Building Effective Product Teams

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Building effective product teams

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Hello! I’m Fernando Agüero.

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Madrid Devs I like to help communities ValenciaJS

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…and write about productivity

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Technical Product Manager I WORK AS A

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No content

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Talk Objectives

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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:

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The team

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What is a product team?

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• Product manager • Product designers • Product marketing managers • Engineers • QA Testers • Data Analysts The team

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• Product manager • Product designers • Product marketing managers • Engineers • QA Testers • Data Analysts The team

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Knowing the roles

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Knowing the roles and premises

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The Product Manager

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Thinking that product management is the same as gathering requirements and documenting them for engineers. The Product Manager PREMISE

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The Product Manager Thinking that product management is the same as gathering requirements and documenting them for engineers. PREMISE

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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.

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The Product Designer

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The product designer work is to apply the lipstick model to the product. The Product Manager role The Product Designer PREMISE

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The product designer work is to apply the lipstick model to the product. The Product Manager role The Product Designer PREMISE

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Previously focusing on The Product Designer Turning specs from the PM into designs

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The Product Designer Previously focusing on Turning specs from the PM into designs

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Modern workflow The Product Designer Collaborate from discovery to delivery

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The Engineers

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Engineers should only code The Engineers PREMISE

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The Engineers Engineers should only code PREMISE

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If you are using engineers only to code, you're only getting about half their value. The Engineers

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Engineer are typically the best single source of innovation; yet, they are not even invited to the party in the discovery process. The Engineers

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It’s crucial that engineers know about the customers, specially the pain. The Engineers More than coding

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It's a great idea for them to join meetings with customers. The Engineers More than coding

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It’s all about extreme collaboration

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The team Products are designed collaboratively rather than in sequence

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The Team Using GitHub issues to discuss and iterate a story We currently use Google Docs for epics or complex problems.

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The Team Product Manager Engineers Product Designer The team

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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

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Engineers help on discovery: source of great ideas. PMs and designers help on delivering: mainly to clarify intended behavior. Discover Deliver The team

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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

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The Process

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The Process 5 key points

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1. The Source of ideas

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Focusing only on your ideas Thinking you are the customer Using requirements from customers The source of ideas

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Focusing only on your ideas Thinking you are the customer Using requirements from customers The source of ideas

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Use your vision and objectives Learn from your customers struggle Analyze usage data The source of ideas

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Talk with customers Focus on them, not on your product. The source of ideas

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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?

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Talk with customers Using Intercom to help and learn from the customers

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Analyze usage Using Mixpanel to discover insights and understanding impact and usage of features

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2. Focusing on the outcome

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Focusing on the outcome The more you ship... The faster you ship...

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It’s all about shipping! Focusing on the outcome Focusing on the outcome

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Burning story points doesn’t matter if you are not doing the right thing. Focusing on the outcome

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Focusing on the outcome Agile Reminder

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Agile Reminder Focusing on the outcome

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• More than following a plan, respond to change. • Hundred of other stuff… Focusing on the outcome

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It’s fine to remove a story from a Sprint or change the scope if it makes sense. Focusing on the outcome

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3. Building less

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Build less. Building less

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Build less. For real. Building less

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There's always more to build than we have time or resources to build. Building less

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Organizing pipeline using three GitHub milestones 1. Current work 2. Next tasks 3. Future Milestones:

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Are you going to build all at once? If you keep validating it, you may go… Building less

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Building less • View the basic info: title, rating, director, etc • View the movie poster • Link to trailer Good Enough:

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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:

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4. Build shared understanding

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Build shared understanding Story

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Build shared understanding Story

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Build shared understanding Story

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Build shared understanding We agree! Story

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Build shared understanding Shared documents is not shared understanding

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There is no perfect way of writing stories Build shared understanding

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Build shared understanding • Stories are not specs • The real goal of stories is to build shared understanding Writing stories:

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Using Story mapping

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Story mapping Story mapping consists of ordering user stories along two independent dimensions: activities and implementation

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Image from manifest.co.uk

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Image from realtimeboard.com

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Story mapping Use story mapping by having conversations to build shared understanding.

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• Focus on the breadth, not depth • Follow user journeys/jobs • Prepare a release strategy • Prepare a development strategy Tips: Story mapping

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Try it with your team when designing a complex feature or flow. Story mapping

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5. Avoid burning out

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Avoid burning out Another normal day at work

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Avoid burning out Working on the right thing with the right process Working harder > Better than

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Avoid burning out Be careful when working only on “keeping the lights on” activities.

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The Thinking Week Avoid burning out Making innovation an habit

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Avoid burning out Every month, we spend a week learning, improving workflows, and trying new things.

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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:

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• 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

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References & Book Recommendations

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Inspired MARTY CAGAN How to create tech products customers love

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User Story Mapping JEFF PATTON & PETER ECONOMY Discover the whole story, build the right product