When Product Owners bring detailed user stories to the team, there’s a danger that it may constrain the team creativity. How do we make sure that the interaction between the team and the Product Owner leverages the maximum creativity of the team, instead of constraining it? Here are some very good ideas.
Wouldn’t it be cool if your teams can move move from problem to idea to prototype to feedback, in just 5 days? And then iterate from there. Google Ventures came up with the idea of Design Sprints to help their startups achieve this. These stem from design thinking championed by Ideo. Here’s how it works.
You know what user stories are. Have you tried problem stories? These help the teams focus on problems, as these are phrased as problems. Naturally, people who are close to problems, i.e. customers and business representatives, help define the problem. What do problem stories look like? And how do you define a problem story? Have a look.
Managing an effective portfolio roadmap is difficult, but does it really need to be that complex? What if we use goals to plan and project how a product portfolio is likely to grow? Effectively using a goal-oriented (GO) strategy. Roman Pichler explains his GO strategy of managing portfolio roadmaps here.
A healthy amount of conflict, creative tension and dissent help a team improve. But how do we make sure that the team member behaviour remains positive, and doesn’t turn into disruption. How can we use team charter so it helps in defining value, norms and behaviours that help team members in working as an effective team? Here are some thoughts.
What’s the difference between self organising, self directing and self managing? Self organising teams decide on their own in terms of who does what, and how they solve problems. They are empowered to remove (do) items off their backlog. How about self directing and self managing teams? How are they different? Read on.
What if your team end up working with a Product Owner who’s very difficult to work with, either just cares about her own work, doesn’t respond to the team, or continuously puts unrealistic pressure on the team, or something similar? Here are a few tips on how you can work with difficult Product Owners.
What do you think is the most important decision you make about your team? It’s got to be who do you hire. Hiring the right person is critical. But how do you hire people that fit within your team really well? Here are a few ideas.
AGILE
How to Leverage Goals and Themes?
How Design Sprints Work at Google?
Problem Stories Vs User Stories
PRODUCT OWNER
Simple and Effective Portfolio Roadmap
TEAMS
Shaping Team Behaviour With Team Charter
Self Organising, or Self Directing?
How to Work With Difficult Product Owners?
GENERAL
How to Hire People That Fit
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