Practical Product Management for Product Owners

Chris Lukassen has been active in product management for 20+ years, and co-created Scrum.org's Professional Scrum Product Owner - Advanced course. He currently trains product managers in Scrum, leadership, user experience, and metrics. Robbin Schuurman is a product leader, consultant, Professional Scrum Trainer, and leader of Xebia's Product Management Academy. He supports organizations in digital, agile, and product transformations; and helps product owners grow customer impact, improve agility, and shorten time-to-learn. Lukassen and Schuurman co-founded The Value Maximizers.

• Foreword by Dave West     xviiIntroduction     xxi  Part I.   The Stances of the Product Owner     1Chapter 1. Agile Product Management     3Is It Product Owner or Product Manager? 3What Is Product Management? 4Working in a Product-Led, Sales-Led, or Marketing-Led Organization 6What Is a Product Owner? 7Different Types of Product Owners 9  Chapter 2. Introducing the Product Owner Stances     3The Misunderstood Stances of a Product Owner 17The Preferred Stances of a Product Owner 27  Part I Summary     35  Part II. The Customer Representative     37Chapter 3. How to Identify and Define Product     39Introducing the Customer Representative 39What Is a Product? 43  Chapter 4. Building Customer Empathy     49Talking to Customers 49Observing Customers 49Effectively Dealing with Biases When Collaborating with Customers 51  Chapter 5. Capture Your Customer Insights Via Personas     55User Personas 55Creating Personas 56  Chapter 6. Identifying and Expressing Customer Value     61The Functional Elements of Value 63Emotional Elements of Value 64Life-Changing Elements of Value 64Social-Impact Element of Value 65  Chapter 7. Connecting Product Features to Outcomes and Impacts     67Connecting Goals, Impacts, Outcomes, and Features 68  Part II Summary     73  Part III. The Visionary     77Chapter 8. Creating and Communicating Product Vision     79Introducing: The Visionary 79Connecting the Product Vision to the Company Mission, Vision, and Values 83A Product Vision Aligned with the Company Mission and Vision 87Elements of an Inspiring Product Vision 90  Chapter 9. Communicating the Product Vision Effectively     93The 3x3 Storytelling Framework 95The Power of Reasoning 99Make It SEXI 100  Chapter 10. Crafting Product Goals That Align Stakeholders and Teams     103What Is a Product Goal? 104Characteristics of Great Product Goals 106How to Create Product Goals 108Inspect and Adapt Product Goals 109Having Multiple Product Goals: Is That an Option? 110  Chapter 11. Creating the Right Product Roadmap for Your Audience     113Introduction to Product Roadmaps 113Types of Product Roadmaps 117Roadmap 1: The Goal-Oriented Roadmap 118Roadmap 2: The Now-Next-Later Roadmap 120Roadmap 3: The User Story Map 122Roadmap 4: The Visual Roadmap 124Roadmap 5: The Gantt Chart Roadmap 126Eleven Tips for Roadmap Creation 128  Chapter 12. Identification of Company Value and Impact     131Understanding Company Value and Impact 131Expressing Company Impact 137Key Value Area 1: Current Value 139Key Value Area 2: Unrealized Value 141Key Value Area 3: Time to Market 145Key Value Area 4: Ability to Innovate 147  Chapter 13. Maximizing Value through Effective Pricing Strategies and Tactics     151Introduction to Product Pricing 151The Product Pricing Process 153  Part III Summary     165  Part IV. The Experimenter     169Chapter 14. Driving Inside-Out Product Innovation     171Introducing: The Experimenter 171Inside-Out Innovation Sources 175  Chapter 15. Driving Outside-In Product Innovation     183Outside-In Innovation Sources 183Market Segmentation 184  Chapter 16. Thinking Differently: Driving Business Model Innovation     189Market Analysis and Trends 189Getting Inspiration from Other Companies 191The Impact on Your Business 196The Return of the Business Model Canvas 197  Chapter 17. Selecting Product Experiments to Run     199The Truth Curve: Select the Right Experiments and Tests 199Experimentation Techniques Explained 203  Chapter 18. How to Design and Evaluate Experiments and Tests     215Defining Hypothesis 216Capture Learnings 218  Chapter 19. Approaches for Scaling Successful Products and Teams     221Scaling Approaches for People and Teams 221Typical Antipattern for Scaling People and Teams 224A Better Approach for Scaling People and Teams 227Approaches to Scaling the Product or Service 229Focus on the Product First, Then on People and Teams 230Eight Effective Strategies for Scaling a Product 232How Product Owners Contribute to Product Scaling 235  Part IV Summary     237  Part V.  The Decision Maker     241Chapter 20. Improving Accountability, Maturity, and Authority     243Introducing: The Decision Maker 243  Chapter 21. Evaluating Your Product Decisions     255Product Management: A Game of Poker or Chess? 255Evaluating Decisions in an Honest and Transparent Way 258  Chapter 22. Make Better Decisions: Thinking in Bets     259The Buddy System or Decision Pod 260Accepting Uncertainty in Decision Making 261  Chapter 23. Navigating Product, Process, and Team Dilemmas and Decisions     263Making Choices 263Navigating Dilemmas 265  Chapter 24. Improving the Speed and Quality of Decisions     269The Cost of Delaying Decisions 269Fast Decisions Are More Successful than Slow Decisions 270Special Snowflake Syndrome 273Why You Should Probably Make Decisions Fast(er) 274How to Speed Up Your Decision Making 274Empowered Product Owners 275  Part V Summary     277  Part VI. The Collaborator     281Chapter 25. How Agile Governance Affects Product Owners     283Introduction to the Collaborator 283Introducing Agile Governance 287Organizational Governance Entails Many Elements 291Effectively Dealing with Governance 295  Chapter 26. Product Budgeting Done in an Agile Way     297Three Horizons 298Budgeting Is Like Product Backlog Management 300A Strategy and Market Perspective on Budgeting 304  Chapter 27. Creating Contracts That Enable Great Product Ownership and Teamwork     309What Is a Contract? 310Who Takes the Risk? 313Two-Stage Contracts 314Joe's Bucket 316Money for Nothing 317Change for Free 318Elements of an Agile Contract 319  Part VI Summary     323  Part VII. The Influencer     327Chapter 28. Stakeholder Management in Complex Environments     329Introducing: The Influencer 329Definition of Stakeholder 333Stakeholder Classification/Categorization 335Information and Insights to Gather on Stakeholders 338The Influence of the Stakeholder 340  Chapter 29. Tools for Stakeholder Classification and Grouping     343The Stakeholder Map 344The Stakeholder Radar 351Alternative Stakeholder Identification and Grouping Techniques 357  Chapter 30. Applying Stakeholder Management Strategies and Tactics in Practice     359Creating a Communication Strategy 359Tips for Improving Your Stakeholder Management in Practice 362  Chapter 31. How to Influence Stakeholders on All Levels     369Being a Lyrebird 369The Process of Communication 371Four Layers of Communication 374Building Relationships with Stakeholders 375Adapting Your Tune to Your Audience 382  Chapter 32. Mastering the Art of No to Optimize Value Creation for the Product     387What Makes Saying No So Hard? 388Five Steps toward Saying No Effectively 389The Jedi Mind Trick 392  Chapter 33. Negotiating With Stakeholders, Customers, and Users     393 Be a Mirror 394Label Emotions 395Getting to Yes! 396How to Tell If a Yes Is Real 398Bend Their Reality 398Create the Illusion of Control 400Guarantee Execution 400Bargain Hard 401Find the Black Swan 402   Part VII Summary     405  Closing Summary     409  Index     413