The end of the year is nearby, time for some New Year’s resolutions! As I experienced a lot of stress within the role of Scrum Product Owner, and as I know you’re busy, I’m going to help you get started…
Here are 20 New Year’s resolutions to get you started:
- Update the product’s vision (or make one if you don’t have one) with your stakeholders and teams.
- Identify where you want your product to have an impact and do some impact mapping with your stakeholders and teams.
- Release more often, do not wait until the end of an iteration.
- Release value the Lean Startup way.
- Have that tough management conversation you’ve been putting off.
- Remove a (some) feature(s) from your product.
- Start focusing on faster feedback and learning and stop focusing on getting more stuff out the door.
- In meetings, ask more questions and make fewer statements.
- Start clarifying with the team, stop clarifying for the team – facilitate your teams to discuss items directly with the users.
- Inbox zero. Avoid mail, just talk.
- Start working with a true rolling wave plan, estimates are estimates and not a contract or commitment.
- Remove Program and Project from your vocabulary, you do not want your product to have a short start-stop experience but a long lasting life full of joy and happiness.
- Try to figure out what the LTV (Life Time Value) is for a product user.
- Start building your product for the users and not for management.
- Merge product areas so that you get at least 4 teams working on your backlog.
- Try design thinking with your team.
- Try bringing work to creative teams instead of creating teams around work.
- Try to work with the teams to eliminate all “undone” work that is still happening after the iteration (or in a hardening/release sprint).
- Work with your teams and stakeholders, not for your management/stakeholders or teams.
- Join a startup community and talk to founders, they are in the same boat.
Bonus advice: Attend a Certified LeSS Practitioner training, you might discover you misunderstood the role completely.
Some of the above are definitely on my list, what’s on yours? Let us know.