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
The four pillars of great product teams – interview with Toby Russell

In this episode of Product Bytes we interview Toby Russell, co-CEO of Shift (NASDAQ: SFT), who shares product leadership lessons from building Shift. This is an excerpt from the interview, published in our Product Bytes channel. Toby: I am Toby Russell. I am the co-CEO of Shift. We run a company that essentially sells cars online and we are the
Scrum for Hardware

I am often asked the question: “How can we use Scrum for hardware projects?” The Scrum framework was created out of software projects as a way to improve productivity, deliver higher quality, and reduce time to market. In software, where things can be easily put together, tested, and if needed changed rapidly, everyone understands the benefits of Scrum in delivering
What’s new in the Scrum Guide 2020

The new Scrum Guide is here. It’s been three years since the last update to the venerable guide was last published, and finally the new 2020 version has been released. Scrum is still Scrum, in all its simplicity. We are going to look at what’s new in this latest release. Scrum is a framework to build complex products using an
Velocity, capacity, or load?

In this article I am going to discuss what is the velocity of an Agile team, how to calculate capacity for a Sprint, and then how to determine the load. But let me start with a true story: We were half-way in Sprint Planning and suddenly it hit me. Like a light bulb turning on. I had been listening to
User Stories are not requirements

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 Scrum Master’s dark side

The main goal of the Scrum Master is to create a highly productive team that is self-organizing and continuously improving. They do this by acting as a servant leader, coaching the team when needed, and creating the space for team members to own their work, their decisions, and the opportunities for self-improvement. Many Scrum Masters act in the dark side.
Quick guide to Kanban

We wanted to provide a quick guide to Kanban including a list of resources to learn about what Kanban is and how to get started with Kanban. What is Kanban? (David Peterson)https://kanbanblog.com/explained/ What is Kanban? (Atlassian)https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban How to Create a Kanban Board for Any Projecthttps://kanbanzone.com/2019/create-kanban-board-for-any-project/ How To Create An Efficient Kanban Board/Processhttps://purplegriffon.com/blog/create-kanban-board-process 32 Practical Kanban Board Exampleshttps://kanbanize.com/kanban-resources/kanban-software/kanban-board-examples Kanban Tools The
The Scrum Master is a servant leader

The Scrum Master as a servant leader in Scrum is one of the most important and often misunderstood roles. The creators of Scrum, Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber, recognized that change is hard and in order for teams to be able to effectively transition to a new way of working (adopting Scrum) help was required in terms of coaching and