The perfect Product Owners flow

Since my first projects when I started experimenting with extreme programming and Scrum I was intrigued by the importance of the Product Owner role and the lack of support to be found.

So I started to search for tools and techniques which could support PO’s in their work so we all would benefit and start delivering these kick-ass products. My journey started from within the processes (Scrum and Xp practices) and expanded over the years more and more to the business side of things.

More recently I started to experiment with a thing I call the feedback model. This means that there needs to be a continuous validation cycle of objectives against outcomes: are our goals reached through the new features or changes in the product?

(Hylke Stapersma and me even created an open source business goal validation framework called Gareth. More on the Business goal validation is to be found here)

The result, which will still evolve more, is what I call a typical product flow (or more as the clickbait like title states: the perfect Product Owners flow):

The model is designed as a flow from the strategy, business, operational and the feedback models. The flow consists of two important feedback cycles:

– Driven by objectives and validated by outcomes.

– Organized by input and measured by output.

In a greenfield situation you’ll start on the left and work your way to the right. Then you go back to the left again and verify all parts again with the knowledge you gained by gathering feedback from the behaviour of your users. If you are in an existing environment you can do what I did. You just have to get you shop in order first. You start in the middle and work your way to the left. From there you can follow the flow just like with a greenfield situation.

None of the artifacts in the flow should ever be static! Them being static means that there has been no validation.

If you would like to more don’t hesitate to get in touch. I can also provide a workshop based on this flow: Product Owner workshop