Expert insights. Personalized for you.
Lead the Stakeholders—Don’t Please, Don’t Dictate. As the person in charge of the product, your aspiration should be to lead the stakeholders in order to create value together and achieve product success. MORE
Overview. The term product owner is commonly used to refer to six different product roles in my experience. These are: The original Scrum product owner who owns a product in its entirety and is responsible for maximising the value it creates. MORE
Imagine that you are talking to John, a senior salesperson who’s been involved with the product for a while. John mentions the upcoming product release and says, “You really must add the enhanced reporting feature. MORE
What is an Ethical Product? An ethical product is an offering that does not cause any harm, neither to its users nor the planet. [1] 1] The former includes negatively impacting the people’s mental wellbeing, for example, by encouraging addictive behaviour or promoting harmful information. The latter comprises contributing to climate change by developing and providing the product. As product people, it’s our job to ensure that our products are kind —that they are ethical and do not cause any harm. MORE
What are KPIs? Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that measure how your product is doing. Effective KPIs help you understand if your product is creating the desired value for the users, the customers, and the business. Without KPIs, you end up guessing how well your product is performing. MORE
Enter the Cycle. Traditionally, strategy and execution are often viewed as separate, sequential pieces of work that are carried out by different people. For example, a product manager might determine the product strategy and one or more development teams might be tasked with executing it. MORE
Product Goals Defined. The Scrum Guide released in November 2020 states that “the product goal describes a future state of the product … [It] is the long-term objective for the Scrum team.” It also suggests that “the product goal is in the product backlog. MORE
What is Product Discovery? Product discovery describes the activities required to determine if and why a product should be developed and offered. This increases the chances of creating a product that users actually want and need and achieving product success. MORE
No Transactional Power. Unlike a line manager, you usually don’t manage the development team and stakeholders as the person in charge of the product, and the individuals don’t report to you. MORE
What Product Roadmaps Are (in a Nutshell). To start with, let’s briefly recap what a product roadmap is. I view a roadmap as a high-level plan that states specific benefits a product should provide over a certain timeframe, which may range from six to 12 months. I find it helpful to use the product roadmap so that it connects the overall product strategy with the product backlog, as shown in the picture below. MORE
Be Prepared to Look after People, Not Products. When you become a head of product, you move into a line management position. Consequently, your focus shifts from managing a product to looking after the product people on your team and empowering them to do a great job. MORE
OKRs in a Nutshell. OKRs are a method for setting and tracking goals. An objective describes what is to be achieved. The key results state how we accomplish the objective. Let’s say, for example, that the objective is to “increase engagement.” MORE
Why Difficult Emotions Matter Particularly for Product People. We may not like difficult emotions like confusion, frustration, anger, envy, sadness, and worry, but we all experience them. MORE
Hold Regular Product Strategy Reviews. A product strategy , like any other plan, is subject to change. How changeable your strategy is, depends on your product’s life cycle stage. As long as your product hasn’t reached product-market fit, the strategy is usually volatile. MORE
Why Technical Debt Matters for Product People. As the person in charge of the product, you may not be terribly concerned about how clean and well-structured the code is. But the quality of your product matters: It directly impacts your ability to achieve strategic product goals and make your products successful: Technical debt makes it hard to experiment with new ideas, release new features, and quickly respond to user feedback. [1]. MORE
What Release Planning Entails and Why It Matters. While release and release planning are common terms, I find that different individuals attribute different meanings to them. I regard a release as a version of a product , for example, Mac OS X Catalina and Windows 10. MORE
Myth #1: The product owner must ensure that the stakeholders are satisfied. Stakeholders can be powerful and influential individuals. MORE
A Brief Guide to this Article. This article assumes that you are familiar with the product vision board or the key elements of a product strategy : market, value proposition, standout features, and business goals. MORE
No Transactional Power. Unlike a line manager, you usually don’t manage the development team and stakeholders as the person in charge of the product, and the individuals don’t report to you. MORE
Why Difficult Emotions Matter Particularly for Product People. We may not like difficult emotions like confusion, frustration, anger, envy, sadness, and worry, but we all experience them. MORE
Business Strategy vs. Product Strategy. A business strategy describes how a company wants to achieve its overall aspiration and create value for its users, employees, and shareholders. It’s distinct from the product strategy : The business strategy states how the company will be successful, whereas the product strategy describes how a product will achieve success, as the following picture illustrates. MORE
What are Feature and Component Teams? A feature team is a development team that implements end-user functionality end-to-end. Contrast this with a component team. MORE
Come Prepared. Make sure you carry out the necessary prep work prior to the sprint planning meeting. Be clear on what you want the sprint to achieve, ensure that the product backlog is appropriately refined (or groomed) , and have its high-priority items ready. This is necessary for the following two reasons: First, if you start sprint planning without a properly prepared product backlog, you are likely to perform backlog and planning work in a comparatively short, time-boxed meeting. MORE
Maps are the Foundations on which Adventures are Built. When I was a little boy, I truly loved all things pirate. Even as an adult, I very much enjoyed reading pirate books with my children. One of them even came with a separate treasure map that could be unfolded to discover a hidden treasure. MORE
What is Sustainable Pace? Sustainable pace is an important agile principle. The Agile Manifesto defines it in the following way: “The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.” The goal is to create a healthy work environment and avoid that people are routinely overworked, lose their creativity, make mistakes, and eventually sacrifice their health. MORE
Once Upon a Time in Waterfall Land. Before the advent of agile frameworks like Scrum , a product person—the product manager—would typically carry out the market research, compile a market requirements specification, create a business case, put together product roadmap, write a requirements specification, and then hand it off to a project manager. The latter would work with one or more development teams to get the specification implemented. MORE
A Tale of Two Products. I once worked with a telco company that was developing a brand-new commercial product. Product management and development were located at separate sites in different countries. But this didn’t seem to matter much as everybody was in great spirits and had high hopes for the new product. What’s more, the product people would occasionally visit the development site, and development group members would travel to product management from time to time. MORE
Listen to Understand, not to Answer. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply,” wrote Steve Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s true: We often listen with a specific goal in mind, with the intention to reply, to share our perspective, or to convince the other person. As a consequence, we don’t pay full attention to what the other person is saying or filter what is being said; we only hear what supports our view. MORE
Organise Around Products. In order to grow your product management team, start by reviewing your product portfolio. Determine which assets are actual products —value creating vehicles that offer a tangible benefit or address a real problem for a group of people, while at the same time deliver specific business benefits, such as generating revenue directly or indirectly, reducing cost, or increasing brand equity. MORE
Be Clear on What a Software Platform Is. Different people have suggested different definitions for the term software platform. Let me briefly share mine: I view such a platform as a collection of software assets that are used by several products, as the following picture illustrates. MORE
Why a Product Strategy Process Matters. An effective product strategy process should ensure that a valid product strategy and an actionable product roadmap are always available—that a shared and valid approach to achieving product success is available at anytime, as the picture below illustrates. In the picture above, the product strategy describes how a visionary, inspirational goal is attained. It includes the product’s value proposition, market, stand-out features, and business goals. MORE
What is an Ethical Product? An ethical product is an offering that does not cause any harm, neither to its users nor the planet. [1] 1] The former includes negatively impacting the people’s mental wellbeing, for example, by encouraging addictive behaviour or promoting harmful information. The latter comprises contributing to climate change by developing and providing the product. As product people, it’s our job to ensure that our products are kind —that they are ethical and do not cause any harm. MORE
Organise Around Products. In order to grow your product management team, start by reviewing your product portfolio. Determine which assets are actual products —value creating vehicles that offer a tangible benefit or address a real problem for a group of people, while at the same time deliver specific business benefits, such as generating revenue directly or indirectly, reducing cost, or increasing brand equity. MORE
Before You Start Prioritising …. Before you order the roadmap items, double-check that you have a validated product strategy in place. You should be able to confidently say why users would want to use your product and why it is worthwhile for your company to invest in it. In other words, you should have valid answers to the following questions: Which user problem will the product solve, or which benefit will it provide? How will it create value for the business? MORE
Roman Pichler
DECEMBER 1, 2020
OKRs in a Nutshell. OKRs are a method for setting and tracking goals. An objective describes what is to be achieved. The key results state how we accomplish the objective. Let’s say, for example, that the objective is to “increase engagement.”
Roman Pichler
JULY 6, 2021
Be Prepared to Look after People, Not Products. When you become a head of product, you move into a line management position. Consequently, your focus shifts from managing a product to looking after the product people on your team and empowering them to do a great job.
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Roman Pichler
MARCH 9, 2021
Product Goals Defined. The Scrum Guide released in November 2020 states that “the product goal describes a future state of the product … [It] is the long-term objective for the Scrum team.” It also suggests that “the product goal is in the product backlog.
Roman Pichler
MAY 5, 2020
Overview. The term product owner is commonly used to refer to six different product roles in my experience. These are: The original Scrum product owner who owns a product in its entirety and is responsible for maximising the value it creates.
Speaker: Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant, Rothman Consulting Group
Join Johanna Rothman, Author and Consultant, for her session that will discuss why instead of designing for the users, CTOs and their teams should collaborate with empowered users to create a great product together.
Roman Pichler
JANUARY 12, 2021
Imagine that you are talking to John, a senior salesperson who’s been involved with the product for a while. John mentions the upcoming product release and says, “You really must add the enhanced reporting feature.
Roman Pichler
JUNE 1, 2020
Lead the Stakeholders—Don’t Please, Don’t Dictate. As the person in charge of the product, your aspiration should be to lead the stakeholders in order to create value together and achieve product success.
Roman Pichler
NOVEMBER 3, 2020
Enter the Cycle. Traditionally, strategy and execution are often viewed as separate, sequential pieces of work that are carried out by different people. For example, a product manager might determine the product strategy and one or more development teams might be tasked with executing it.
Roman Pichler
APRIL 13, 2021
What are KPIs? Key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics that measure how your product is doing. Effective KPIs help you understand if your product is creating the desired value for the users, the customers, and the business. Without KPIs, you end up guessing how well your product is performing.
Roman Pichler
AUGUST 11, 2020
A Brief Guide to this Article. This article assumes that you are familiar with the product vision board or the key elements of a product strategy : market, value proposition, standout features, and business goals.
Advertiser: Datadog
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Roman Pichler
OCTOBER 6, 2020
What is Product Discovery? Product discovery describes the activities required to determine if and why a product should be developed and offered. This increases the chances of creating a product that users actually want and need and achieving product success.
Roman Pichler
JULY 7, 2020
What are Feature and Component Teams? A feature team is a development team that implements end-user functionality end-to-end. Contrast this with a component team.
Roman Pichler
FEBRUARY 2, 2021
Once Upon a Time in Waterfall Land. Before the advent of agile frameworks like Scrum , a product person—the product manager—would typically carry out the market research, compile a market requirements specification, create a business case, put together product roadmap, write a requirements specification, and then hand it off to a project manager. The latter would work with one or more development teams to get the specification implemented.
Roman Pichler
APRIL 1, 2020
Why Difficult Emotions Matter Particularly for Product People. We may not like difficult emotions like confusion, frustration, anger, envy, sadness, and worry, but we all experience them.
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Roman Pichler
APRIL 1, 2020
Why Difficult Emotions Matter Particularly for Product People. We may not like difficult emotions like confusion, frustration, anger, envy, sadness, and worry, but we all experience them.
Roman Pichler
MARCH 11, 2020
No Transactional Power. Unlike a line manager, you usually don’t manage the development team and stakeholders as the person in charge of the product, and the individuals don’t report to you.
Roman Pichler
MARCH 11, 2020
No Transactional Power. Unlike a line manager, you usually don’t manage the development team and stakeholders as the person in charge of the product, and the individuals don’t report to you.
Roman Pichler
FEBRUARY 11, 2020
Be Clear on What a Software Platform Is. Different people have suggested different definitions for the term software platform. Let me briefly share mine: I view such a platform as a collection of software assets that are used by several products, as the following picture illustrates.
Speaker: Dr. Joe Perez, Senior Systems Analyst at NC Dept. of Health & Human Services, and Chief Technology Officer at SolonTek
Join Dr. Joe Perez, Senior Systems Analyst at NC DHHS, and Chief Technology Officer, SolonTek, to learn how you can capitalize on your ideas by blending internal with external while leveraging them into a cohesive strategy for both the short term and the long term.
Roman Pichler
JANUARY 7, 2020
What Release Planning Entails and Why It Matters. While release and release planning are common terms, I find that different individuals attribute different meanings to them. I regard a release as a version of a product , for example, Mac OS X Catalina and Windows 10.
Roman Pichler
JUNE 4, 2019
What Product Roadmaps Are (in a Nutshell). To start with, let’s briefly recap what a product roadmap is. I view a roadmap as a high-level plan that states specific benefits a product should provide over a certain timeframe, which may range from six to 12 months. I find it helpful to use the product roadmap so that it connects the overall product strategy with the product backlog, as shown in the picture below.
Roman Pichler
DECEMBER 3, 2019
Hold Regular Product Strategy Reviews. A product strategy , like any other plan, is subject to change. How changeable your strategy is, depends on your product’s life cycle stage. As long as your product hasn’t reached product-market fit, the strategy is usually volatile.
Roman Pichler
FEBRUARY 4, 2019
Listen to Understand, not to Answer. Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply,” wrote Steve Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It’s true: We often listen with a specific goal in mind, with the intention to reply, to share our perspective, or to convince the other person. As a consequence, we don’t pay full attention to what the other person is saying or filter what is being said; we only hear what supports our view.
Advertiser: Datadog
In this eBook, find out the benefits and complexities of migrating workloads to AWS, and services that AWS offers for containers and serverless computing.
Roman Pichler
MAY 1, 2019
What is an Ethical Product? An ethical product is an offering that does not cause any harm, neither to its users nor the planet. [1] 1] The former includes negatively impacting the people’s mental wellbeing, for example, by encouraging addictive behaviour or promoting harmful information. The latter comprises contributing to climate change by developing and providing the product. As product people, it’s our job to ensure that our products are kind —that they are ethical and do not cause any harm.
Roman Pichler
MAY 1, 2019
What is an Ethical Product? An ethical product is an offering that does not cause any harm, neither to its users nor the planet. [1] 1] The former includes negatively impacting the people’s mental wellbeing, for example, by encouraging addictive behaviour or promoting harmful information. The latter comprises contributing to climate change by developing and providing the product. As product people, it’s our job to ensure that our products are kind —that they are ethical and do not cause any harm.
Roman Pichler
DECEMBER 4, 2018
Why Technical Debt Matters for Product People. As the person in charge of the product, you may not be terribly concerned about how clean and well-structured the code is. But the quality of your product matters: It directly impacts your ability to achieve strategic product goals and make your products successful: Technical debt makes it hard to experiment with new ideas, release new features, and quickly respond to user feedback. [1].
Roman Pichler
OCTOBER 7, 2019
Before You Start Prioritising …. Before you order the roadmap items, double-check that you have a validated product strategy in place. You should be able to confidently say why users would want to use your product and why it is worthwhile for your company to invest in it. In other words, you should have valid answers to the following questions: Which user problem will the product solve, or which benefit will it provide? How will it create value for the business?
Speaker: Teresa Torres, Internationally Acclaimed Author, Speaker, and Coach at ProductTalk.org
Join internationally acclaimed author, speaker, and coach Teresa Torres as she explores the what, how, and why behind creating continuous discovery habits that give your team a clear benchmark to aspire to.
Roman Pichler
JULY 9, 2019
Organise Around Products. In order to grow your product management team, start by reviewing your product portfolio. Determine which assets are actual products —value creating vehicles that offer a tangible benefit or address a real problem for a group of people, while at the same time deliver specific business benefits, such as generating revenue directly or indirectly, reducing cost, or increasing brand equity.
Roman Pichler
JULY 9, 2019
Organise Around Products. In order to grow your product management team, start by reviewing your product portfolio. Determine which assets are actual products —value creating vehicles that offer a tangible benefit or address a real problem for a group of people, while at the same time deliver specific business benefits, such as generating revenue directly or indirectly, reducing cost, or increasing brand equity.
Roman Pichler
APRIL 3, 2018
Business Strategy vs. Product Strategy. A business strategy describes how a company wants to achieve its overall aspiration and create value for its users, employees, and shareholders. It’s distinct from the product strategy : The business strategy states how the company will be successful, whereas the product strategy describes how a product will achieve success, as the following picture illustrates.
Roman Pichler
OCTOBER 2, 2018
Why a Product Strategy Process Matters. An effective product strategy process should ensure that a valid product strategy and an actionable product roadmap are always available—that a shared and valid approach to achieving product success is available at anytime, as the picture below illustrates. In the picture above, the product strategy describes how a visionary, inspirational goal is attained. It includes the product’s value proposition, market, stand-out features, and business goals.
Advertiser: Datadog
In this eBook, Danny Miles, CTO of Dollar Shave Club, reveals an efficient framework for thinking about and prioritizing the performance metrics that matter most to him, providing a blueprint for fellow e-commerce CTOs to follow as they evaluate their own business.
Roman Pichler
SEPTEMBER 4, 2018
Come Prepared. Make sure you carry out the necessary prep work prior to the sprint planning meeting. Be clear on what you want the sprint to achieve, ensure that the product backlog is appropriately refined (or groomed) , and have its high-priority items ready. This is necessary for the following two reasons: First, if you start sprint planning without a properly prepared product backlog, you are likely to perform backlog and planning work in a comparatively short, time-boxed meeting.
Roman Pichler
NOVEMBER 6, 2018
What is Sustainable Pace? Sustainable pace is an important agile principle. The Agile Manifesto defines it in the following way: “The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.” The goal is to create a healthy work environment and avoid that people are routinely overworked, lose their creativity, make mistakes, and eventually sacrifice their health.
Roman Pichler
MARCH 4, 2019
Maps are the Foundations on which Adventures are Built. When I was a little boy, I truly loved all things pirate. Even as an adult, I very much enjoyed reading pirate books with my children. One of them even came with a separate treasure map that could be unfolded to discover a hidden treasure.
Roman Pichler
NOVEMBER 12, 2019
A Tale of Two Products. I once worked with a telco company that was developing a brand-new commercial product. Product management and development were located at separate sites in different countries. But this didn’t seem to matter much as everybody was in great spirits and had high hopes for the new product. What’s more, the product people would occasionally visit the development site, and development group members would travel to product management from time to time.
Speaker: Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org
In this talk, Dave West, CEO of Scrum.org, discusses the interesting, messy connection between work and value. He outlines how changes to the Scrum Guide have shone a spotlight on the challenge that many teams face when delivering more value.
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