From Business Analyst to Product Champion, The Impact Of Vision In The PO Role | Mateusz Komander

Summary

Podcast Summary: From Business Analyst to Product Champion, The Impact Of Vision In The PO Role | Mateusz Komander

Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: Agile storytelling from the trenches
Host: Vasco Duarte, Agile Coach, Certified Scrum Master, Certified Product Owner
Guest: Mateusz Komander
Release Date: February 14, 2025

Introduction

In this episode of the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast, host Vasco Duarte engages in an insightful conversation with Mateusz Komander, focusing on the critical role of vision in the Product Owner (PO) position. The discussion delves into common pitfalls in PO roles, the significance of maintaining a clear vision, and strategies to enhance the effectiveness of Product Owners within Agile teams.

Identifying the Worst Product Owner Anti-Pattern: Lack of Vision

Mateusz Komander opens the discussion by addressing what he considers the most detrimental anti-pattern observed in Product Owners—the lack of vision.

"The biggest anti-pattern of a product owner, in my opinion, is the lack of vision for the product." [03:28]

He recounts his experience with a Product Owner who excelled in managing stakeholder relationships but failed to provide a clear vision to the development team. This disconnect led to confusion and inefficiency, as the team was unaware of the long-term goals and the rationale behind their tasks.

"The team didn't understand why they were working or what would come next. They knew the immediate requirements but lacked clarity on the end goals." [04:28]

Impact of a Lack of Vision

The absence of a well-defined vision adversely affects the team's ability to prioritize and align their efforts with the product's ultimate objectives. Mateusz highlights that this often results in:

• Fragmented Development Efforts: Teams work on requirements without understanding their contribution to the overall product strategy.
• Constant Reiterations: Without a clear roadmap, teams frequently revisit and revise their work, leading to inefficiencies.
• Stakeholder Misalignment: When the product lacks direction, managing stakeholder expectations becomes challenging, as seen in recurring discussions about the next steps without a coherent plan.

"We cannot have the roadmap ended within the next two sprints. It doesn't make sense." [05:42]

Root Cause: Ownership and Commitment to Vision

Mateusz believes that the root cause of this anti-pattern is not a lack of understanding of its impact but rather a failure in taking genuine ownership of the product's vision.

"He understood the impact of the vision but didn't take real ownership over it. Instead, he focused on facilitating stakeholders' immediate needs." [06:48]

This approach prioritizes short-term stakeholder demands over long-term product success, undermining the team's morale and direction.

Strategies to Cultivate a Clear Vision

To address the lack of vision, Mateusz recommends starting with fundamental tools and practices that help visualize and communicate the product's direction:

1. Visualizing the Vision:

   • Roadmapping: Establish a clear product roadmap that outlines the long-term goals and the steps to achieve them.
   • Goal Setting: Define what the product aims to achieve in the long term, providing a compass for the team's efforts.

   "Start with very basic tools. Be able to at least visualize what they want to do and focus on if they actually have enough to show." [07:36]

2. Prioritizing the Backlog:

   • Structured Backlog Management: Organize the backlog with explicit goals, focusing on what needs to be achieved in the next six months.
   • Backlog Refinement: Regularly review and update the backlog to ensure relevance and alignment with the product vision.

   "Write or think what you plan to do within the next half a year and whatever is in the backlog that is not reflecting that, just remove it." [08:50]

3. Enhanced Communication:

   • Clarity in Requirements: Ensure that the team understands not just the 'what' but also the 'why' behind each task.
   • Consistent Vision Sharing: Regularly communicate the product vision to keep the team aligned and motivated.

Celebrating Exemplary Product Owners

Shifting focus to the positive, Mateusz shares stories of exceptional Product Owners who embody the qualities necessary for success. He describes a particular individual who, despite not having the title officially, acted with complete ownership and a clear vision.

"He was looking at stakeholder ideas and discerning their relevance to the platform's core purpose. For example, he denied adding social features because the platform's primary goal was to support biotechnology development." [09:12]

This Product Owner not only supported the team by encouraging experimentation and innovation but also maintained a steadfast vision that guided all development efforts.

"He was very supportive towards experimenting and took full ownership of the platform, having a clear vision of what it could become within the organization." [09:12]

Key Takeaways and Advice for Product Owners

1. Embrace Ownership:

   • Product Owners must take full responsibility for the product's vision and roadmap, ensuring that every team effort aligns with long-term goals.

2. Utilize Simple Tools:

   • Implement basic visual tools like roadmaps and clear backlog structures to maintain focus and direction.

3. Regularly Reassess and Refine:

   • Continuously evaluate the backlog to remove irrelevant items and ensure that upcoming tasks are aligned with the vision.

4. Foster Transparent Communication:

   • Keep the team informed about the broader objectives and how their work contributes to the product's success.

Conclusion

The episode underscores the pivotal role that a clear and actionable vision plays in the effectiveness of a Product Owner. Mateusz Komander emphasizes that while managing stakeholder relationships is crucial, it should not come at the expense of providing a coherent direction for the development team. By adopting structured roadmapping, maintaining a focused backlog, and embodying true ownership, Product Owners can significantly enhance their team's performance and the overall success of their products.

For further insights and discussions on Agile practices, listeners are encouraged to connect with Mateusz Komander on LinkedIn.

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Notable Quotes:

• "The biggest anti-pattern of a product owner, in my opinion, is the lack of vision for the product." - Mateusz Komander [03:28]

• "We cannot have the roadmap ended within the next two sprints. It doesn't make sense." - Vasco Duarte [05:42]

• "Start with very basic tools. Be able to at least visualize what they want to do and focus on if they actually have enough to show." - Mateusz Komander [07:36]

• "He was very supportive towards experimenting and took full ownership of the platform, having a clear vision of what it could become within the organization." - Mateusz Komander [09:12]

Transcript

[Pasco Duarte]

Hi there, Pasco Duarte here, your host. I wanted to share a story with you. You know how sometimes Agile just feels like following another checklist when like processes and frameworks feel more important than what we are trying to achieve and sometimes even like handcuffs. I was talking to a customer of the Global Agile Summit and he used a term that kind of stuck in my he said, I have Agile fatigue. And I've heard that a lot from people since then. But here's the thing, it doesn't have to be this way. So we started thinking and at the Global Agile Summit, which is happening this May, we're bringing together practitioners who've actually done that, who've broken free from this, you know, install the framework kind of mindset. We want to focus the summit on real life, first person stories of Agile all succeeding that inspire you to action. We're talking real experiences, practical solutions, and of course, amazing insights from leaders like Gojko Adsic, who will be one of the keynote speakers, and Jurgen Apelo, who will be one of the keynote speakers as well. If you're ready to leave the Agile fatigue behind, just join us in Dalit. The early birth tickets are now available@the globalagilesummit.com and mark your calendar. We will have workshops on May 18th, that's a Sunday. And then the conference itself will happen on May 19th and 20th of 2025 in Tallinn, Estonia. So let's make Agile exciting again. And remember, go to agile globalagilesummit.com that is, and get your early birth ticket. Now it will only be available until early March, so grab it now. And now onto the episode.

[Vasco]

Hello everybody. Welcome to our TGIF and product owner episode this week with Mateusz Kommander. Hey Mateusz, welcome back.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Hello Vasco. And now finally, Happy Friday, last day of the week.

[Vasco]

Happy Friday everybody. TGIF as they say. Well said, well said. All right, cool. So product owner it is. Friday is product owner day here on the podcast and we'll talk about what great product owners do in a minute. But for now, Matteo, share with us what was perhaps potentially the worst product owner anti pattern you've witnessed in your career.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Yes, I do. I think that product owner role, specifically in the current landscape, in the landscape of how the Agile developed at the moment, is very challenging role. And I think it's challenging on one hand due to how the governance is organized around that role. So that might be one hand, but on the other hand it's challenging because it's always demanding vision of a product and what I see. Or what I think the biggest anti pattern of a product owner in my opinion is, is the lack of that.

[Vasco]

Lack of what?

[Mateusz Kommander]

Lack of vision.

[Vasco]

Lack of vision for the product. Yes, yes.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Lack of vision for the product. And this is one of the stories from my previous company when I was working with one of the product owners and he was great person in terms of being able to manage stakeholder expectations. So outside of the team, I believe everyone loved working with him and how he was able to collaborate, work with stakeholders was magnificent in that regard. Unfortunately towards the team, what we saw was the lack of the goal of the purpose of the vision. So the team didn't understood why they are working or what will be next. They knew there are requirements, specific requirements for now, but a sprint later or two sprints later, we've learned that what they've developed weren't actually the, let's say end state oriented because they could for example, develop completely differently how the application behaves or how the application should manage data if they knew what is in front of them. And actually this lack of vision I saw was the hardest aspect of managing that or supporting that product owner. Together with the business analysts we're trying to introduce different approaches of road mapping. But unfortunately it was quite often created once and not followed, followed up, not treated as an artifact. And due to that we had this continuous and recurring discussions with the product owner. The team had discussions with the product owner of okay, what's next? What we should be focusing on next. We need to know how, what we are working around or towards what goal, what will be the next development within our roadmap? We cannot have the roadmap ended within the next two sprints. It doesn't make sense.

[Vasco]

Okay, so, so the roadmap was there, but it didn't either have enough information or nobody was paying attention to it. Like which one was?

[Mateusz Kommander]

Yes, it was two. So on one hand we had a roadmap, for example, for a goal or for a product development, but it was focused around one or two functionalities or features to be developed that we knew we will be able to develop within the next three sprints. But at the same time the applications was so huge that we didn't know what will come next after that. So quite often the team were getting the requirements on a last moment notice or for example had learned that there is a big development happening for that application quite late or very shortly before they started the development. So they didn't have time to prepare themselves, that they didn't have time to refine correctly. The items they were working on.

[Vasco]

What do you think caused this product owner to not have a vision in the first place and to not understand the impact of the lack of vision?

[Mateusz Kommander]

To be honest, I think he understood the impact of the, of the vision. I think it was a little bit not taking the real ownership over that. So rather, like I mentioned speaking, supporting, facilitating the stakeholders and answering to their, their immediate needs instead of owning the product and having a plan for its development. And based on that plan, actually working with stakeholders.

[Vasco]

And when you think about product owners that are stuck in that position, like what advice do you have to share with our community about helping product owners to perhaps first understand the value of the vision? I don't know, like, how would you tackle this?

[Mateusz Kommander]

I do recommend to start with very basic, really basic tools. Be able to at least visualize what they want to do and focus on if they actually have enough to show. So on one hand what is very useful is to actually take a look if we have any vision or product goal, what we want to achieve long term or towards what goal we are aiming to, to work on with the product. But on the second hand, very simple now, next, later in terms of our focus is very useful. Quite often we lack that. So we have a huge backlogs with hundreds of items in this, in the, in the backlog without any explicit goal or having those items actually being closed. And here I like very much the suggestion from Roman Pichler about the backlog. Write or think what you plan to do within the next half a year and whatever is in the backlog that not reflecting that, just remove this. It may not necessarily be actually relevant after half a year.

[Vasco]

Yeah, absolutely. And half a year is long enough, I would say, for a roadmap and the backlog. All right, cool. But when we think about product owners, of course we must recognize that there are also some amazing product owners out there. So let's dedicate some attention to those. Matteo's the best product owner you've ever worked with. How did they work?

[Mateusz Kommander]

I have actually two. I was thinking about two examples, one of the product owner that I'm currently working with, which. Which made a huge progress from where she was year ago towards where we are now. But I decided that maybe this is a story for another more focused session. So I've decided to focus on my experience from at least I think it was two and a half years ago. I was working with a person who actually haven't had a product owner role by name, but by all of the behaviors that we could imagine. He was exactly a product owner that, that I would put as an example. 1. So even though he was a proxy working, acting as a proxy, po, Business analysts, business analyst, he was actually, he actually took a full ownership over the platform that we were developing and up to a level that when the stakeholders were coming to him with an ideas of can we implement some features or stuff that are, let's Facebook like or something like that, he was looking at them and saying, no, it doesn't really make sense. The platform that you want here is rather to connect you with your colleagues from the company to support your biotechnology development, not actually to have a social, let's say space with them. So he was very supporting, supportive on one hand, very supportive towards the team in terms of our ideas, how when we were coming up to him, listen, we have an idea to improve the platform. We see that this, this and this could work better because it's easier navigation, it's more clear for. It might be more clear for the users in that regard. He was very supportive. So actually when I came in and proposed to the UX UI designer and to him, maybe we can go to the stakeholders and propose a customer journey and see how the customers are interacting with our platform, he immediately say yes. So that was the environment that was very supportive towards experimenting. And at the same time he took the full ownership over the platform and he really had a vision towards what the platform could be in that organization. So for me, that was very nice experience for almost a year working with him. And I think how we were able to develop that platform, how we were able to collaborate and support each other was something magnificent back then.

[Vasco]

Absolutely. And a great story, inspiring story. Because of course what matters in the end is to talk about what we can help other product owners and product owners listening to us, what they can take and apply and that openness and supportive as well as a very clear vision, which was the problem we talked about in the previous case. I think that those are really critical skills and approaches that proctors can bring to their team. So thank you for sharing that, Matthias. Now, unfortunately, we're getting close to the end, but before we go, do share with us, where can people find out more about you and the work that you're doing?

[Mateusz Kommander]

I'm actually available or present or visible mostly on LinkedIn. I don't believe you will be able to find me anywhere else. So Commander M With LinkedIn, you will be able to find me there. And if you have any questions or you would like to reach out or you are looking for a supporter on Management 3.0. Feel free to ping me on a chat there.

[Vasco]

Absolutely. And do reach out. And why not ask follow up questions? I'm sure Matthias would be happy to give his thoughts on those follow up questions. Matthias, thank you very much for your generosity with your time and your knowledge.

[Mateusz Kommander]

Thank you for having me here, Vasco. It was a great opportunity to meet you and very happy to be your guest.

[Pasco Duarte]

We really hope you liked our show and if you did, why not rate this podcast on Stitcher or itunes. Share this podcast and let other Scrum Masters know about this valuable resource for their work. Remember that sharing is caring.