefully inspire you to try something new. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Courtney Seiter - We've Changed Our Product Team Structure 4 Times: Here's Where We Are Today Roman Pichler - Scaling the Product Owner Role Henrik Kniberg - Spotify Engineering Culture Deliver It Cast - EP34 Notes on Scaling Marty Cagan - INSPIRED: How to Create Tech Products Customers Love – 2nd Edition C. Todd Lombardo - Roadmaps are Dead! Long Live Roadmaps!

Does Product Ownership need fixing? Are some of the common agile and scrum practices screwed up? Jeff Patton thinks so and has a really compelling talk that's he's given about 5 things PO's need to do, and do better. In this episode, Jeff joins the show to dive a bit deeper into where he sees those 5 things occurring, what we can do to correct them, and shares some insight as to where the issues arise from. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Jeff Patton - @jeffpatton - www.jpattonassociates.com How Agile Screwed Up Product Ownership and 5 Things You Can Do to Fix It by Jeff Patton Jeff Patton - 5 things you'll need to fix Agile product ownership Certified Scrum Product Owner Course Passionate Product Owner Joshua Kerievsky - Eliminating the Product Owner Role Paulo Andre - How HelloFresh reorganized its teams to scale twentyfold

A common pitfall that Product Owners need to be aware of is behaving with authority they don't have. A lot of people refer to this as PO's and PM's thinking they are the "CEO of the Product". Bob Galen joins us on this episode to talk about some errors he sees in this approach and discuss from his recent post. We also discuss some ways in which Product Owners need to think and behave in a manner that is similar to that of a CEO. Do we put it to rest? Let us know what you think. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Bob - Let's eradicate bad product ownership, part-1,2 Martin Eriksson - Product Managers – You Are Not the CEO of Anything Marty Cagan - CEO of the Product Revisited Ale Carlos - Stop saying Product Management is like being the CEO of your own product Mind the Product - What we Learned at #mtpcon San Francisco 2018

Very rarely does a Product Owner get to work with a newly formed team. Getting started is a very important step so that the team understands what the goals, expectations, and vision of the product they will be creating. In this episode, you will hear some tips, strategies, and some audio clips of me doing just that while I visited our new team. If you have any PO tips for starting with a new team that were not covered, let us know. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Christiaan Verwijs - How to kickstart a great scrum team Kristy Francis - 5 simple tips on starting new scrum team Randy Silver - Gods, Superheroes, and Product Managers Marty Cagan - Revenge of the PMO

Hearing from fellow Product Owners is a good way to learn more about the role. Having others share their experience and journey can give you ideas, insight, and practices to add to your situation. Last episode had a call to action and Paul Foster answered. In this episode he talks about this journey of getting started, learning, and growing as a PO for his company. Special thanks to Paul and to others who want to share their story with others around the world. If you have something you want to share or discuss, get in touch! Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Paul Foster - @paulmfoster Len Lagestee - Even Happier Product Owners Mike Cottmeyer - Fast food and a better place to sleep

Being comfortable with risk and uncertainty is a hallmark of a great Product Owner. Understanding how to deal with unknowns or potential issues can help PO's plan better, show value sooner, and reduce how nervous other people are. Risk is a something that will travel with us as our products come to life. Keeping risks small, working through the known ones, and embracing the notion that customers using your product is a wonderful way to reduce many risks. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Sam McAfee - Product Management Is Easier When Your Team Can Actually Ship. Ekaterina Novoseltseva - Benefits of agile project management Agile for Humans - Exploring the 3 V's of Product Ownership Rich Mironov - Four Laws Of Software Economics

In order to communicate effectively, PO's need to be excellent listeners. We must be able to understand and relate to what the person or group we are talking to are trying to tell us. Sometimes, we might even agree with them. When we can actively listen and turn on all the listening skills, we really start to engage and grasp the problems that we are presented with. No matter if it's with teams, customers, or one on one conversations, we all can work on becoming better listeners. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Geoff Watts - Empathic Listening in Scrum Glenn Llopis - 6 Ways Effective Listening Can Make You A Better Leader Chris Massey - Building Product in a Post-GDPR World Robert Mckee - Story: Style, Structure, Substance, and the Principles of Screenwriting

One of the basic Product Owner skills is communication. Delivering, receiving, and improving how and what we are communicating can make or break our efforts. When there are issues ( and there usually are ), what are some ways to get back on track and increase the team and customer relationships? In a happy circumstance, John Cutler was thinking along the same lines and he joins the show to discuss ways that he has worked on repairing communication. We also talk about some other tips for PO's to improve and get comfortable with their interactions. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju John Cutler @johncutlefish anchor.fm/john-cutler/ John Cutler - Huh? Maybe? Scott Ambler - Communication on Agile Software Teams Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High Itamar Gilad - The Tool that Will Help You Choose Better Product Ideas Mike Siemasz - The Product Owner Is Dead, Long Live the Product Owner!

Product Owners think a lot about delivering value and how best to do that. One way that can help focus those efforts is a technique from Gojko Adzic called Impact Mapping. On this episode, Gojko joins us to talk about the basic concepts, some tricks to asking better questions while putting one together, and ways to help facilitate better collaboration. It's a very interesting area and skill for PO's to learn and after listening, you should be able to start creating one yourself. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Gojko Adzic @gojkoadzic https://gojko.net/ Gojko Adzic - Impact Mapping with Innovation Games Gojko Adzic - Product Owner Key Skills – Impact Mapping, Story Mapping and Valuable User Stories Mark Schwartz - The Art of Business Value Ronny Kohavi - Online Experimentation at Microsoft Chris Williams - Why We Can't Stop Overcomplicating Agile

Product Owners should always work on trying to become better. Looking for areas to improve, selecting a few and then working on ways to make them successful is a good skill and practice to incorporate into your daily work. In this episode, we talk about why continuous improvement is so much a core part of the agile mindset and what PO's can do to work through changing for good. Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - [email protected] Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Willem-Jan Ageling - Modern Agile terms ambiguity — making a mountain out of a molehill? Dave Grey - Updated Empathy Map Canvas Lean Kit - Continuous Improvement Defined Hakan Forss - Toyota Kata - Habits for Continuous Improvements Melissa Perri - The Product Kata