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
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
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 we are 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