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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers LoveAgile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers Love

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This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book

Agile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers LoveAgile Product Management with Scrum: Creating Products that Customers Love

Learn More Buy

Working with Customers, Users, and Other Stakeholders

The customer, who is the person purchasing the product, and the user, who is the individual using the product, determine the success or failure of the product. Only if enough customers buy the product and the users find it beneficial will the product be a success in the marketplace. Notice that the customer and the user may not be the same person. They may also not have the same needs. Take the example of an electronic spreadsheet. The needs of its users might include ease of use and high productivity. The company purchasing the product, on the other hand, might be concerned about the total cost of ownership and data security.

To create a winning product, the product owner, ScrumMaster, and team must develop an intimate understanding of customer and user needs, and how these needs can best be met. The best way to do this is to involve customers and users early and continuously in the development process. Asking customers to provide feedback on prototypes, inviting customer representatives to sprint review meetings, and releasing software early and frequently are great ways to learn from customers. Teams should bear in mind that the product is only a means to an end—to help the customer and to generate the desired benefits for the company developing it, not an end in itself. As Theodore Levitt famously put it, "People don't want a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole." It is only when we focus on the customer that we develop the best possible solution.

In addition to customers and users, product owners should involve other stakeholders, such as representatives from marketing, sales, and service, early and regularly by asking them to attend the sprint review meetings. The meetings allow the representatives to see the product grow, to interact with the Scrum team, and to share questions, concerns, and ideas. Bryson (2004) provides an overview of helpful techniques to identify and analyze stakeholders.

Product Marketers and Project Managers

Some companies distinguish between strategic and tactical product management aspects and employ separate roles for each, a product marketer and a (technical) product manager. Product marketers tend to be outward-facing; their primary responsibility is to understand the market, manage the product road map, and look after the cumulative profits across releases. Product managers tend to be inward-facing; their responsibilities consist of detailed feature description, prioritization, and collaboration with the development team. In Scrum, the product owner takes on all of these responsibilities. For strategic product management aspects, the product owner may receive support from a portfolio manager, from a vice president, or even from the CEO, depending on the size of the company and the importance of the project. For help with pricing and marketing communications, the product owner may turn to a product marketer and senior salesperson. For the tactical aspects, the product owner can count on the ScrumMaster's and team's support. Uniting the two product management aspects achieves end-to-end authority and accountability. We avoid handoffs, waiting, and delays as well as miscommunication and defects.

You may have noticed that I have not mentioned the role of the project manager on a Scrum team. There is a reason: Project management responsibilities are no longer exercised by one person. They are split across the members of the Scrum team instead. The product owner, for instance, is responsible for managing the release scope and date, managing the budget, communicating progress, and managing the stakeholders. The team takes on the task of identifying, estimating, and managing the tasks. The project manager role is therefore redundant. This does not mean that the individuals working as project managers are no longer needed. The opposite is true. Former project managers often become great ScrumMasters. I have also seen project managers successfully transition into the product owner role.

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