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

Transcript

1. Building effective product teams
2. Hello! I’m Fernando Agüero.
3. Madrid Devs I like to help communities ValenciaJS
4. …and write about productivity
5. Technical Product Manager I WORK AS A
7. Talk Objectives
8. 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:
9. The team
10. What is a product team?
11. • Product manager • Product designers • Product marketing managers • Engineers • QA Testers • Data Analysts The team
12. • Product manager • Product designers • Product marketing managers • Engineers • QA Testers • Data Analysts The team
13. Knowing the roles
14. Knowing the roles and premises
15. The Product Manager
16. Thinking that product management is the same as gathering requirements and documenting them for engineers. The Product Manager PREMISE
17. The Product Manager Thinking that product management is the same as gathering requirements and documenting them for engineers. PREMISE
18. 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.
19. The Product Designer
20. The product designer work is to apply the lipstick model to the product. The Product Manager role The Product Designer PREMISE
21. The product designer work is to apply the lipstick model to the product. The Product Manager role The Product Designer PREMISE
22. Previously focusing on The Product Designer Turning specs from the PM into designs
23. The Product Designer Previously focusing on Turning specs from the PM into designs
24. Modern workflow The Product Designer Collaborate from discovery to delivery
25. The Engineers
26. Engineers should only code The Engineers PREMISE
27. The Engineers Engineers should only code PREMISE
28. If you are using engineers only to code, you're only getting about half their value. The Engineers
29. Engineer are typically the best single source of innovation; yet, they are not even invited to the party in the discovery process. The Engineers
30. It’s crucial that engineers know about the customers, specially the pain. The Engineers More than coding
31. It's a great idea for them to join meetings with customers. The Engineers More than coding
32. It’s all about extreme collaboration
33. The team Products are designed collaboratively rather than in sequence
34. The Team Using GitHub issues to discuss and iterate a story We currently use Google Docs for epics or complex problems.
35. The Team Product Manager Engineers Product Designer The team
36. 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
37. Engineers help on discovery: source of great ideas. PMs and designers help on delivering: mainly to clarify intended behavior. Discover Deliver The team
38. 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
39. The Process
40. The Process 5 key points
41. 1. The Source of ideas
42. Focusing only on your ideas Thinking you are the customer Using requirements from customers The source of ideas
43. Focusing only on your ideas Thinking you are the customer Using requirements from customers The source of ideas
44. Use your vision and objectives Learn from your customers struggle Analyze usage data The source of ideas
45. Talk with customers Focus on them, not on your product. The source of ideas
46. 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?
47. Talk with customers Using Intercom to help and learn from the customers
48. Analyze usage Using Mixpanel to discover insights and understanding impact and usage of features
49. 2. Focusing on the outcome
50. Focusing on the outcome The more you ship... The faster you ship...
51. It’s all about shipping! Focusing on the outcome Focusing on the outcome
52. Burning story points doesn’t matter if you are not doing the right thing. Focusing on the outcome
53. Focusing on the outcome Agile Reminder
54. Agile Reminder Focusing on the outcome
55. • More than following a plan, respond to change. • Hundred of other stuff… Focusing on the outcome
56. It’s fine to remove a story from a Sprint or change the scope if it makes sense. Focusing on the outcome
57. 3. Building less
58. Build less. Building less
59. Build less. For real. Building less
60. There's always more to build than we have time or resources to build. Building less
61. Organizing pipeline using three GitHub milestones 1. Current work 2. Next tasks 3. Future Milestones:
62. Are you going to build all at once? If you keep validating it, you may go… Building less
63. Building less • View the basic info: title, rating, director, etc • View the movie poster • Link to trailer Good Enough:
64. 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:
65. 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:
66. 4. Build shared understanding
67. Build shared understanding Story
68. Build shared understanding Story
69. Build shared understanding Story
70. Build shared understanding We agree! Story
71. Build shared understanding Shared documents is not shared understanding
72. There is no perfect way of writing stories Build shared understanding
73. Build shared understanding • Stories are not specs • The real goal of stories is to build shared understanding Writing stories:
74. Using Story mapping
75. Story mapping Story mapping consists of ordering user stories along two independent dimensions: activities and implementation
76. Image from manifest.co.uk
77. Image from realtimeboard.com
78. Story mapping Use story mapping by having conversations to build shared understanding.
79. • Focus on the breadth, not depth • Follow user journeys/jobs • Prepare a release strategy • Prepare a development strategy Tips: Story mapping
80. Try it with your team when designing a complex feature or flow. Story mapping
81. 5. Avoid burning out
82. Avoid burning out Another normal day at work
83. Avoid burning out Working on the right thing with the right process Working harder > Better than
84. Avoid burning out Be careful when working only on “keeping the lights on” activities.
85. The Thinking Week Avoid burning out Making innovation an habit
86. Avoid burning out Every month, we spend a week learning, improving workflows, and trying new things.
87. 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:
88. • 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
89. References & Book Recommendations
90. Inspired MARTY CAGAN How to create tech products customers love
91. User Story Mapping JEFF PATTON & PETER ECONOMY Discover the whole story, build the right product
92. Make Time JAKE KNAPP & JOHN ZERATSKY How to focus on what matter every day
93. Thanks! @fjaguero