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Building Effective Product Teams

Building Effective Product Teams

You are probably already tired of the Agile, Scrum and Lean jargon. Maybe you think that all of this theory is a waste of time, or at least that is not having a big impact in your company or team.

As a developer that moved to a Technical Product Manager role, I’ve been working hard to declutter all the jargon and try simple ways to improve how teams work and deliver software.

We will discuss around questions like what makes a strong product team, how story mapping can help you deliver software faster, why talking is more important that writing user stories or why your team is not delivering as fast as you would like.

If you want to enjoy the GIFs from the deck, download the Keynote file: http://bit.ly/2yYhLrM

Fernando Agüero

November 08, 2018
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Transcript

  1. 1. Having awareness on the issues we may find 2.Being

    on the same page 3.Fostering discussion Talk objectives Improve as a team by:
  2. • Product manager • Product designers • Product marketing managers

    • Engineers • QA Testers • Data Analysts The team
  3. • Product manager • Product designers • Product marketing managers

    • Engineers • QA Testers • Data Analysts The team
  4. Thinking that product management is the same as gathering requirements

    and documenting them for engineers. The Product Manager PREMISE
  5. The Product Manager Thinking that product management is the same

    as gathering requirements and documenting them for engineers. PREMISE
  6. The Product Manager Product managers are responsible for guiding the

    success of a product and leading the cross-functional team that is responsible for improving it.
  7. The product designer work is to apply the lipstick model

    to the product. The Product Manager role The Product Designer PREMISE
  8. The product designer work is to apply the lipstick model

    to the product. The Product Manager role The Product Designer PREMISE
  9. If you are using engineers only to code, you're only

    getting about half their value. The Engineers
  10. Engineer are typically the best single source of innovation; yet,

    they are not even invited to the party in the discovery process. The Engineers
  11. It's a great idea for them to join meetings with

    customers. The Engineers More than coding
  12. The Team Using GitHub issues to discuss and iterate a

    story We currently use Google Docs for epics or complex problems.
  13. Work in parallel to discover the product that needs to

    be build (mainly PM and designer) while delivering a production-quality product (mainly engineers). The team
  14. Engineers help on discovery: source of great ideas. PMs and

    designers help on delivering: mainly to clarify intended behavior. Discover Deliver The team
  15. Don't show the prototype to engineers during sprint planning so

    they can estimate. Ensure they can contribute every day to make the product better. The team
  16. Focusing only on your ideas Thinking you are the customer

    Using requirements from customers The source of ideas
  17. Focusing only on your ideas Thinking you are the customer

    Using requirements from customers The source of ideas
  18. The source of ideas Do not just ask: What do

    you like about our product? Ask questions like: When you need to do x, how are you doing it? When was the last time you needed to do x?
  19. Burning story points doesn’t matter if you are not doing

    the right thing. Focusing on the outcome
  20. • More than following a plan, respond to change. •

    Hundred of other stuff… Focusing on the outcome
  21. It’s fine to remove a story from a Sprint or

    change the scope if it makes sense. Focusing on the outcome
  22. There's always more to build than we have time or

    resources to build. Building less
  23. Are you going to build all at once? If you

    keep validating it, you may go… Building less
  24. Building less • View the basic info: title, rating, director,

    etc • View the movie poster • Link to trailer Good Enough:
  25. Building less • View the basic info: title, rating, director,

    etc • View the movie poster • Link to trailer Good Enough: • Movie synopsis • User and reviewer ratings • List of actors Better:
  26. Building less • View the basic info: title, rating, director,

    etc • View the movie poster • Link to trailer Good Enough: • Movie synopsis • User and reviewer ratings • List of actors Better: • Trivia about the movie • News about the movie • Ability to participate in discussions Best:
  27. Build shared understanding • Stories are not specs • The

    real goal of stories is to build shared understanding Writing stories:
  28. Story mapping Story mapping consists of ordering user stories along

    two independent dimensions: activities and implementation
  29. • Focus on the breadth, not depth • Follow user

    journeys/jobs • Prepare a release strategy • Prepare a development strategy Tips: Story mapping
  30. Avoid burning out Working on the right thing with the

    right process Working harder > Better than
  31. Avoid burning out Every month, we spend a week learning,

    improving workflows, and trying new things.
  32. Avoid burning out • Open sourced one of our frontend

    components • Created an internal tool • Played with Docker Swarm • Improved our build processes • Wrote two articles Some achievements we had in our first week:
  33. • Open sourced one of our frontend components • Created

    an internal tool • Played with Docker Swarm • Improved our build processes • Wrote two articles Some achievements we had in our first week: Avoid burning out