Jenny, a product leader, glared at her supposed product backlog. She'd just transferred to this product and now she knew why the teams weren't making progress. This backlog was more like her overstuffed sports closet. That closet had tennis rackets, a bat, and her two pairs of skis—all sports, but not for any one specific sport.
In the same way, this so-called backlog was full of possibilities—for at least three products. She was supposed to rank “everything” and then create a multi-month roadmap that management wanted the teams to “commit” to. Even if she believed in a multi-month roadmap, this backlog was full of noise. The teams needed more information before they could commit to anything.
Jenny knew:
- This problem was not the same as too much multitasking as she'd seen in unmanaged project portfolios. Her management was good at committing one project at a time to a team. (In this case, since the product was large, three teams worked on the project.) But no one had assessed the business value of everything they'd stuffed into this supposed backlog.
- That's why these teams needed an overarching product goal. Once she confirmed that goal, she could prune the ideas out of this supposed backlog.
- Armed with that information, the teams could help her order which features or feature sets to do first, second, and third—and never.
She had to decide what not to do for now. That would allow her to say yes to the necessary work and eliminate the work they never had to do.
She needed to clarify what was necessary now, so she started with the product decisions the teams needed.
Clarify Which Product Decisions the Teams Need Now
Jenny knew about project charters, but these teams needed to know the product goal. So did she.
To facilitate the product goal discussion, she clarified what she was looking for in this email to the relevant management partners:
“Based on our earlier conversations, we want to acquire these type of customers with this product. That means we need to solve those problems for them. Here's my strawman product goal:”
That's when she clarified the product goal and how little the teams needed to do to deliver to that goal. The “how little” was not a small amount, but it was much less than the stuffed-closet backlog.
It took a couple of weeks of prodding and poking, but Jenny got an answer she could live with. She created that overarching goal. She could now plan with the teams.
Plan Just Enough For Now
Since all three teams needed to collaborate to create the product, she invited everyone to one workshop. She sent this agenda to all 40 people:
- Given our overarching goal, what one, two, or three problems do you want us to solve now? (Don't worry about the size of the problems yet. I want to know which problems our customers need first, based on your experience. I have my own candidate problems.)
- Does your team have a preferred rank for each of these problems? (I want your team to discuss the problems in advance of our meeting, as a team.)
- Does your team have candidates for the “Never do this for this product” list? Please send them to me.
- Please prepare in advance and be ready to work as teams.
- Thank you.
The workshop had its moments because everyone had strong feelings about the product goal. Jenny decided that was great. The more excited the teams were, the better the product would be.
Jenny's Results
Jenny spent the next few weeks supporting the teams as they learned more about how the goals changed which problems were necessary. The teams learned by doing and from customer feedback. She also learned by watching where the teams encountered unforeseen problems, and from the customer feedback.
In parallel, she started to massage this closet-backlog. After spending two full weeks trying to wrangle it into shape, she finally archived all of it. She created a new backlog with just the current problems to solve. And when people asked her to add more to the backlog, she asked them to discuss the business value of each request.
By the third month, the teams had a product they were proud of, and that the customers wanted to use. That allowed Jenny to work across the organization and with customers to create a reasonable roadmap.
Very few products need “everything.” Many products would be much better off without many of their current features. Do as Jenny did, and say No to “everything” so you can say yes to what's necessary now.
This newsletter touches on topics in Create Your Successful Agile Project and Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility.
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Pragmatic Manager: Vol 21, #4, ISSN: 2164-1196