It’s one of the more frustrating parts of being a software Product Manager – you inherit a product that’s been around for awhile, and every time you want to start a new project to change and improve what’s already there, some nasty little issue crops up and takes the spotlight. Maybe the platform was never […]
Breaking Down the Agile Manifesto — Collaboration & Responding to Change
Earlier this week, I discussed the common misunderstandings related to the first two statements made in the Agile Manifesto — Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools, and Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation. In that discussion, I focused on how important it is to remember that the Agile Manifesto itself was written largely in response […]
Breaking Down the Agile Manifesto — Processes & Documentation
One of the issues that Product Managers commonly face when engaging with teams who claim to be, or who want to be, “Agile” is that most people have never really take the time to actually research the origins of the Agile movement, the principles upon which it is based, or even the histories of the […]
“Agile” Does Not Mean “Without a Plan”
A very common, and very dangerous misconception about Agile development — whether you’re using Kanban, Scrum, XP, DevOps, or any other flavor of the week — is that it “requires” or “expects” that you can operate quickly, efficiently, and effectively without necessarily having an overall strategic plan. Bullshit. There certainly are teams and companies who […]
The Role of a Product Manager in Scrum
One of the sometimes-confusing aspects of the Scrum approach to Agile development is how a Product Manager fits into the system. It’s important to understand that Scrum was designed originally as set of development practices, and as such from the textbook perspective views everything through that lens. The crux of the confusion comes primarily because […]
Why Your User Stories Suck
I find it ironic that one of the most fundamentally important aspects of Agile planning is so very often terribly implemented. User Stories are the single most important thing that a Product Manager/Owner delivers to their development teams — they’re the foundation on which everything the team does is gauged; and all too often, quite […]
Be careful what you put on your backlog…
We’ve all had the conversation…you’re working at your desk, just finished a call with a customer or prospect, and that random person comes around and taps you on the shoulder… “Where’s my feature?” “Huh? What feature?” “You know — the feature you talked about last week.” “Oh, that one! It’s on the backlog.” “I know, […]
What “Agile” Means to the Business
Agile development and its related methodologies and practices have long been viewed as something that “developers do” with no consideration given to the broader impacts of those processes on the organization as a whole. This, incidentally, is also the primary cause of failures on the part of organizations who attempt to implement Agile practices — […]
Incremental Improvement – Why You Need to Change the Wheels While the Bus is Moving
There have been numerous situations in my career as a Product Manager where I’ve come into a project or product that’s so established and critical to client success that there’s a strong hesitancy on the part of anyone to dig in and muck with what’s “working”, even if it’s not really “working” in the eyes […]
Dropbox: The Most MVP of All MVPs
It’s constantly surprising to me that people seem to have such widely different ideas of what the term “MVP” or “Minimally Viable Product” really means. Perhaps it’s a result of the term becoming an industry buzzword, or perhaps it’s because it’s used in some very different contexts, but it always baffles me that people focus […]
Prioritizing in an Agile World: What’s Now, What’s Next, What Else?
While helping through a transition with a PM and Dev team that I worked with on a daily basis, one of the major stumbling blocks I ran into was Release Planning and Roadmapping. When I got there, they were in many ways using all of the right Agile terms, but not really following Agile principles […]
Product Manager or Product Owner – What’s the Difference?
In the search for a Product Management role, many people become confused by the deceptively similar descriptions, expectations, and requirements that they find for Product Owner and Product Manager roles in various organizations. I’m sorry to say, this is another reflection of the inability of our Product Management culture and discipline to adopt a clear […]