Deliver It Cast

  How do Product Owners handle having multiple backlogs for a single team? That was the question from a listener and in this episode, there will be some strategies and tips to help deal with this rather common issue. You might also find some ways to better tend to your own backlog as well. Got any favorite strategies, send them along!   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Mike Cohn - Is It Time to Do Away with Scrum’s Product Owner Role Hilla Meller - Fuel and Friction: Five Behavioral Economics Lessons for Product Managers Ken Rubin - The Importance of the Product Backlog on a Scrum Development Project Perforce - Backlog Management: 6 Tips to Make Your Backlog Lean Anne Wiltshire - Reducing a backlog of work using lean EP100 Retro/Question board - Contribute here!  

  How do Product Owners, and other product people, fit into our company's structure? How does that structure work with the other parts of the organization to benefit your customers? In this episode, Josh Anderson joins from the Meta-Cast to discuss some ideas, questions, and thoughts around what makes a well-designed product org. It's especially relevant for PO's because we have a key role to play in how successful our teams, organization, and company will be.    Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Josh Anderson - nosrednAhsoJ on Twitter, www.kazi.io/ Marty Cagan - What it Takes to Build the Right Product Team Marty Cagan - Factors in Structuring a Product Organization Rich Mironov - How to structure Product Management Roman Pichler - Empowering Development Teams Maaret Pyhäjärvi - When the No Product Owner Breaks

  Lately, Product Owners and others have been seeing and hearing a lot about "Business Agility". What does that really mean? To help explain and explore the concept and what it means for PO's Bob Galen joins us once again to talk about his writings and experience with the concept and where it came from. It is always good to stay informed about topics that you might get asked about and be able to understand how to talk about the topic with others.       Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Bob Galen - @bobgalen on Twitter, www.rgalen.com, www.agile-moose.com What is Business Agility? Creating Business Agility Stephanie Ockerman - The Promise of Business Agility Solutions IQ - The 2018 Business Agility Report Mike Cohn - Why you should consider stopping sprint reviews Wired - Can good design save lives?  

  When Product Owners hear or when we tell anyone "It's done". What does that mean? Do we mean it's mostly done, or done except for a few things we haven't finished yet. Is that really done? Unlikely. It helps to define in simple terms what a team, product, and group means when they say something is done. That's where the useful "Definition of Done" comes into use. Teams help create and understand what done looks like for them. PO's then make sure when we do use those famous little words, we actually mean it.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Tom Schwendler - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tschwendler/ Tom Schwendler - The Importance of Sharing the Same ‘Definition of Done’ with Your Software Development Partner Ascendle - What the Heck is the Definition of Done? Leading Agile - Definition of Done Scrum Guide - Definition of "Done" Ilan Kirschenbaum - Definition of Done vs. Acceptance Criteria Troubleshooting Agile Podcast

  Product Owners often get focused on what or how we are doing things for our applications and teams, and not how often. When you take a look at when your product and information cycles happen you start to observe some real opportunities. In this episode, we dig in a bit deeper on those loops that PO's have and what's important about each. Finding and talking about ways to shorten the loop is the goal so that our learning can increase, our processes change, and we can adapt to our customers.           Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Black Diamond - Competitive Advantage: the OODA Loop in Agile Organizations   Mind Tools - The Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop Bob Galen -  4 Quadrants + 1 Jeff Gothelf - Lean, Agile, & Design Thinking  

  Gaining a deeper understanding of the users of our products should be high on a Product Owners to-do list. Building knowledge, information, and empathy with them will help us learn more about their issues and situations. An excellent technique for doing that is creating and sharing an Empathy Map that focuses on a specific person using your product. Building a map gets you out of your head and into theirs. That new perspective can help uncover ideas, perspectives, or issues your customer's faces.       Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Leading Agile - Why You Need Empathy Maps Adobe - 10 Tips to Develop Better Empathy Maps Rich Mironov - What do Product Leaders do? Elizabeth Ayer - Don't ask forgiveness, radiate intent    

  When Product Owners start hearing about MVPs, we really need to pay attention to who’s talking and what they mean. MVP the term has definitely grown beyond its original meaning and frequently gets confused with many other things that aren’t really related.  There’s a ton of information out there and we’ve shared some before. This episode tries to boil down some of it into something that you as a PO can use and take with you. Or at least a strategy to know when you're not talking about a minimal viable product anymore.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Jeff Patton - MVP: and Why We Confuse Building to Learn with Building to Earn Product Collective - Testing MVPs with your customers Melissa Perri - Finding the Truth Behind MVPs Henrik Kniberg - Making Sense of MVPs Product Love - April Dunford  David Dame - Agile and Impatience are Inseparable  

  How do teams and Product Owners know if what they are delivering is the right thing? Most of the time, you don’t, unless they are specifically treating their deliveries as opportunities to learn.  The best way to learn? Try an experiment. In this episode, we are joined by two experts on product experimentation and how to get the most out of this practice. It’s something that PO’s are likely already doing, even if it’s not on purpose. After this episode, you’ll likely think differently about that.    Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Dave Karow - @davekarow & Trevor Stuart - @Trevorbstuart -  https://www.split.io/ - @splitsoftware Split (ebook) - Understanding Experimentation Platforms  Dave Karow - GOTO 2019 • Deliver Results, Not Just Releases: Control & Observability in CD Taplytics - How to Build an Experimentation Culture Mind the Product - Lean experiments: Tristan Kromer on better product process Julee Everett

  Product Owners need to understand that a significant component of how well the team is able to deliver, depends on their product architecture. In fact, it’s often a limiting factor in how agile you really can be.  Because it’s so important, Allen Holub joins this episode to talk about what PO’s need to know about architecture, why it’s so important, and how they can help determine it’s direction. All while keeping the main value and focus on the customer's benefit.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Alan Holub -  https://holub.com, @allenholub Software Architect 2013 - Agile Architecture Part 1 - Allen Holub - Agile Architecture Part 2 - Allen Holub Michael Küsters - Agile Architecture Ron Jeffries - Story Points Revisited MindSumo - 3 New Product Successes (And Why They Won)  

  Ok Product Owners, how well do you know your flow? How well can you describe it to others? What’s the limiting factor in your product, delivery, and even company? Unless you’ve created and shared a Value Stream Map, you really don’t know.  Understanding how work happens, where it bottlenecks, and how much time is wasted is extremely valuable to learn how to deliver value sooner. Customers won’t care that there were extra steps, they want to use the product to solve their problem.  Help others see how to do that better with a VSM.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Plutora - Learn the 10 Key Steps to Value Stream Mapping (VSM) for Software Delivery Tallyfy - Value Stream Mapping: Definition, Steps, and Examples Pace - Starbucks Coffee Goes Lean Martin & Osterling - Value Stream Mapping: How to Visualize Work and Align Leadership for Organizational Transformation Glen Holmes - On Behavioural Economics Eugen Eşanu - 7 Ba

  It’s one of the core tenants of creating products in an agile way, and something Product Owners need to be keenly aware of, but what exactly is “working software” anyway? Some are confused by the term, opinions differ, and still, others think it’s impossible or not enough.  In this episode, the focus is on a practical definition and one that should apply to every story PO’s and teams work on together. This is one of the telltale signs of successful agile efforts, frequently getting working software to people who need it.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Skytap - How Do You Define Working Software? Gojko Adzic - Redefining software quality Ron Jefferies - Twelve Jeff Gothlef - The top 10 rebuttals to: “Agile is great. But it won’t work here.” The Register - Accenture sued over website redesign so bad it Hertz Zero Hedge - The Best Analysis Of What Really Happened To The Boeing 737 Max From A Pilot & Software Engine

  There is almost an incalculable number of ways a Product Owner can feel stressed. It can be overwhelming if you do not find strategies and mindsets to deal with stress effectively.  In this episode, Geoff Watts joins the show again to discuss his recent thoughts on why we feel stressed and what control we have over how we respond. This was also a listener suggested topic and one that is truly helpful for PO’s to become more mindful and focused on.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Geoff Watts - @geoffcwatts - @theagilepubcast - https://inspectandadapt.com/ Geoff Watts - Stress-Free Traffic | How To Find The Silver Linings Robinson, Smith, Seal - Stress Management: How to Reduce, Prevent, and Cope with Stress Colleen O’Rourke - Coping with Product Manager Burnout Martin Stahl - The Product Owner cargo-cult detection checklist Dominica Degrandis - Making Work Visible: Exposing Time Theft to Optimize Work & Flow  

  When Product Owners are communicating with stories, the way they are written and told can help establish some clarity.  The stories are only part of the puzzle when collaborating with others and there is certainly more than one way to craft them. If you’ve written them the same way before and are looking for some alternatives, in this episode you’ll learn about some new formats, tweaks to existing ones, and ways to keep them relevant.            Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Crisp - “As a, I want, So that” Considered Harmful Pragmatic - Writing the Market Requirements Document Alan Klement - Replacing The User Story With The Job Story Maarten Dalmijn - Unheralded Alternatives to User Stories XSCALE Alliance - https://xscalealliance.org/index.html Michael Kusters - Your Sprint Reviews suck, and that's why! Jonathan Forman - Things you need to ‘do’ to become a successful Product Manager  

  There are a lot of Product Management skills that a great Product Owner needs to learn about. One of the best teachers of those skills is ProduxLabs CEO, Melissa Perri. She has a brand new book all about product roles, skills, strategy, and creating product-led organizations. All of these ideas are intended to help get you and your company out of the Build Trap, a place where customer success takes a backseat to shipping features. PO’s will benefit from adopting the ideas that Melissa has around finding real problems that help the people who use our products, and the systems that create them.            Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Melissa Perri - @lissijean - produxlabs.com - melissaperri.com http://www.produxlabs.com/book/ https://www.mindtheproduct.com/2017/07/escaping-build-trap-melissa-perri/ https://uxpodcast.com/206-build-trap-melissa-perri/ TSSC - NUMIT Cheaper Better Faster: Toyota help feed Hurricane Sandy Vict

  What is a Product Owner to do when a story is too big to fit into a sprint? Or what about when a PO is working with an idea that will take some time to study and learn with the team? How do you treat these ideas? It’s common to use the term Epic to describe a problem that is bigger than a story and in this episode, that’s what we dig into. There are, however, many different takes, strategies, and definitions of epics. Understanding the differences can help you wield them successfully.        Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Kent McDonald - Epic Confusion Mike Cohn - You Don’t Need a Complicated Story Hierarchy Mike Cohn - Two Examples of Splitting Epics 3Back - Top 10 Tips To Becoming A Better PO Neil Killick - My Slicing Heuristic Concept Explained

  Many times as Product Owners we are asked to do more than the team can handle. Having a way to sort through all of the ideas, problems, and yes even requests are sometimes necessary to put in place. In the first episode of Season 5, the notion of a funnel to sift those items though is discussed, some thoughts on how to do it, how to make sure you focus on those things valuable enough to say yes to, and ways to show the scope of all those asks to everyone. Welcome back everyone!   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Bob Galen - Scrum Product Ownership, 3rd Edition Justin Bauer - We’re Evolving Our Product’s North Star Metric. Here’s Why. Ash Maurya - The Idea Funnel CPrime - Getting from an Idea to Actionable Backlog Teresa Torres - Prioritize Opportunities, Not Solutions  

  I truly hope that the Product Owners and people who care about them got a lot out of this season.  We’ve had some wonderful quests, great topics, and learned a lot. In this episode I wanted to round up some questions that have been asked and leave you with some parting thoughts about PO’s, agility, and other areas.  Thank you all so much for listening and sharing the show around.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Charles Lambdin - Estimating Cost of Delay Andrew Rusling - Theory Of Constraints applied to an agile task board Willem-Jan Ageling - Scrum — 17 things that need to be in place to succeed. And then one more! Mike Cohn - 3 questions to determine if an organization is agile

  Product Owners can learn a lot about getting feedback from users by picking up some UX practices. One of the better ways to do that is with a focused customer interview. In this episode we welcome Jessica Ivins who is a UX designer and educator to talk about some of the better strategies, methods, and questions to use.  Interviewing a customer is a great skill for PO's to continue to get better at as it helps keep the focus on the user and the problems that our products help them solve.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Jessica Ivins @jessicaivins - http://jessicaivins.net/ - https://medium.com/@jessicaivins Interaction Design Foundation - How to Conduct User Interviews Interviewing Users How to Uncover Compelling Insights Matt Isherwood - Customer Interviews Jeff Gothelf - Agile Isn’t Supposed To Be UX Hostile Jack Krawczyk - Product Leadership Rules to Live By From My Experience at Pandora  

  What mode are you working in as a Product Owner? Are you and the team working on projects? Or products? What is the way you’re organized, measured, or deciding what to do? In this episode there is some exploration into these two mindsets and what they really mean. Since this is a new concept ( for me at least ), there are some thoughts on what product mode could look like and what project mode has been successfully able to do in the past.  What’s your take? Which are you working in?   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Annie Dunham How to Maintain a Coherent Product Roadmap Yuri Malishenko - Two simple techniques that will dramatically improve your whiteboard skills Sriram Narayan - Products over Projects Jeremy Rossman - Project vs Product P1 - Project vs Product P2 Henrik Kniberg - Spotify engineering culture  

  Product Owners should really like our individual conversations and interactions with people, sometimes we also need useful tools to help do our job. Which tools are important, helpful, and the best ones to get good at? In this episode we will discuss some of the better ones based on my history with them, why they are helpful, and what you might look to do with each of them.  If you have a favorite tool you use, do share it with us so we can expand our toolbox.   Feedback: twitter - @deliveritcast email - deliveritcast@gmail.com   Links: PO Coaching and Consulting - seek taiju Arlen Bankston - Lean Startup Tools for Scrum Product Owners John Cutler - That’ll Never Work Here: Heretics, Head Noddies, and the Drift Into Mediocrity·   Robin Johnson -3 Real-Life Examples of Incredibly Successful A/B Tests Tools : Realtimeboard - webwhiteboard - trello - leankit - pocket - snag-it - jing - balsamiq - groupmap - invision - pixabay - unsplash - producthunt - mindmup - cardboardit - storiesonboard - pendo - mixpane