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Archive for October, 2011
5 Reasons Why a Product Owner Team Might Be a Good Idea
17220 days
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yckhong/363310776/
During this week I read an interesting article called “Is Scrum a –ism that doesn’t work for real?“. One of the things that @marcusoftnet mentioned in his article was this:
The product owner is an unicorn
I continue to read and had to agree with him in many points. The rest of the week I kept thinking about this and came to the conclusion that in some environments a product owner team would be a better fit. But what could be a good reason for a product owner team?
1 – Responsibility
One good reason might be a shared responsibility. In some companies it seems to be difficult to define THE one and only PO with all needed responsibilities. Even worse, I saw product owners, whose decisions were overruled by their bosses and managers. This does not only have a demotivating effect on the PO, but also the development team becomes insecure when working with her. When you have a PO team, it is much more difficult to overrule them.
2 – Diversity
Another good reason for the team approach is the diversity you get when you have a team. My ideal PO team consists of a product manager, one person from marketing, one from UX and a techie. That way you have all needed knowledge in the team to create an awesome backlog. I saw a lot of bad POs who were unable to create a good backlog, because he missed some knowledge in an important area e.g the market or technical know how. This will all vanish if you have a PO team.
3 – Availability
Ever heard about ScrumMasters taking over the role of the PO, when he is not available? Bad idea! But it does happen and not only once. This is another good reason for a PO team. Even if one or two members of the team are not available (ill, on vacation), the team is still able to work. No availability issues anymore.
4 – Teamwork
A good backlog is the result of great teamwork. I never saw a backlog that was created by a single person and still was in a good shape. I know that there are no rules that the PO should be the only person to create new items in a backlog, but many teams think so. A PO team forces them to work together. Of course they still have to work tightly with the development team, do backlog grooming sessions or even ask a developer to help to maintain the backlog. A PO team will help to foster the collaboration in a team.
5 – Fun
Last but not least, working in a team is much more fun. I know this should be also the case if you have a single PO, but I never saw a PO that sat in the same office or even floor than the development team. I even saw POs that were not only sitting in the same office but at a completely different location. With a PO team you force them to work at the same location and I swear it is much more fun to work this way.
What do you think? What are your experiences with POs? Do you also think that the role of the PO is a unicorn? I’m looking forward to your comments.
UPDATE:
Thanks to @maritzavdh here are some links for further reading:
7 tricks to generate new blog post ideas
2227 days
http://www.flickr.com/photos/qisur/4351196974/
I’m currently sitting at my desk and thinking about what to write about in my next blog post. @breskeby was so kind to mention that if I don’t have anything to say I shouldn’t write a blog post. I think he is right, but on the other hand I don’t want to break my habit of writing a blog post every week. I’m caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.
But then @fjeisenberg came around the corner and proposed the topic “How to find ideas to blog about”. I liked the idea. And now that’s the topic of this blog post. Thanks Florian 
1- Ask your followers on twitter
As this already worked for me, it will also work for you. Just ask your followers on twitter what they want you to blog about. If you’re lucky you’ll get one or more good idea you can use.
2 – Install the WordPress client on your mobile phone
In the past several of my articles came onto my mind, when I was outside with my kids. Or I had a great idea when sitting at my desk at work. Before I used WordPress on my mobile phone, I forgot about these ideas most of the time. But now, every time I have a good idea for an article I create a skeleton article on my blog using my mobile phone. That way you can create a pool of article ideas. Unfortunately, none of the articles in my pool inspired me today 
3 – Have a theme for your blog
It often helps to have a theme for your blog. In spring of this year I started a series called “Food for Thought“. It really helped me to generate a lot of articles based on this theme. A lot of other successful blogger did the same. A good example is @jurgenappelo’s blog about Management 3.0 which is now a successful book in the agile community. I’m still searching for the theme that works for me, but some day I’ll find it.
4 – Use your twitter timeline
If you follow enough people on twitter you may have the chance to observe an interesting conversation or a new idea. Use this as a starting point for your article. Refer to the tweet and write about your opinion about the topic, instead of writing a simple tweet or comment.
5 – Conversational writing
A few weeks ago @catoliv and @mfloryan started a conversation by writing blog posts. One was writing the initial blog post and the other one was answering with another blog post. This way you get inspired by the other person and get some feed for your own blog. Find someone on twitter (or elsewhere) and start doing the same.
6 – Write about your own experience
One of my most successful articles “10 things to drive your ScrumMaster crazy” was based on real life experience of a team at that time. One day they bugged me that much, that I decided to create a list of the things that drove me crazy. There are several other articles in my blog which are based on real life experience. IMHO that’s maybe the best approach.
7 – Ask your blog readers
Yes, that’s a good idea Dear blog readers, what do you want me to write about in the future? Did you like anything special in the past I should write a follow up? Do you think there is the one topic I have to write about? What do you wish to read on this blog? Please leave a comment. Thanks!
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