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 Scrum events
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
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

I always struggle with the word “requirements”. This is how specifications and functionalities are normally called when working on a project. Requirements create a blanket of necessity and limit the empowerment of product managers to be effective at solving problems. The word requirement, and its verb counterpart to require, in their essence define something that is “required”, “needed”, “expected”. The
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.