Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 1

Programmers are from Mars,Product Owners are from Venus:A Practical Guide to working with Product Owners on Agile Projects

e x c e l l e n c e a n d i n n o v a t i o n w i t h p a s s i o n

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 2

A Bit About Me

Angela Martin

13 + Years Industry Experience

(Past) Director of Agile Alliance

PhD Candidate

– A Grounded Theory on the Role ofCustomers in XP Projects

Contact Details

– e: angela@martinitconsulting.com

– p: 07717 653 971

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 3

Coming up …

You’ll develop a realistic understandingof the complexity and difficulty of theProduct Owner role

You’ll develop an understanding of theproduct owner community and the rolesthat develop and why they matter

You’ll develop an understanding ofsome product owner practices – think“XP practices” BUT for product owners

Game(75 minutes)

Community(60 minutes)

Practices(30 minutes)

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 4

Why Study the Agile “Customer”?

“All the best talent and technology and process in theworld will fail when the customer isn’t up to scratch”— Kent Beck, Martin Fowler [2001]

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 5

Product Owners Speak

“I think it’s worked very well, but … I don’t know howlong [I can] keep this pace up”— Product Owner, EagleCorp

“Overall – I love this approach … and I’d certainly like touse it again … We probably needed about three of me… it’s been my life … look at these grey hairs” — Product Owner, KiwiCorp

“I’ve always worked at least 70 [or] 80 [hrs a week] Idon’t even mind it, its like what I do” — Product Owner, RavenCorp

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 6

X 2

Game Overview

Goal of the game

– Walk a mile in product owner’s shoes !! (second iteration)

Mechanism

– To develop a 5 minute presentation (for a book proposal)with visual aids covering your best & worst product owner /end-user / stakeholder(s) experience

Timings

– You have 10 mins to write stories and prepare materials

– You have 05 mins to plan the sprint

– You have 15 mins to design the visual aids

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 7

Reflection

So, how did thatwork for you?— “Dr Phil”

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 8

Community

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 9

Product Owner Community

Product Owner Scrum Master& Scrum Team

Stakeholders

An informal community forms around the Product Owner

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 10

Roles

CollaborationGuides

Geek Interpreter . Technical Liaison . Political Advisor

SkillSpecialists

Acceptance Tester . UI Designer . Technical Writer

Role ≠ Job TitleA role can have just one person doing it or many people doing itA person can do just one role or may be doing multiple roles

Negotiator . Diplomat . Steward

Direction

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 11

Collaboration GuidesCollaboration Guides

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 12

Geek Interpreter

H3Y D00DZ, L3TZ C0D3 UP SUM ST0R1Z

Product Owners who are not themselves (ex-)programmers often lack expertise in the jargon ofprogrammers

The Geek Interpreter provides a “sounding board” orsanity check for the Product Owner

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 13

Technical Liaison

Most projects don’t exist on their own

They have to deal with existing organization technicalinfrastructures

Product Owners who attempt to deal with all of thetechnical liaison quickly become overloaded

This liaison task deserves a person to be responsible for it

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 14

Political Adviser

Product Owners are often project focused and socannot be involved in organization politics

Product Owners need help to identify players & rules

– Who needs to say “yes!”, Who needs to stop saying “no!”

– Which rules to follow, Which rules to break

The Political Advisor(s) works with the Product Owner toensure they succeed:

– This role is always unofficial and a wise Product Owner willfind Political Advisors they can trust quickly

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 15

Direction

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 16

Diplomat

Product Owner teams require organizationalrepresentative(s), including:

– Subject matter experts, End-users, Senior Stakeholders

– Architects, Marketing, Operations

They are responsible for representing their organizationalarea or perspective on the project

The people fulfilling this role may be full-time or part-time

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 17

Steward

The person everyone approaches when the productowner is not available

They know the stories intimately

– Keep them organized!

– Track the stories through their lifecycle, often with a stickersystem with different colors representing each stage

Supports the Product Owner team with all of the non-story tasks too

– For example, organizing meetings

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 18

Negotiator

The Product Owner is always identified

Characteristics of successful Product Owners:

– Good (active) listeners, confident and decisive

– Comfortable working at the “big picture” and detailed levels

– Know their limitations and work with a community

– Handle intense pressure … workaholics should apply!

– Create shared understanding between multiple perspectives

We named the role Negotiator to emphasize theinteraction with the larger product owner community

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 19

Practices

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 20

Practices

Look Before You LeapMagic Happens Here

Telling the StoryProduct Owner

Boot Camp

Programmer On-SiteProduct Owner’s

Apprentice

Programmer Holiday

Sprint Planning

Three-Month Calibration

Product OwnerCounselor

Diplomat RechargingPairing

Road Show Acceptance Testing

Envision . Collaboration . Negotiation . Learn

Product OwnerDaily Stand-ups

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 21

Programmer On–Site

Programmers need to understand and respect their users

Very old advice – get the programmers into the field:

– “Boeing offers all its avionics programmers seats on an earlytest flight”

– “I worked with a social worker, doing a death review. This iswhat she does every day”

Not about making decisions!

– Understanding the end user and context of use

– Making your suggestions actually helpful

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 22

Product Owner Apprentice

Programmers need to understand the Product Owner

“To understand someone, walk a mile in their shoes”

So, rotate programmers to act as theProduct Owner Apprentice:

– Writing stories, being secretary

– Attending meetings with users & stakeholders

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 23

Programmer Holiday

Scrum is intense

Product Owners sometimes need some time to getahead of programmers

– The stay ahead dynamic is REALLY important

Product Owners sometimes need to send theprogrammers on holiday

– For example, an iteration focused on technical refactoringand / or technical debt

Programmers are from Mars, Product Owners are from Venus - Slide 24

Product Owner Practices

Look Before You LeapMagic Happens Here

Telling the StoryProduct Owner

Boot Camp

Programmer On-SiteProduct Owner’s

Apprentice

Programmer Holiday

Sprint Planning

Three-Month Calibration

Product OwnerCounselor

Diplomat RechargingPairing

Road Show Acceptance Testing

Envision . Collaboration . Negotiation . Learn

Product OwnerDaily Stand-ups