Agile Product Owner

Why should Product Owners know one software testing method?

1 March 202027 February 2020 by Mirek Rakowski

This article initiates a series of articles about benefit hypotheses testing. Please look forward for next ones 🙂

Before I became a PO, I had spent most of my career working in software testing domain. But don’t be afraid – this post is all about agile product owners and how to deliver amazing products that customers will love:)

Through my testing journey, I have learnt multiple different techniques. Although, I haven’t used most of them in my current product owner role. However, it seems that I’m still under an influence of one software testing method. It’s called the V-model. I think that every product oriented person should be aware of this technique, despite the fact it has originated before agile methodologies. Let’s see how it changed my view on the product craftsmanship.

The Most Underestimated Skills Of Product Manager To Master In 2020

1 April 202025 January 2020 by Mirek Rakowski

A year ago, I made myself birthday gift and I told my manager that ‘I quit’. Over those last twelve months, I have learned a lot and I achieved couple great successes – that might be a topic for another day. However, I have also seen that some essential skills of product manager(s) are not cultivated well enough both by myself and PMs around me. As 2020 has just begun, it is perfect time to close the gap.

All skills that I will be talking about can be actually wrapped with one key phrase. Hereby, I would like to propose to call the year of 2020 as:

The year of effective communication

Hence, I present you four skills that you should check out this year.

Storytelling

Product Managers produce messages all the time through artifacts like:

product vision based on market problems,
value proposition statement,
road map & product requirements,
product journeys,
much more…

5 Deadly Sins Of Agile Product Owner That Can Cost You A Job

8 November 202127 December 2019 by Mirek Rakowski

Review with the line manager was about to start. Kate was waiting for “End of Year” appraisal meeting and she was quite confident that last 12 months as Agile Product Owner in new company were really successful. She felt deeply connected with delivery team and she considered that all 3 of her products provided significant business value. “A promotion would be spot on. On the other hand, decent pay raise would be good enough too“, she said in her thoughts.

She wasn’t ready for what was about to come.

Jack, from the moment he entered the room, looked quite nervous. “Kate, looking at your results of last year, I’m not sure if we can continue our cooperation“, he explained his attitude really quickly.

The meeting was long and tough but, in the end, Kate was able to prolong her contract for trial period when she conducted detailed retrospective of her ways of working. As a result, she came up with a list of 5 things that nearly cost her job.

I call this list:

5 deadly sins of Agile Product Owner

1. Being focused on wrong things

I have seen two kinds of Agile Product Owners. People from the first group usually have to switch their context between activities including but not limited to presales / sales, marketing and backlog management. On the other hand, second group of Product Owners considered only that last task as their sole responsibility. However, both parties are utterly wrong. Kate was one of them.