Scrum Group Workshops: how to become an effective Product Owner

Some time ago, when we decided to implement more flexible agile techniques into our project management process, my CEO asked me if I would like to be an appointed person that will be responsible for Scrum transition in our company. I didn’t hesitate for a moment. I have been into Scrum for some time already, so it was a great opportunity to broaden my knowledge about this framework, use it in practice and make our work even better. After attending a Scrum Master training in December 2015, run by Scrum Group, we decided it would be great to gain even more knowledge, this time about the second role in Scrum, which is Product Owner. I had planned to attend that training some time before, yet I had a lot of work with ongoing projects and supporting the team in getting better with Agile techniques. Finally, the opportunity came, and Scrum Group announced workshops in Gdańsk in the beginning of August. Boy, you can’t image how excited I was!

About training

With that excitement, I went to Gdańsk, where training took place. Workshops started on Sunday, 7th of August. The group met in Science and Technology Park – modern and advanced business center, where for example Polish Space Agency has its headquarters.

Source: Gdansk Science and Technology Park

Training was led by Sylwisz Pytka – Scrum Group owner and professional, experienced Scrum coach. I’ve already met Sylwisz during my previous Scrum Master training, so I knew this workshop would be at its highest level.

We had a big spacious conference room at our disposal, so we also could perform exercises. There was also snacks lounge, so we got everything we needed ;). During this two-day, intensive workshops we were in training for working as a professional Scrum Product Owners. We learned a lot of interesting techniques of how to gather and manage product requirements, how to hand it over to the development team and how to track project’s progress effectively. We also talked about estimating methods and about Scrum framework structure in general. All that was intended to prepare us to take a professional Scrum Product Owner level 1 certification provided by Scrum.org organization.

Day 1

We started the first day of the training with a short introduction so that we could get to know each other. It turned out that there was only 4 of us, and according to Sylwisz, it was one of the smallest workshops he had ever run. We were happy because it meant that we could have trainer’s attention more concentrated on our needs, problems and questions, and believe me, we had plenty of them! At the beginning of the training, we placed our questions on a „Question board” so that we could answer them one by one during the whole meeting.

Each of us came from a very different work environment, so it was a great opportunity to find out how different people are using Scrum techniques in various situations. After the introduction, we came up with a „Training Contract” – a set of rules we wanted each participant to follow so that we could maximize the effects. After that, we could finally start talking about Scrum and Product Owner’s role.

We began with discussing Agile and agility, pros and cons of Agile methods and a little recap of Agile Manifesto (each of us had already known that document, so we just refreshed our memory and quickly talked over its purpose). Later we dealt with the essentials – the Agile Product Management. During that part of the training, we tackled the differences between product and project, various methods of business and requirements analysis, increasing product awareness and maximizing its value. We got familiar with techniques such as Business Model Canvas and we had an opportunity to create one for our imaginary product, which was intended to help us with mastering techniques we discussed. We also created an Innovation Game Product Box, Personas and Product Canvas. Each of those methods was giving us more and more clear picture of our imaginary product.

As a next step, we used our product to bounce around and strengthen our knowledge about a Scrum framework. We went through all artifacts and meetings, ran a sample planning and retro sessions, which helped us to understand Product Owner’s role in all Scrum stages. All the time, we were engaged in fascinating discussions, when we often presented our own case studies and talked over mutually possible solutions to our problems. With such a small group we were guaranteed to have trainer’s attention and support, which was treasured.

At the end of the day, we updated a list of question we wanted to get the answer for, as well as our training backlog by the section we already discussed.

Day 2

We started the second day in a proper Scrum spirit by doing a quick daily planning! After that, we continued workshop by going through the Scrum Team and discussing responsibilities of each Scrum role. Of course, most extensively we talked about a Product Owner.\

We also learned how to prepare and maintain properly a Product Backlog. We created User Stories, bounced around Spikes, acceptance criteria and best ways to create them. We ran an estimation session using a Team Estimation Game technique.

In the end, we discussed a fairly new concept introduced by Scrum.org – Nexus, which is dedicated for scalable Scrum.

After summarizing all stuff we learned, we took some time to perform mock tests. That was an excellent opportunity to check the knowledge we gained during last 2 days.

Summary

This was a real crammer for us and very productive two days. The atmosphere was really friendly and we had plenty of time to discuss our specific questions and case studies. Each participant was very supportive and often provided their company’s real-life examples that illustrate the solution to someone else’s problem. The trainer has a good deal of expertise in the Scrum techniques and Scrum framework. He presented a lot of examples and never refused to answer our questions. Before the last day ended, our „Questions board” was already empty. Right now, with lots of enthusiasm and new knowledge, I can’t wait to start introducing newly familiarized techniques in Merixstudio and help my team to master Product Owner’s competences. Get ready! We’re about to be even better in what we’re doing right now!

Scrum on!