"If you have been in the business working with teams for any period of time you will have encountered Product Owners who are awesome, everything seems to flow in the right direction. They know what is next up, why the stories are prioritized the way they are, how the stories interrelate, understand the needs of the development team and things seem to run smoothly. Then there are the Product Owners who seem to have forgotten who the customer is and or they want everything yesterday, even if they cannot describe it. The person in the Product Owner is a project team's single point of failure. If a developer is failing, it becomes obvious quickly. If a Scrum Master fails, it is obvious to the team very quickly. If the Product Owner is failing, it can go unnoticed for months and longer. We can be at the 'end' of a project and completely missed the mark. I have been here as the tech lead and been part of team that spent millions of dollars and built the wrong product. We will craft our own imaginary Product Owner. We will discuss not just what they know, but why they know it. What skills do they possess and bring to the team room? We will look not only from the product's perspective, but also communication, attitude, and team support. Most importantly, let's walk through how to validate that we are going in the right direction and build the right thing. We will work in groups of 6 to 8 to come up with the attributes of our Product Owner. After we come up with group lists, then let's combine the lists into a single list. Then we can come up with ways to confirm we are addressing the needs head on. The goal is to walk away with ideas to share with the Product Owner and to become aware of areas where there might be concerns. Join us for a fun time."

1. How To Know A Great PO
When You See One Mark Davidson
PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS

3. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
About Mark Davidson
•Mentor / Coach people and teams
•40Years in “The Family Business”
• DSDM ‘02 for State of Oregon voting systems
• Scrum / XP ‘03 for GM automotive configuration
• KanbanWall ‘06 for HollywoodVideo small project support
• Multiple Scrum Projects ‘ 07 for HollywoodVideo
• SAFe 2.x ‘12 for John Deere navigation systems
• SAFe 4.x ‘16 for Sprint Network
• Mob Programming ’17 for Home Instead

4. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
What A
PO Is Not
A person who can not do
any other job
Washed Out Dev, Proj
Mgr, QA Analyst, or BA
Someone who should be
promoted to CUSTOMER

5. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
PO Is A
Professional
Role
Sees the forest, the grove,
and the tree
Sets direction & prioritizes
work
Makes the tough decision of
what is in and what is out
Truly invested in the business
problem & product

6. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Goal OfThe Session
•As an agile team member
•I want to understand
• The expectations of a PO
• The metrics around the PO role
•So that
• I avoid wasting precious
resources
• I don’t lead my team over a cliff
Photo by Leio McLaren

7. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS

8. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS

9. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Setting
Direction
Assemble into teams of 4 to 6
Roles PO, Builder,Trades People
Assemble a card wall on your table
7 Day (minute) iterations
Determine success of stories
Talk about metrics

10. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Hands On
First Quick
Setup
(3 min)
Assemble in teams of 4 to 6
Choose Roles PO, Builder
(SM/DL),Trades People
Open bundle of preprinted
stories
Layout the ProductVision,Value
Story and Epics

11. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Hands On
Fill In Map
With
Stories
7 Day (Min)
Lay out next 25 - 30 preprinted
User Stories
Team reviews early cards
Site Prep has been completed
Identify first 2 Sprints with 2
different color Post-Its

12. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Critical In POWorld – Clarity ofVision?
• PO owns & maintains physical /
electronic Story Map
• PO socializesVision &Value
• PO Confirms all User Stories map
back to ProjectValue
• PO has visually identified next
few releases

13. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Proof PO Knowledge of Product
• As PO,YOU know next 3 - 5 features/epics
• As PO,YOU know when is the next release is and what is in it
• As PO,YOU know the thoughts of 3 named stakeholders
• As PO,YOU are asking the end user for product feedback frequently?
• As PO,YOU know value and cost, in dollars or effort of the next five
items and why they are included

14. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Hands On
Add &
Move
Stories
(7 Min)
Identify what was completed in last Sprint
Review next group of User Stories
Add a few AC’s
Add missing User Stories
Move User Stories
Add Definition of Done to a few User Stories

15. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Batter Boards, Flapjack, Builder Bob
• Understand what is being asked for
• Proper sequence
• Ties back to Epic
• Has valid “So that” segment
• AC’s support or enhance “So that”
• Lives on a 3 by 5 index card
• User Story talks to one and only one deliverable
• What and not How

16. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Critical In POWorld –TheWork
•PO has the User Stories in Priority Order
•PO has the User Stories decomposed to a proper
level
•PO has decomposed Stories, based on functionality
and not steps in dev cycle

17. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Metrics – Quality of User Stories
• Pct of stories in standard form
w/Acceptance Criteria
• Pct stories can be estimated
w/limited new information
• Pct stories where AC’s change
during the Sprint to accommodate
new, changed, ill formed, or
additional requirements

18. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Metrics – Quality of Backlog
•Number of broken down User Stories, ready in
backlog, is at least 2x yesterday’s weather (as pct)
•Pct stories that have to be reworked after presented
at the Sprint Demo
•Pct of Demo’ed Stories where functionality changed
(unintentionally) before a product is released

19. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
More
Hands On
Correct
Stories
(7 Min)
Pick an Epic to work /review
Review each User Story
Determine the priority of the User Story
Review the sequence of work with team of
User Story
Does the User Story need correction or
decomposition
Identify Next Release

20. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Metrics –Asset Ratios
• Average of age of the critical
/ major bugs that are
outstanding
• Pct of the tech debt
accumulating in the project
• Pct of User Stories being
completed in an iteration to
done, done

21. PROACTIVE
DIGITAL INSIGHTS
Mark Davidson
(503) 656 8000
mark.davidson@proactivedigitalinsights.com
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