mature product backlog and how to deal with it - workshop - main slide deck

MATURE PRODUCT BACKLOGAND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT

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BARTEK GATZPRODUCT MANAGER AT SPARTEZ

GAMEPRODUCT BACKLOG

GAME“PRODUCT” BACKLOG

GAME“PRODUCT”“BACKLOG”

GAME“PRODUCT”“BACKLOG”

introduction exercise #1 exercise #2

some theoryexercise #3 exercise #4

— 15 min — 15 min — 15 min — 20 min — 15 min — 10 min

SPLIT INTO TEAMS, PLEASE

INTRO

BACKLOG CITYCITY DESCRIPTION HANDOUT

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BACKLOG CITY

• existing city • close to sea and a river • 4 districts • total of 2.1 inhabitants • uneven wealth spread

BACKLOG CITY

AA

B

A

C

D

B

BACKLOG CITY

SUMMARY

PROBLEM SOLUTION

? ?

? ? ?

BACKLOG CITY

• existing “backlog” • mix of new ideas and known problems • continued work on earlier “version” • but now it is your problem

EXERCISE #1

BACKLOG CITY

create your own new ideas for Backlog City

EXERCISE #1

TIME: 10 MINUTES

BACKLOG CITYEXERCISE #1

SUMMARY

PROBLEM SOLUTION

? ?

? ? ?

BACKLOG CITYEXERCISE #1

LET’S HEAR ‘EM!

EXERCISE #2

BACKLOG CITYEXERCISE #2

TIME: 10 MINUTES

prioritise your stream of work

BACKLOG CITYEXERCISE #2

OBSERVATIONS

THEORY

WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

#1 We have really long backlogs

#2 We do not say “NO” to bad ideas early enough

#3 We rediscover the same problems over again

#4 We jump from problems to solutions too fast

#5 We do not measure and validate

#6 We make simple prioritisation mistakes

#7 Open backlog invites scope and feature creep

It’s all true because I used memes

HYPOTHESIS INCUBATOR

sprint in progress

max two sprints of prioritised issues in the backlog

PRODUCT BACKLOG

Nothing gets to the backlog, unless: this is a technical task this is a bug it hatched from Incubator

PRODUCT BACKLOG

separate project in JIRA issue type = HYPOTHESIS workflow = INCUBATION

LAID

LAID

LAID

INSPECTED

INSPECTED

HEATED UP

PRIORITISED

PRIORITISED

PRIORITISED

PRIORITISED

INFERTILE

GONE BAD

GONE BAD

GONE BAD

GONE BAD

HATCHED

HATCHED

HATCHED

COMPLETED

only HATCHED hypothesis go to backlog

HYPOTHESIS INCUBATOR

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION (TEXT)

KPI IMPACT HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)

SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)

SUCCESS CRITERIA (TEXT)

LAY TIME STAMP (DATE)

HYPOTHESIS

PRIORITY (2x VALUE)

IMPACT COST

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION (TEXT)

what problem we are trying to solve:in-product problemuser problem

HYPOTHESIS

KPI IMPACT HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)

what primary metric we think this problem relates to:KPIs only, so this must be focusedstrategic alignment

HYPOTHESIS

SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)

super short high level description of the potential solutionthis is a user storyno technical discussions allowed here

HYPOTHESIS

SUCCESS CRITERIA (TEXT)

how are we going to measure whether the solution workedmeasurement technique applieddescription of experiments if requiredquantifiable thresholds for selected metrics

HYPOTHESIS

fields required for prioritisation exercise:valuesIMPACT defines the strength of movement of KPI needleCOST of delivery is a guesstimation

HYPOTHESIS

PRIORITY (2x VALUE)

IMPACT COST

values between 0 and 5IMPACT defines the strength of movement of KPI needleURGENCY defines the consequences if not addressed soon

DIFFICULTY of delivery combines guesstimation of all costs:development marketing support technology

HYPOTHESIS

RISK specifies the risk associated with a given hypothesis

PRIORITY (4x SINGLE SELECT)

IMPACT URGENCY RISK DIFFICULTY

fields required for prioritisation exercise:

LAY TIME STAMP (DATE)

age of hypothesis:non-important ideas should be removedmethod to keep the incubator clean

HYPOTHESIS

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION (TEXT)

KPI IMPACT HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)

SOLUTION HYPOTHESIS (TEXT)

SUCCESS CRITERIA (TEXT)

LAY TIME STAMP (DATE)

HYPOTHESIS

PRIORITY (2x VALUE)

IMPACT COST

LAID

HEATED UP PRIORITISED

GONE BAD

HATCHED

INFERTILE

INSPECTED

COMPLETED REJECTED

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

LAID

new hypothesis:the only way to get into the workflow

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

LAID

first hypothesis check performed:strategic alignment checkscience fiction checkINSPECTED

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

LAID

prioritisation complete:ready for hatching

INSPECTEDPRIORITISED

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

LAID

impossible to prioritise just yet:more data required to validate

INSPECTEDPRIORITISEDHEATED UPnot right TTMunclear impact on KPI

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

not worth the investment:no strategic alignmentscience fictionINFERTILE

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

hypothesis potentially worth it, but:fell a victim of prioritisation for too longmost likely outdatedINFERTILEGONE BAD

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

hypothesis of high overall priority:at this stage it goes to product backlogtransforms into:INFERTILEGONE BADHATCHED

user storyexperiment

HATCHED

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

hypothesis completed:developed and releasedvalidated to have met success criteriaINFERTILEGONE BADHATCHEDCOMPLETED

source of truth for:release notesmarketing materialsexperiment validation

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

HEATED UPPRIORITISEDINSPECTEDLAIDINFERTILEGONE BADHATCHEDCOMPLETEDREJECTED

hypothesis rejected:experiment failedvalidated to have NOT met success criteriarollback may be required

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

LAID

HEATED UP PRIORITISED

GONE BAD

HATCHED

INFERTILE

INSPECTED

COMPLETED REJECTED

INCUBATION WORKFLOW

PRIORITISATION

IMPACT 0 1 2 3 4 5

0 1 2 3 4 5COST

IMPACTPRIORITY = COST + 1

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PRIORITISATION

IMPACT 0 1 2 3 4 5

0 1 2 3 4 5

URGENCY

DIFFICULTY

0 1 2 3 4 5RISK

0 1 2 3 4 5

IMPACT x URGENCYPRIORITY = RISK + DIFFICULTY + 1

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PRIORITISATION

IMPACT 0 1 2 3 4 5

0 1 2 3 4 5COST

performed by PO + BO + DEV + MKT on regular basis

using Eisenhower 2x1 matrix

TO SUM UP…..

clean primary product backlog

controlled inflow of requirements

controlled rollout of ideas / improvements / simplifications

no changes without a good reason - working on things that matter

measurements for validation

deprecation of bad ideas before they hurt us

TO SUM UP…..

EXERCISE #3

BACKLOG CITY

new problems have arisen

EXERCISE #3

TIME: 10 MINUTES

BACKLOG CITY

SUMMARY

PROBLEM SOLUTION

KPI IMPACT SUCCESS CRITERIA

IMPACT COST PRIORITY

EXERCISE #3SUMMARY

PROBLEM SOLUTION

EXERCISE #4

BACKLOG CITY

let’s reprioritize!

EXERCISE #4

TIME: 10 MINUTES

BACKLOG CITY

let’s reprioritize!

EXERCISE #4

HOMEWORK

BACKLOG CITY

SUMMARY

PROBLEM SOLUTION

KPI IMPACT SUCCESS CRITERIA

IMPACT COST PRIORITY

EXERCISE #4SUMMARY

PROBLEM SOLUTION