apln product roadmap talk
TRANSCRIPT
A Conversation AboutAgile Product Roadmaps
1© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Presented to BayAPLN
March 17th, 2009
Tonight's Flow
• I talk about me
• I talk about Enthiosys
• I talk about gifts for you
2© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• We talk about product roadmaps
• We talk about tonight’s task
• You do tonight’s task
• You get gifts
Scott Gilbert
• President of Enthiosys and Agile practice lead– Satisfy customers, Manage partnerships, Run the office
– Delivered several major software releases using Agile
– Coached 12’s of teams, through 100’s of sprints
3© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– Coached 12’s of teams, through 100’s of sprints
– Blessed by Scrum Alliance with CSM, CPO & CSP
• Helped start-ups raise $11M in venture capital
• Founding member of Inferscape, Inc. a predictive analytics software company in the CRM space
• BearingPoint’s High Technology Strategy Practice
Enthiosys Overview
4© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Just the Basics
Enthiosys, Inc.
• An Agile product management consulting firm founded in 2003 by Luke Hohmann.
5© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• We help clients achieve business agility: delivering great results, not just great software.
• Services designed to improve products, processes and the people who drive them.
A Set of Services
continuous customer collaboration to understand complex markets and provide input throughout the development process
agile transformation of your entire company to leverage the power of Agile product development and management
6© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
pricing, licensing and creation of business models to capture the full value of your solutions
product roadmaps for individual products and portfolios with processes and best practices to sustain them over time
service design to improve the customer experience by delivering a whole product solution and additional revenue
Designed for Business Agility
7© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Enthiosys Team
• 20 F/T and P/T consultants– Luke Hohmann, Founder/CEO
– Scott Gilbert, President
– Rich Mironov, CMO
8© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– Rich Mironov, CMO
– Dan O’Leary, CTO
• Thought leaders– 4 books, monthly newsletter, Agile blog
– Frequent webinar and conference speakers
– Leaders in our industry associations
Our Experience Covers…
• Software solutions including single user, enterprise, infrastructure, consumer, web
• Hardware platforms as embedded systems, consumer electronics, industrial, on-chip
9© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
consumer electronics, industrial, on-chip
• Roles as product managers, developers, marketers, sales, service and support
• All levels of management in public, private, and venture-backed companies
Engagement Types
• Collaboration – We jointly define goal, creating results with client
• Projects– Customer defines goal, we deliver a result to client
10© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– Customer defines goal, we deliver a result to client
• Interim management– Enthiosys experts as product managers or executives
• Training– Mostly private but some public classes
Selected Clients
11© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Gifts for You
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Cesar will distribute at the end
The Gifts
• Left over P-Camp Schwag
• The old book
• The practical book
13© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• The fun book
• The new book
• The good book
Agile Product Roadmaps
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Let’s Talk About Em’
Agile Planning Is…
• About participating in the infinite game
• Top down, bottoms up and continuous
• Emergent yet deterministic
15© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Emergent yet deterministic
• About making/reversing decisions
• Focused on the future while acting inthe present
• About the planning not the plan
Planning Time Horizons
Strategy
Portfolio
Product 18-24 Months
3-5 Years
5+ Years
Exec’s
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Daily
Sprint
Product
Release
2-4 Weeks
2-9 Months
18-24 Months
PM’s
Dev’s
Connects to and Correlates withthe Backlog
Sprint
INVEST
Release
17© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Release
Epics, Stories, Use Cases, Themes
Roadmap
Epics, Features, Big Ideas
Inspired by Mike Cohn
Roadmaps are Scary
• Forces you to articulate what you are not going to build
• Makes you commit to an
18© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Makes you commit to an uncertain future
Benefits of a Roadmap
• Roadmaps can identify and clarify both the tactical and strategic intent of your product
• Internally:– Becomes a filter for prioritizing development activities
19© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– Becomes a filter for prioritizing development activities
– Builds consensus around direction
– Ensures the “ship is headed in the right direction”
– Avoids the “last/loudest” priority problem
• Externally:– Provides customers with access to near-term commitments and
long term “points of view”
– Binds customers to your company (especially in B2B markets)
Thundercloud
June 09 Sept 09 Dec 09 Mar 10 June 10
Idaho
Typically See Feature Wish Lists
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Thundercloud
Jayko
Version 4.0SaaS OfferingExtra fast installComprehensive PlatformsMulti-site CollaborationOracle Support
Version 3.2New platform supportSecurity Management Scalability enhancementsUsability improvementsBetter Integration*
Version 3.01Security PatchBetter ScalabilityClient Access SDK
Typical Roadmap Failures
• No visible logic
• Created unilaterally– Lack of buy-in
– Poor technical and market inputs
21© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– Poor technical and market inputs
• No plan for internal or external sharing
A Roadmap Should Be…
• A living internal planning document designed to answer strategic questions such as:– Who are my markets/segments?
– What do they care about?
22© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– What do they care about?
– When should I serve them?
– What factors must I consider?
– What technologies / systems can I leverage?
– How should I adjust my plans and goals relative to the answers to these and possibly other questions?
Features & Benefits
Support Linux Biometrics
What technology should we use?
Architecture & Systems
Physical Security
auto send supplies
A Simple TemplateQ1 Q2 Q3 Q4
23© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Markets & Users
Benefits
Events & Rhythms
Small Office Enterprise
Saves time & money
Audit Trails
Build it Iteratively
Features & Benefits
24© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Events & Rhythms
Architecture & Systems
Markets & Users
Look for A Release Window
25© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000 Taken by this Flickr guy
A More Complex Template
Features
Managed services
Support Linux
BiometricsArchitecture
Capabilities
Physical auto send
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
26© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Markets
Features
Events & Rhythms
Small Office
Schedule
Benefits
Physical Security
Enterprise
auto send supplies
Saves time & money
Audit Trails
Still Build it Iteratively
Markets & Users
Events & Rhythms
27© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Benefits
Architecture & Systems Features
Schedule
Capabilities
Look for A Release Window
28© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000 Same picture, same guy
A Low-Tech Approach to Start
• Speeds collaboration
• Easy to change
• Can be transcribed into tools for easy digital
29© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
tools for easy digital sharing once the plan settles
Market Events & Rhythms
• These are things that are knowable but out of your direct control.
• However, you might be able to influence them.
30© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Market events occur on a one time basis
• Example: Regulatory-related dates
• Market rhythms occur on a recurring basis
• Example: Industry conferences
Markets & Users
• Provide short name and possibly some short description or segmentation characteristics
• These can be very simple. You can attach common Personas found in each segment
31© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
common Personas found in each segment
• Focus on the markets this product serves
• Example: Small Office• < 75 employees
• Limited CapEx budgets
• Need support and services
• Buy from trusted referrals
Features & Benefits
• Features– Only list major features that motivate customers to
take the release / pay you $
• Benefits
32© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Benefits– Describe in business terms what benefits each feature
will deliver to the customer or to the company• Reduce costs, Avoid costs, Increase revenue
Architecture & Systems
• Typically just the large pieces – Required product technologies
– Required back-office or operational systems
• Break “development” into exploration and proof of
33© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Break “development” into exploration and proof of concepts. Have them span several quarters
• Example: VoiceXML for voice service features
• Example: Billing and accounting systems to support foreign currencies
Capabilities
• Major components of the application that enable multiple features
• Not all systems will have these, so don’t force it
• Example: Notification Engine
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• Example: Notification Engine– Allows users to send schedule, event, or conditional
based notifications via any communication channel.
Schedule
• Internal events & rhythms
• Knowable, limited control, possible to influence
• Holidays & vacations
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• Customer commitments
• Product dependencies
• Other SDLC milestones
• Example: Quarterly earnings calls
• Example: Annual peer reviews
Example Process
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Example Interim Result
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Example Final Result
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Other Benefits Include
Team CollaborationTeam Collaboration Builds TrustBuilds Trust
39© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Some Good Practices
• Extended in-person working sessions– Start by scheduling two session 1 month apart
– Need time to research issues that come out of first
• Participation by key constituents
40© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Participation by key constituents– Product Management, Engineering, Marketing
– Document participants that created each version
• Should align with business plan & model
• Quarterly reviews and updates to keep alignment
Some More Better Practices
• Use versions & dates
• Document who helped create each version
• Document key assumptions, facts & decisions
• Use legends to make it walk up easy to
41© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Use legends to make it walk up easy to understand. Colors, shapes, etc.
• Use corporate rules to make it walk up easy to understand. 6+ months is uncommitted, no selling
• Have clear distribution and communication plan
• Easy to say, hard to do…consistently!
A Few Agile Characteristics
• Built by x-functional teams, hopefully face to face
• Takes an iterative approach
• Makes a great information radiator to promote transparency and communication
42© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
transparency and communication
• Helps identify the release time box or window
• Provides good opportunity for initial prioritization
• Maps to the User Story pattern (who, what, why)
• Makes architecture explicit in planning and always gives technologists an early voice
Now You Go
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Shape the Future of BayAPLN
It’s A Flexible Concept
• We use it for our company planning– http://www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools/we-roadmap
44© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Our Proposed Template
• Constituents – Our market segments
• Services & Benefits – What we do for the above and what they get from it
• Platform – This is our infrastructure website, etc.
45© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Platform – This is our infrastructure website, etc.
• Events & Rhythms – Other things that happen
• People – Folks who make all of the above real
• Time – 1 calendar year, in quarters starts in April
Supplemental Info on Flip Charts
• Decisions
• Assumptions
• Action Items
46© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Your name & contact info (optional)
Our Process
1. Self organize into groups at one of the stations
2. Cesar will provide the vision and inspiration
3. You will have XX minutes to iterate through your plan and capture supplemental information
47© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
your plan and capture supplemental information
• You can pick a leader to facilitate
• You can do a group splat, then rationalize
4. You can change the template (time & rows)
5. You can capture other supplemental info
6. We will de-brief each map at the end
Cesar Will Give You Gifts
48© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Contact Information
Enthiosys, Inc.615 National Ave., Suite 220Mountain View, CA 94043650.528.4000 Office650.528.4004 Fax
49© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
650.528.4004 Faxfollow us at www.twitter.com/Enthiosysfollow me at www.twitter.com/AgileProductMgr
www.enthiosys.com/insights-tools for Books, Bytes, Blogs
www.InnovationGames.com for Innovation Games Online
Extra Topics
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Roadmap of Roadmaps
51© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Sometimes you want to see
the forest and the trees.
Roadmap of Roadmaps
• A look at a portfolio of products over the same time period
• Identify possible synergies or conflicts
• Plan for roll-outs of product bundles / lines
52© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Plan for roll-outs of product bundles / lines
• Creates a strategic view that can be driven back down to individual products.
Building a Roadmap of Roadmaps
• Slightly different set of participants– PM Directors, Senior Architects, Business Unit
Managers, other senior stakeholders
• Roll up individual roadmaps
53© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• Roll up individual roadmaps– Show releases of all products w/ major features
– Architecture may include systems & infrastructure
• Adjust based on decisions or observations
• Changes roll back down to individual products
Scenario Planning With Roadmaps
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Predicting the future is hard
but it can’t hurt to try.
Exploring Possible Futures
• Scenarios are descriptive narratives of plausible alternative futures.
• Useful for:– Identifying potential opportunities / threats
55© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
– Identifying potential opportunities / threats
– Limiting “business as usual in the future” behavior
– Testing roadmaps against various possible futures
– Understanding how and when to react to changes
– Staying focused on the likely case while building 1st
drafts of primary / current roadmaps
Roadmapping for Scenarios
Roadmap Scenario A
Release Release
Scenario A1. This2. That3. The Other4. Then
Primary Roadmap
Release Release
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A B5. Finally….Release
ARelease
B
Scenario B1. This2. That3. The Other4. Then5. Finally….
Primary Roadmap
ReleaseA
ReleaseB
Roadmap Scenario B
ReleaseA
Generating Useful Scenarios
• Articulate questions that will have long term consequences.
• Create a detailed scenario (story) to illustrate the risk/change
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risk/change
• Explore alternative roadmaps to address scenarios
• Map the decision point: what events should trigger adoption of alternative strategy?
Example Scenario Questions
• What if we lost our largest customer?
• What if the market demands the product early?
• What if labor unions curb outsourcing?
58© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
• What if regulatory changes impact us?
• What if we acquire one or more competitors?
• What if we expand internationally?
References & Influences
59© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
On-Line Agile Resources
Agile Alliance: http://www.agilealliance.org/
Scrum Alliance: http://www.scrumalliance.org/
Agile Project Leadership Network: http://www.apln.org/
Agile Journal: http://www.agilejournal.com
60© 2009, Enthiosys Inc. All rights reserved. www.enthiosys.com or 650.528.4000
Agile Journal: http://www.agilejournal.com
Enthiosys Blog Roll: http://www.enthiosys.com/
Agile Manifesto: http://agilemanifesto.org/