When I work with teams on writing User Stories, the question always comes up: “What are User Stories and how are they different from requirements?” The User Story is a format to write work items in a Product Backlog and it is used to shift the dynamic between Product Owner and Developers. User Stories help a Scrum Team to become
The Product Manager’s reading list
We have compiled a list of books and articles on Agile, Product, Design Thinking, and Innovation. These books and articles offer perspectives, frameworks, and real stories for the successful application of product management practices to the ideation and development of new products. If you are a Product Owner, a Product Manager, or a Product Leader, these books and articles are
The Scrum Master’s reading list
Books Scrum is the most widely adopted Agile framework in the world. It is easy to understand and yet, difficult to master. This is a short list of great books on Agile, Scrum, and practices to become an effective Scrum Master. “Sprint Your Way to Scrum“, by B. Yelsangi, V. Zanini Having trained thousands of professionals across the world and
Stop planning, start validating
Last week, a Product Owner reached out and asked for help with executing a new project. He and his team had been working at this new product idea for months and had created a list of requirements. Everything was documented, from basic functionalities, to all the possible features they wanted to include in the final product. What this team was
Practice using WSJF with a fun exercise
WSJF (short for Weighted Shortest Job First) is a useful prioritization technique, but it may feel a bit overwhelming at first. To get familiar with it in a fun setting, you can do the “Vacation activities” exercise. This works well either alone or together with your team. Exercise: prioritize “Vacation activities” with WSJF Imagine being on vacation on a Caribbean
Kanban in architecture
After climbing 436 steps, going through narrow corridors that were designed for maintenance workers and not for the comfort of today’s tourists, and winning a growing sense of dizziness with the increasing height, we reached the top of the dome. The view was magnificent, with the blue sky and the green hills acting as backdrop for one of the most
10 tips for effective customer interviews
I’d like to share a few tips for making customer interviews effective. Why is this important? Because delivering a great customer experience starts with insightful understanding of customer needs and the customer’s point of view. We call it listening for the Voice of the Customer (VoC) which is the process of understanding the customer’s expectations and validating the outcomes of
The Scrum events
The 5 Scrum events are essential to the proper execution of Scrum. Like an orchestra who maintains the right beat throughout its performance, the five Scrum events support Scrum teams in properly executing their work.
Problem-Opportunity Scoring Model
Needs can come from different users of your product, or from different internal stakeholders who sometimes may conflict with each other. For example, one stakeholder may want you to incorporate in your product the ability to snap photos and post them on social media. Another stakeholder may want an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that is able to understand human language
The product manager is the monkey in the middle – interview with Suman Sarkar
In this episode of Product Bytes we interview Suman Sarkar, Head of Digital Product Management at OneMain Financial (NYSE: OMF), who shares product leadership lessons managing teams of product managers at large and small companies. This is an excerpt from the interview, published in our Product Bytes channel. Suman: I am Suman Sarkar. How do I introduce? So, most of