©2008 innovel llc, rights reserved. 1 beer miles! a product owner simulation game robin dymond...

©2008 Innovel LLC, Rights Reserved. www.innovel.net

Beer Miles!A Product Owner Simulation Game

Robin DymondDavid Douglas

Innovel LLC

Agile 2008


Beginner’s Mind

• One of the most profound secrets of learning anything new is keeping what has been called a "Beginner's Mind".

• To begin, we should empty our thoughts of all the preconceived ideas, concepts, techniques and methods that prevent us from receiving the new. This seems like a simple thing to do, but can be quite difficult in practice.

• At first we think we are being open, but as we drink from the new knowledge we detect residual tastes of the "old". Sometimes this new mixture can be sweet, like adding honey to tea, but sometimes even a little residue can curdle the whole mix, like adding lemon juice to milk.

• Another important part of developing the beginners mind concerns getting rid of the "Been There, Done That" concept that seems so prevalent in today's society. It may be true that you have been there, and you may have done that, but perhaps your conception of reality was not the whole concept, "the big picture" if you will.


Where are you?


Reasons and Business Case for Agile Adoption

Grab some post-its.• Write and post your reasons

for Agile…

Why are we

adopting Agile?

What are the

reasons?


Product Owner Training Agenda

• Where are you?

• Why this exercise? The trainer’s goals.

• Setup: Thinking about value.

• BeerMiles! From Business Case to Product Backlog

• Facilitation Notes

• Bonus exercise!• Prioritization Techniques

• Adverse action letters


Why this exercise?

• Product Ownership is a different role from traditional product management

• The skills required for a good Product Owner (PO) are not intuitive• A key stumbling block is re-planning based on new information• How do we really demonstrate maximizing value?• Can we show that releasing in a few iterations really is possible?• Let’s create a simulation to embody all these practices• From business case to product backlog and first release


The Trainer’s Goals

• Shift the mindset from:– Planning to delivery– From we can’t release to we must release

• Shift the focus from guessing at value to testing for value

• Focus on customer value not features.


Your World


The Value Conversation

How do the best companies in the world think about value?


The Research…

Good To Great by Jim Collins

Found and researched over 6 years 15 companies that went from mediocre to great performance.


The Hedgehog Concept

“The Hedgehog concept is a simple, crystalline concept that flows from deep understanding about the intersection of the three circles.”


What are your three circles?

What are you deeplyPassionate about?

What you can be the best in the world at

What drives youreconomic engine



“If you could pick only one ratio, profit per x to systematically improve over time, what “x” would have the greatest and most sustainable impact on your economic engine?”


Example: Walgreens

Key Metric: Profit per customer visit

Drove decisions regarding: Store location Store layout Product mix Supply chain requirements,

etc. "Walgreens' hedgehog concept is

to run the best, most convenient drug stores with high profit per customer visit"


Example: Nucor Steel

Profit per ton of steel produced Drove decisions including:

Getting into the foundry business Small distributed mills High level of innovation, new technology Shared performance based compensation

strategy


ZARA: World’s Fastest Mass Fashion Retailer

• EU’s largest fashion retailer with over 1100 stores.

• Concept to clothing in 1100 stores in 4 weeks, small batches, rarely have sales

• New items entering stores twice per week• 11,000 designs per year vs. 4000 at Gap• EU wages up to 20 times more expensive• Air ship clothes on hangers for fast

stocking in stores• Spend 0.3% revenue on advertising vs.

3.5% at competitors, • Invest in locations• “Fashion is like bread, you need to

change it often” - Chairman


“A Hedge Hog concept is not a goal to be the best, a strategy to be the best, an intention to be the best, a plan to be the best. It is an understanding of what you can be the best at.”



The Business Case

Business CaseUndertaking a project needs to make economic sense. The return required to achieve a tangible output must justify the investment made.

Like all other things Agile, the business case is a living document that will adjust as the situation changes.

Product Owner Responsibilities Craft and update the business case Ensure all parties are continually aware of overarching goals Ensure alignment of project to corporate strategic goals


The Business Case

The effort to create a business case is usually commensurate with the level of investment and the perceived risk.

There are no format or effort level rules as this is often a function of standard and acceptable practices within a company.

However, the law of diminishing returns applies…

Effort

Acc

ura

cy Don’t fall into the trap of analysis paralysis If you go beyond two weeks of effort you have probably done too much


Business case• Examine the business case, looking for key elements of value

creation. • Look for opportunities to deliver value incrementally

Business Drivers• Find the categories of value creation “Why do this project”, “What

kind of value are we creating and for whom”, “What do I really care about”, “What do our customers really care about”

Prioritization• With input from your stakeholders, prioritize the business drivers• Don’t allow everything to be a number one priority

Business Case

BusinessDrivers

Prioritization Categorize

Capabilities

Backlog & Release

Plan

Product Ownership Framework


Framework #2

Create and Categorize capabilities• Create high level capabilities based on customer value, with

the help from the business. User stories provide a good approach.

• Categorize the capabilities into which business driver they support.

• Some capabilities may support more than one driver, pick the most relevant capability

Business Case

BusinessDrivers


Capabilities

Backlog & Release

Plan


Framework #3

Create Product Backlog and Release plan• Use your prioritized business drivers and list of capabilities to

build the product backlog.• Don’t forget to consider items that require long lead times and

infrastructure necessary to support the creation of value• Identify points where you think there has been enough value

created to release capabilities to production

Business Case

BusinessDrivers


Capabilities

Backlog & Release

Plan


Let’s apply the framework……..Let’s Apply the Framework


Value Creation and Business Scenario

Part 1 -- Read the business case handout.

Exercise -- At your tables determine what are the top 3 business drivers for this new business?

Business Case

BusinessDrivers


Capabilities

Backlog & Release

Plan


Business Drivers Discussion

What other data do you think you would need to make you feel confident about your decisions?

If you’re receiving internal and external pressures regarding business drivers/priorities, how would you handle that?

What was your conclusion and how did you arrive at it?…..


Business Drivers Discussion

Driver 1. Be first to market

Driver 2. Drive market share through convenience

Driver 3. Delight the customer to increase usage


Business Drivers and Priorities

Part 2 - What are the high level capabilities for each of the 3 business drivers?

Exercise -- At your tables, group the high level capabilities provided with the Business Driver that they most directly support.


Capabilities Discussion

Discussion questions: Some capabilities weren’t called out in the business case, how did you deal

with them? Did you have trouble sorting any of the items? If you had 150 detailed requirements, would it be easer or harder? How

would you simplify? What obstacles / hurdles did you encounter during this exercise? How did you feel when having to make these decisions? Did you have

enough, not enough, or more than enough to make a confident decision?

Who would you need to communicate the results to?


Agile PlanningPoints and Relative Estimates

Agile teams estimate work in using different techniques and levels of precision Story Points or Ideal Hours/Days are used to estimate User Stories on the

Product Backlog Effort Points or Ideal engineering hours are used to estimate tasks on the

Sprint Backlog

Considerations that the team uses to estimate Difficulty, Time required, Organizational challenges, Uncertainty, Number of

participants, and Dependencies

Point estimates are relative measures of size (1,2,3,5,8,13,) Ideal Days/Hours are measures of effort


Agile Planning: Velocity

The amount of work (Story Points/Ideal Hours), that an Agile team can complete in 1 iteration.

A fixed size team working on a project has a stable velocity. Well functioning teams cannot influence their velocity much. Ideally, Agile teams are fixed in size, and all resources should be at least 50%

dedicated to the project, with no more than 2 projects at a time. Velocity is impacted by:

changes to the team, removal or additions uncertainty in requirements product owner availability to the team barriers – organizational, technological, SME availability, process overhead command and control – disempowerment of team to self organize around the work pushing too much work into the team (Mura)


Building the Product Backlog

Part 3 - Building the Product Backlog for delivery of valuable featuresExercise -- Create a product backlog using the stories that you have been given. Consider the business drivers, priorities, and any infrastructure as you prioritize. Identify when you think you will have your 1st release. Determine when you might release additional features into production

– Team’s projected velocity is 100 points– The iterations/sprints are 3 weeks long

Business Case

BusinessDrivers


Capabilities

Backlog & Release

Plan


Product Backlog Discussion

• What was it like to plan with the information you had?

• What looks risky to you? • When will you tackle it in your plan?• How would you communicate this plan?



Part 4 – Dealing with changes to the plan!

Scenario 1: Team has completed the first iteration, the velocity is 50 points due to team learning about each other and the business domain, unplanned external dependencies, and on-boarding of new resources.

Exercise – At your tables, use the empirical data supplied to re-plan your product backlog and releases while still meeting the goals of your business case.



How does this affect your release plan? How might you increase the team’s

velocity? How would you manage your

stakeholders/what would you communicate?

Is there any way you can make your date?



Part 5 – Dealing with more changes to the plan!

Scenario 2: Line of business #1 wants their first partner to be Brinker, with 1600 upscale restaurants. Line of business #2 wants their first partner to be 7-11 and a “speed pass” card for beer points for use at POS.

Exercise – At your tables, use the empirical data supplied to re-plan your product backlog and releases while still meeting the goals of your business case.



How would you resolve this conflict? How would you ground your decision? How often would you expect to go through this

type of exercise on an Agile project?


A Final Exam!

Is it OK for a project to have more than 1 product owner? Why?

What is the Product Owner’s primary responsibility?


The Punch Line

• A large financial services company actually did this type of product (not beer)

• A co-marketing agreement with the partner was put in place.

• They added two fields the account management screens

• They managed the rewards with a spreadsheet• When someone claimed rewards, they went to the

partner, bought gift cards, and mailed them out.• No new applications, environments or hardware

were required.


Facilitator Notes

• What are the key take aways people should come away with?

• How does the framework facilitate prioritization?• What are the “traps” that are setup for the

participants?• Are there other issues you might use?• What are the issues you need to emphasize?• How does maximizing value play into this

exercise?• How would you debrief this exercise?


Bonus Exercise!Prioritization


You were just named the product owner for an important project to redesign your company’s adverse action automation system. These letters are sent to clients when their request for a secondary mortgage is declined. New federal regulations have gone into effect making the current ones obsolete.

How will you prioritize this work? What are the discussions you will have?

Prioritization Exercise


Prioritization Exercise (2)

We have more data!

The team has formed and has estimated the work. We also know the volume figures for the letters.

(see spreadsheet)


Facilitator Notes

• How does incremental increase in information change the prioritization?

• What would you emphasize when doing this training?

• How would you debrief this training?


Where Can I Get More Information?

• Find all the materials presented today at:• http://www.innovel.net/?page_id=65

• Good to Great by Jim Collins

• Do it Wrong Quickly by Mike Moran

©2008 innovel llc, rights reserved. 1 beer miles! a product owner simulation game robin dymond...

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