PRODUCT OWNER TRAINING

 This course is an excellent way to instill foundational product ownership practices into you work culture. The course is a fun, fast-paced, and participative 2-day immersion into the Scrum Product Owner (PO) role.

To set context for the Product Owner role, the course begins with a brief overview of Agile and Scrum. The Product Owner role is then introduced along with the attributes of a successful Product Owner. The PO role responsibilities are then covered in detail with the help of an interactive activity.

Practice creating a Product Vision follows next. Then, the attendees are introduced to lightweight Agile requirements in the form of Personas, User Stories, and relative size estimation techniques.

The Product Owner is responsible for creating and managing the Product Backlog, a prioritized list of work for the team. How to build out a Product Backlog along with various prioritization techniques are covered. Practical advice for creating Roadmaps to share long-term plans is discussed, along with how to use team velocity to create an accurate Release Plan.

The terms MVP (Minimum Viable Product) and MMF (Minimum Marketable Feature) are then introduced and demystified. An impactful lesson on limiting work in process (WIP) is covered along with topics such as parallel vs. serial development, the cost of context switching, and establishing a lean pull-based flow system.

The Story Mapping technique is described as a powerful way to visualize work and the customer’s journey. Finally, a Product Discovery lesson covers experiment-driven development and the Build-Measure-Learn loop popularized by the Lean Startup movement.

Throughout the course, the instructor facilitates introspective discussions where potential changes are added to the ongoing Change Log. The course ends with an activity prioritizing the Change Log (just as a Product Owner would) and asking for a commitment from the attendees to begin working the top priority changes.

The student’s understanding of the Product Owner role is intensified with collaborative participation in many exercises emulating various aspects of the role. Upon completion of the course, the attendee will be ready to confidently perform the Product Owner role in his/her organization with confidence.

Note: this course is not a Certified Product Owner (CSPO) course. Instead, it covers many advanced topics beyond Scrum and topics typically covered in a basic CSPO course.

The class instructor has many years practical experience performing the Product Owner role, along with more than 18-years’ experience using Agile and Scrum. He will share case studies, situational advice, and practical application recommendations throughout the course.

To read more about Agile, visit here. To read more about User Stories, visit here. To read more about what all is involved in an Agile transformation, visit here.