Sambit Kumar Dash's Blog, page 2

The Agile Process — Meet the Product Owner

https://openclipart.org/image/800px/322620The Agile Process — Meet the Product Owner

While many product managers engage with the agile development process as product owners (PO), there is no definitive need in an agile process why a PO should be a product manager. Several sites differentiate the roles of product managers from that of product owners. I find that of academic interest. Let’s understand some practical product owner challenges in an agile process. I will focus on the scrum process, th...

The Practice of Product Management

A few months back, when I started writing these articles on product management, some of you tried to find out what made me write those articles. Someone asked me if the concepts of product management are domain-specific. Or they are learnings that one can apply to other domains. Is the Product Management discipline a new paradigm, which is different from traditional management principles? While trying to mull over some of these thoughts, I felt at least the PM literature I have read or the activ...

PM Process: The Customer

The best business relationship is of an association of equity. (https://openclipart.org/image/800px/314821)

To every organization or service provider, the claim is the customer comes first. But, I am writing the customer part in the Product Management process in the end. One primary reason is to ensure, your house is in order before you invite your guests. Some of you may agree, and some disagree. Feel free to provide your opinions. After all, discussions only build a better understanding of syst...

PM Process: The People

The Open Clipart Project

There will be two opinions when I talk about people management with product management functions. One will say when did product managers bother about people issues. Are they not superhumans to resolve all people management issues? The second will say, yes! It is a critical function, but have we not got a director who has extensive people management experience to address all these scenarios. Unfortunately, the answer is neither or somewhere in between or ignored and pushed...

PM Process: Product Vision

The Open Clipart Project (https://openclipart.org/detail/193703/global-vision)

Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,
Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Mordor, where the Shadows lie.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Mordor, where the Shadows lie.

The above is the perfect description of the product calle...

The Lord Jagannath and the Rath Yatra of Puri

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jagannath_Temple,_Puri#/media/File:Shri_Jagannatha_Temple.jpg

When a friend of mine asked me to comment on rath yatra of Puri, Odisha, India, and its specialties, I was at a loss for words. I know for sure; there is just so much information to talk about; every element associated with the festival has a side story. Some of them may sound out of the world and irrational as well. But, there is just simple faith involved, and you cannot question faith. I will explain ra...

PM Process: Strategy

The Open Clipart Project (https://openclipart.org/image/800px/250864)

Whenever there is a discussion on strategy, there is always confusion; are we discussing organization strategy or competitive advantages? Invariably there is a lack of clarity. Organizations are perpetual entities; they will remain in existence for generations to come. While products have a limited life cycle, there is inception, growth, and eventual death. Such misunderstandings lead to discussions on strategy, delving into to...

PM Process: Agile Framework

Source: The Open Clipart Project (https://openclipart.org/image/2000px/327377)

If you are associated with the software industry, you must have experienced a cult following the agile process framework. So much so, organizations ramped up product management hiring and started designating them as product owners for various product development groups. I will not delve into the process in detail but would rather talk about the rationale of the agile framework and what does it achieve. Two decades back...

PM Process: Contracts

The Open Clipart Project (https://openclipart.org/detail/309230/sign-contract)

A few months back a student from a premium institute in India was put under the scanner of laws as he violated the laws of the Indian Railways in providing railway ticket booking services. Similarly, a much-awaited court case between Oracle and Google was reviewed by the US Supreme Court. What are the similarities in these cases? At a surface level, there is very little actually, but if you delve deeper they are kind o...

PM Process: Compliance

The Open Clip Art Project (https://openclipart.org/detail/128839/balance-scale)

Compliance is an act of adherence to rules, regulations, environments, or even laws. When is product management so much involved in meeting compliance needs? Is it not the purview of the legal or engineering departments in the organization that drive the compliance needs? I guess most of you must be wondering the same. However, I have experienced compliance is a need that better be analyzed by product managers ahead o...