Agile... we are not there yet! Let's get closer with "well rounded product teams"

(Presentation from Spaces Summit 2019, bol.com)

Agile enables us to move away from the classical waterfall approaches, allowing more ownership and autonomy for the teams building products. This leads to higher velocity on building our products.

However, we are not there yet! We still have (hidden) "small waterfalls"! Products are defined by "business teams" (a.k.a.: "Business") and then implemented by "technical teams" (a.k.a.: "IT"). The result? Under-optimal agility and products flawed by design!

This talk is a call for action to stop these small waterfalls. I will focus on two specific points. First, teams must increase their technical leadership and safeguard the technical vision and design of their products. Second, the team working on the product must act as a single unit (not "Business" and "IT", but "Product Team"). Product Team owns the whole vision and design for the product. These are two essential elements to build what I call "well rounded product teams", which is key to achieve the true ambitions of Agile.

Presentation video here: https://youtu.be/ZeupQmwvoa0

Transcript

1. Agile... we are not there yet! Let's get closer with
   "well rounded product teams"
   Eduardo da Silva (@emgsilva|emgsilva@gmail.com)
   

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2. We still have “Business” and “IT”
   silos with “hidden waterfalls”
   between each other
   

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3. Silos & Hidden Waterfalls
   “Business”
   {Why, What}
   Complex
   communication
   (hidden
   waterfalls)
   “IT”
   {How}
   (feature factory)
   

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4. How can we enable Business and Tech
   working more closely together?
   

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5. How can we reach that?
   Dev + Ops = DevOps Teams (already WIP)
   Why not DevOps + Biz = BizDevOps?
   Aim: everyone moving on the same direction
   at “high velocity” => truly
   multidisciplinary team!
   

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6. BizDevOps <=> Product Teams
   “Product Team” (and product
   organization) is becoming the term &
   approach for such team setup
   >> “team that owns the product”
   Follow this model
   

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7. Product Teams - Some Properties
   Clear product goal and how to get there
   Focus/obsess on customer value
   Top-down Strategy & Bottom-Up / Emerging
   Strategy (with Experimentation and
   customer Validation)
   

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8. Tech Leadership is a core skill for
   Tech-Savvy people within Product
   Teams
   

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9. Stop being “feature factories”... Look at big picture
   Participate in the
   Product "Why" and
   "What"
   Govern the product
   technical vision
   Shiny tech is cool, but
   Product value is cooler
   Validate before
   over-engineer
   

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10. Well Rounded Product Teams
    What does it take? How can we start
    going there?
    

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11. Some Principles for building Well Rounded Teams*
    Learning
    Culture & WoW
    * Company Leadership needs to support this, otherwise it will not work!
    Scoping
    (Product,
    Architecture)
    Leadership
    (Product, Technical)
    Entrepreneurship
    People & Collaboration
    Products & Projects
    

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12. Conclusion...
    

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13. From “YBIYRIYLI” to “You own it, you make it shine”
    “Product Team” owns the product
    life-cycle “end-to-end” from
    “idea” to all the necessary
    activities to “make it shine”
    Team goal: “What shall we do next
    to improve our product”
    

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14. Thank you!
    More on this in:
    http://esilva.net/well-rounded-product-teams
    img src: https://memeguy.com/photo/307170/when-youre-asked-to-join-a-team-project-you-know-nothing-about
    

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