backlog refinery - adarsh sridhar and rajeev nair, thoughtworks
DESCRIPTION
From our experience of working with various clients, we would like to share the various innovative methods the Product/Project directors use to prioritize the feature/product backlog and how it varies from business to business. For eg: Concept triage, Email campaigns etc.TRANSCRIPT
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Rajiv Nair - @rajeev_nair_tw Adarsh - @aadarsh__
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What forms your Backlog? ü New Features ü Defects ü Code Refactors, Redesigns, Technology Upgrades
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Backlog - Challenges
Flickr photo courtesy - Jaaron
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Backlog - Challenges
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Backlog - Challenges
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Need for a Refined Backlog
ü Value Maximization ü Balance ü Business Alignment
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Steve Scale
Research
Intuitive
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Concept Triage
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Concept Triage - What?
ü What ? Product Sponsor/Owner is responsible for creating a business case that demonstrates why we should do a project and where the business value is derived from.
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Concept Triage - How?
ü How is it done ? PO/Business presents the case to a larger audience. Like pitching a new Idea to a bunch of VC’s…
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Concept Triage - Who?
ü Who is involved? – PO’s, – Tech leads, – BA’s, – QA’s, – Marketing, – Ops, – IS – Legal – Compliance
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Concept Triage - Key Inputs ü Problem/Opportunity Statement – Implementation approach should be avoided as much as possible.
ü Financial (Business Case & Business Value) – Regulatory/Mandatory – Maintenance/Replacement – Enhancements – ROI Projects – Risk Mitigation – Client Funded
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Concept Triage - Key Inputs ü Key Drivers
– Why should this feature be in our Product
ü Benefit Analysis – Increases or protects Revenue – Increases or protects Cash Flow
– Decreases or protects Cost in line with Company Strategy
ü Success Criteria – how would we define success – This should tie directly back to the benefit analysis
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Concept Triage - Key Inputs ü Trade Offs
14
Budget Most negotiatiable
Least negotiatiable
Time Most negotiatiable
Least negotiatiable
Most negotiatiable
Least negotiatiable
Scope
Most negotiatiable
Least negotiatiable
Quality Most negotiatiable
Least negotiatiable
Customer Experience
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Concept Triage - Key Outputs ü T-Shirt Size(s)
ü Concept Evaluation Recommendation
– Can this concept go to discovery
– Back to the customer for more feedback
– If the business case doesn't match the high level T-Shirt size, call it out now, rather than recommending a full discovery.
T-Shirt Cost (Lower) Iterations Cost (Upper) Iterations Band Size
XXS < £25,000 0.5 £25,000
XS £25,000 0.5 £50,000 1 £25,000
S £50,000 1 £100,000 2 £50,000
M £100,000 2 £250,000 5 £150,000
L £250,000 5 £500,000 10 £250,000
XL £500,000 10 £1,000,000 20 £500,000
XXL £1,000,000 20 £2,000,000 40 £1,000,000
E > £2,000,000 40
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Concept Triage
ü Ideas get questioned ü Business case gets validated ü Involvement of business, IT,
compliance, IS ü Rough idea of size & cost ü Collective Wisdom!
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Concept Triage ü Good ideas may get trashed
due to cost
ü Another process before development
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Customer Insights
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Customer Insights - What ü What ? – Include customers in the process
of Refining Backlog. Engage customers until you get to understand the minimum set of features required to satisfy what you try to achieve/what the customer need.
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Customer Insights - How
ü How is it done ? – A simple communication is sent to customers
briefing them about the new product/Feature - what the feature does and why it exists - what are the features and benefits
– Ask for their interest or feedback about a product (yet to be launched).
– A twitter handler is created and circulated to understand market sentiments
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Silver Users
Platinum Users
Gold Users
48+ tx in 12mnts 6 - 12+
trxn in 12months
12 - 48+ trxn in 12months
ü Who is involved? – PO's. – Marketing Team – Customers (Platinum or gold customers) – Internal Employees
Customer Insights - How
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Customer Insights - Pros
ü Tap the loyal customer base who are power users
ü Feedback valuable and as they will use n market the product
ü fleshing out the concept and achieving clarity of thought about what we will ultimately go off and build
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Customer Insights - Pros ü One section of users are
ignored
ü Customers do not like to fill surveys without incentive
ü People may not really know What they want
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The Systemico Model
Source : http://barryoreilly.com/
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Common anti patterns ü Focus on managing cost and
not value. ü Prioritize with size as the
most important input.
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We create value !
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But how do we prioritize value ?
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Sytemico model
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User goals
“I want to login” “I want to search for tickets” “I want to select different delivery options”
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User engagement
ü Core – Functionality that satisfies users’ basic needs
ü Use – Enhanced functionality that increases the usability of the product
ü Engage – Functionality that draws the user to interact with the product
ü Explore – Functionality that entices the user to go beyond simple interactions
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Applying user stories to the Systemico model
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Example
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That’s what we need to build !!
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That’s when we will build !
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Systemico : Pros
ü Provides additional dimensions which helps in prioritization
ü Very useful when there is little validated learning in the product space
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Systemico : Cons
ü May not be the best framework for matured products
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Lets recap..
Concept Triage Customer Insights Systemico Model
What ? Present the business case
Seek feedback from actual users
Prioritize value
How ? Like you pitch to a VC
Email campaigns, Social media
User goal & User engagement
Ideas gets questioned & sized
Feedback from early adapters/power users
Additional dimensions
Too much focus on cost
Feedback limited to the chosen customer set
Matured products ?
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Thank You!
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-05-10/