Deliver It Cast

Many times as Product Owners we are asked to do more than the team can handle. Having a way to sort through all of the ideas, problems, and yes even requests are sometimes necessary to put in place. In the first episode of Season 5, the notion of a funnel to sift those items though is discussed, some thoughts on how to do it, how to make sure you focus on those things valuable enough to say yes to...

I truly hope that the Product Owners and people who care about them got a lot out of this season. We've had some wonderful quests, great topics, and learned a lot. In this episode I wanted to round up some questions that have been asked and leave you with some parting thoughts about PO's, agility, and other areas. Thank you all so much for listening and sharing the show around. Feedback: twitter -...

Product Owners can learn a lot about getting feedback from users by picking up some UX practices. One of the better ways to do that is with a focused customer interview. In this episode we welcome Jessica Ivins who is a UX designer and educator to talk about some of the better strategies, methods, and questions to use. Interviewing a customer is a great skill for PO's to continue to get better at...

What mode are you working in as a Product Owner? Are you and the team working on projects? Or products? What is the way you're organized, measured, or deciding what to do? In this episode there is some exploration into these two mindsets and what they really mean. Since this is a new concept ( for me at least ), there are some thoughts on what product mode could look like and what project mode has...

Product Owners should really like our individual conversations and interactions with people, sometimes we also need useful tools to help do our job. Which tools are important, helpful, and the best ones to get good at? In this episode we will discuss some of the better ones based on my history with them, why they are helpful, and what you might look to do with each of them. If you have a favorite...

If you are a Product Owner working on a large product, then there likely multiples of you. Many PO's working with various teams to achieve different goals along the same path. How can you work better with each other and change the organization to focus on the problems your customers have? In this episode there's a bit better dive than before on what different team setups look like and how Product...

Does Product Ownership need fixing? Are some of the common agile and scrum practices screwed up? Jeff Patton thinks so and has a really compelling talk that's he's given about 5 things PO's need to do, and do better. In this episode, Jeff joins the show to dive a bit deeper into where he sees those 5 things occurring, what we can do to correct them, and shares some insight as to where the issues a...

A common pitfall that Product Owners need to be aware of is behaving with authority they don't have. A lot of people refer to this as PO's and PM's thinking they are the "CEO of the Product". Bob Galen joins us on this episode to talk about some errors he sees in this approach and discuss from his recent post. We also discuss some ways in which Product Owners need to think and behave in a manner t...

Very rarely does a Product Owner get to work with a newly formed team. Getting started is a very important step so that the team understands what the goals, expectations, and vision of the product they will be creating. In this episode, you will hear some tips, strategies, and some audio clips of me doing just that while I visited our new team. If you have any PO tips for starting with a new team...

Hearing from fellow Product Owners is a good way to learn more about the role. Having others share their experience and journey can give you ideas, insight, and practices to add to your situation. Last episode had a call to action and Paul Foster answered. In this episode he talks about this journey of getting started, learning, and growing as a PO for his company. Special thanks to Paul and to ot...

Being comfortable with risk and uncertainty is a hallmark of a great Product Owner. Understanding how to deal with unknowns or potential issues can help PO's plan better, show value sooner, and reduce how nervous other people are. Risk is a something that will travel with us as our products come to life. Keeping risks small, working through the known ones, and embracing the notion that customers u...

In order to communicate effectively, PO's need to be excellent listeners. We must be able to understand and relate to what the person or group we are talking to are trying to tell us. Sometimes, we might even agree with them. When we can actively listen and turn on all the listening skills, we really start to engage and grasp the problems that we are presented with. No matter if it's with teams, c...

One of the basic Product Owner skills is communication. Delivering, receiving, and improving how and what we are communicating can make or break our efforts. When there are issues ( and there usually are ), what are some ways to get back on track and increase the team and customer relationships? In a happy circumstance, John Cutler was thinking along the same lines and he joins the show to discuss...

Product Owners think a lot about delivering value and how best to do that. One way that can help focus those efforts is a technique from Gojko Adzic called Impact Mapping. On this episode, Gojko joins us to talk about the basic concepts, some tricks to asking better questions while putting one together, and ways to help facilitate better collaboration. It's a very interesting area and skill for PO...

Product Owners should always work on trying to become better. Looking for areas to improve, selecting a few and then working on ways to make them successful is a good skill and practice to incorporate into your daily work. In this episode, we talk about why continuous improvement is so much a core part of the agile mindset and what PO's can do to work through changing for good. Feedback: twitter -...

At some point as a PO, will you "miss" an ask, you might even actually miss something important. It might be a small part of a larger story or even a detail of work that is happening now. How can you make sure that miss is not critical to the success of the delivery? In this episode, some of the strategies for reducing the chances of it happening and better ways to communicate what a perceived mis...

When your product gets really big and you need to work with teams at scale, what options do Product Owners have? In this episode, Dave West joins the show to discuss the Nexus framework and what PO's need to know in order to work in this type of scaled environment. We cover some of the basics that are detailed in the new Nexus book and look at other keys to keeping multiple teams coordinated and d...

One of the hardest parts of being a Product Owner is to find the required balance between so many seemingly competing directions and demands. However, it's best seen not as a battle of opposing forces but a connectivity of interdependent aspects. Between teams and customers, technical and business, high and low levels. One should not dominate the other. Finding that balance is one key that I have...

Hearing how other people are successful in the PO role is a great way to learn new ideas. We've been lucky to bring a few stories forward and happy that more are wanting to tell their story. In this episode, we welcome Laurie Nelson who's done many different roles including Product Owner and Product manager, to share her story and experience. This is also the last episode for Season 3. Keep learni...

The best resource for Product Owners is Bob Galen's Scrum Product Ownership book. It's a great reference and source of information for how to do the role the right way. Its intent is a guide for beginner PO's and a resource for more seasoned ones as well. In this episode, Bob joins the show to discuss the upcoming changes for the 3rd version. In it, there are some new areas, more stories, and more...

Moving from dev to Product Owner with your team is something that is quite difficult to do. There are a bunch of new skills, hats, and behaviors you have to be ready to learn. In this episode, we talk with Jamie Collins who has been on that PO journey for the last year about his experience and what he has been able to do so far. If you want to share your PO story with us please contact the show, w...

Where should Product Owners look to engage with others in Product Discovery? The notion of not "knowing" what should be done can be uncomfortable or straight scary to a lot of people. However, the notion of learning more about our product and how our users can, and are already benefiting from it is a great topic to explore. In this episode, David Hussman joins the show to talk about his riffs on h...

Should Product Owners be concerned about flow? Is flow a part of what a PO needs to focus on from time to time? That thought, and the response to it, initiated a deeper look into what flow actually is and if it's something that we need to learn more about. There are several different aspects to flow and in this episode, we'll dive into them and see if there are ways that we can at least help. Feed...

The Product Owner role is established in the Scrum Guide. The behaviors, activities, and definitions of what a PO is supposed to do come mainly from this 16-page document. It's amazing then how so few people, including Product Owners, have actually read it. If you are "Doing Scrum" then you should at least understand what the guide says. In this episode, Tim Ottinger joins us to talk about the men...

Something that Product Owners can continually get better at, is making the stories we tell, and ask for teams to work on, smaller. Smaller stories provide so many benefits to everyone and allow us to become more agile. There are lots of different ways to approach this and in this episode, we'll review some common ones that you can try on your own items. Even if your first step is just to make sure...