What 3 Things MUST a product Owner Do if they have Lost Control of the Product? How Do They Right the Ship?

So, you’ve found yourself in a situation where you as the Product Owner have lost control of the product and now you are not quite sure what to do. In this kind of situation, I would think about value validation, and can think of this as having a ship that is lost but with a vision you can now have direction and impetus on where it is you need to go. With that being said, I would say that if you find yourself in such a position as a Product Owner, you should ask yourself what the current vision is and then provide your team with a North Store; which is about heading towards the direction you want to go and what we are really aiming for.

Once you have that vision, you can then come up with your current product goal and from there on it should become easier to come up with a Sprint Goal. The interesting part of all this however is that in Scrum, there is never a commitment to the amount of work – there always needs to be a commitment to a goal and to the people who are committed to the Sprint Goal. More than this the Scrum Team needs to commit to the Product Goal which is where misunderstandings often come up. And so, what we ultimately need is to create a clear vision, a clear product goal and communicate that accordingly to the people on board that. And once you have that division, the question of value comes in, which should be viewed as an outcome not an output. A way to think about this is to view outcome as a customer behavior which helps us to drive the business value.  

This then brings up another question which surrounds for whom and for what we are doing something. To answer these questions, we really need to understand the people we are solving problems for and what our measurement points are. This basically takes you out from a project mindset and into a product mindset because at the end of the day we consume products not projects, and so if you really try to understand and have established that connection somehow, you can really start to focus on value.  

The next important thing that you should do as a Product Owner when you have lost control over your product, surrounds validation; this involves asking how we can bring in measurement metrics to known that we are doing things correctly and that we are arriving at our desired outcomes. Using appropriate metrics can also help inform what areas need improvement, what our discrepancies are and how we can best maximize our product value going forward.  

If we get into the habit of evaluating our progress and performance in this way, what we will get is a vision value validation loop, which the more often you practice – the better you will become in running your business in Agile.  

 

If you are interested in learning more about how to be an impactful Product Owner and maximizing your product value and delivery – get in touch with Ralph today! 

 

About Effective Agile

Ralph Jocham is a Change Agent in Scrum // Agile // Coaching // Evidence Based Management and also a Professional Scrum Trainer based in Europe. 

As one of the first Professional Scrum Trainers in the world, Ralph has worked directly with cocreator of #scrum, Ken Schwaber, and has played an integral part in the course development of the #PSPO (Professional Scrum Product Owner) as well as the delivery of all #scrum.org certified courses. 

If you’re looking to invest in training that transforms and empowers teams to successfully adopt #scrum or #agile, and create high-performance #productdevelopment environments leveraging the agile values and principles, visit https://effectiveagile.com/agile-scrum-trainings/ 

If you would like to work with Ralph and company as an #agilecoach, #agileconsultant, or powerful change agent to get your team back on track and on the road to high-performance #agile #productdevelopment, visit https://effectiveagile.com/agile-transformation/ 

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