In the early part of my career, when I was learning the ropes of product development, the only process that we used to follow was Waterfall model. The process was simple – we define the requirements, design it , build it, test it and deploy it. It was not until along came the agile model and specifically the scrum framework that we realised that there is a better way to build software products.
We got introduced to agile through Scrum. As we discussed in the last post, Scrum is one of the agile frameworks. It honestly disrupted our thought process and changed the way of thinking about product development. Sometimes unless you see something new – its difficult to see an alternative at least by majority of us. And those who do – they go on to change the world.
We will not go into the details of Scrum. A great resource for knowing more about the framework is https://www.scrum.org/resources/what-is-scrum. In a nutshell – it is a framework developed based on the 12 core agile principles which was discussed in the previous post. It focuses on iteratively building a product based on a defined prioritised roadmap. The process is iterated over a small manageable periods called sprint usually 2-4 weeks long. The sprint includes selecting a list of stories from the prioritised backlog, building the stories, demonstrating what is build to the stakeholders, gather feedback and improvise further in the next sprint. The beauty of the approach is that you see the product taking shape right in front of your eyes along with all stakeholders. Stakeholders all field that they are actively contributing to see the vision materialise in the form of product. Needless to add that the stakeholders have the ability to adapt their original requirement if they feel real product will not meet the expectation.
One of the concept I enjoy talking most about in the process is the idea of a product owner which is aligned to product. Years back when I took the role of a product owner – I immediately felt a transition in my attitude towards the product development. Product owners are meant to own the vision of a product from the inception to go live and beyond. Agree it depends on how one wants to perceive any role but for me this role was about being owning the end to end story of something that adds value to the end users. I have been part off and lead the product go live of multiple products – the thrill when the product reaches the end users and kudos that follows is simply amazing. It is not an easy role where you will be involved in almost all facets of product from funding to design, risk management, legality, selling marketing, commercialisation and so on. Especially the adrenalin rush is different if the owner is building the product from scratch.
Please don’t get me wrong ..other key roles in Scrum that of Scrum Master and Development team are equally critical and I am sure who plays the relevant roles can add reams of praises for the other roles. My bias to product owner is because that is the role that I play today and have enjoyed most of any roles that I have ever taken. I have also felt (and this may sound an exaggeration) that the product role has characteristics of a CEO. The amount of exposure and control one experiences and the power to influence future direction of a product, responsibility and accountability, strategy involved all seems fit for a CEO profile.
ProductSME 