Products and features in an agile setting are meant to be fluid. Agile product management is all about understanding customers' problems. What does defining customer problems look like in an agile world? The agile manifesto reminds us that we don’t always have to do it the "traditional" way. As product managers, we should be doing whatever is required to tell the story of the customer. Try different things: experiment, explore, then do what works best for you and your team in the context that you might be working in.
Product Manager's Interactions and Knowledge
Product Managers are responsible for the following:
- Provide Business Input to Agile Road Maps and Releases - Prioritization of Epics, work with Leads to understand Technical Dependencies, and effort of work when prioritizing.
- Epic Go/No Go Analysis & Decision - Product Managers will conduct customer research and validation, competitive analysis, review market data, business case, etc. to determine if the Epic justifies the cost and time.
- Plan & Create Business Epics - Participates in program meetings to help prime the pipeline of Epics and Features for the next Big Room Planning. Create Epics with appropriate level of detail based on the Progressive Elaboration guidelines, and eventually breaks down the Epics to Features that can be consumed by the Lean | Agile Teams. Refer to the Progressive Elaboration section of the Framework to understand all the breakdown details the Product Manager is responsible for.
- Accept Features - In real time or at the Sprint Showcase, the Product Manager has the responsibility to accept or reject Features based on the Acceptance Criteria, after all stories have been completed and accepted by the Backlog Owner.
- Mentor & Work With Backlog Owners - Provide guidance and clarification for the Backlog Owner as needed so they can be more effective with their Lean | Agile Teams. Collaborate with Backlog Owners at least once a week to discuss upcoming Features for future Releases.
- Meet with Clients/Business Stakeholders - To ensure better understand of the requirements and client expectations, the Product Managers should meet with the clients/business stakeholders for direct feedback and discussions, and facilitate workshops as appropriate. Refer to the Workshops section of the Framework to understand all the different techniques to facilitate these workshops with the business stakeholders.
- Serve As An Escalation Path - If further clarification on any business related functionality and rules cannot be answered by the Backlog Owner, then the issue may be escalated to the Product Manager.
Since the Product Managers have a lot of responsibilities, it is important to ensure there are enough Product Managers to support the Program.