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Question about measurement of value and stakeholder management

Last post 03:31 pm May 26, 2020 by Marc Fröwis
3 replies
05:11 pm May 25, 2020

Hello everyone,

i´m new to the role as a product owner. So i try to start with some basic ideas i´ve learned from my pspo class and from the scrum and the embt guide.

For example i try to understand how the future product development can be enhanced and what the current value of the product is.

Therefore i have two questions: Both of them are quiet discussed between me and another PO.

  1. For the current value i was adviced that i should measure how often my product ist being used by the customer in order to measure the value it delivers. This irritates me, because the product has different features that are quiet special. So the customer will use this features maybe only one time in a year but it will produce a high value for the customer because he CAN use this features one time a year. Same goes with the product itself,

    The Ebmt Guide also didnt mention such kind of measurement.



    In my understanding to have a reliable measurement based on the useage i must have a treshold for every feature or the product itself. Who can provide me with such a reliable number? Is this even a measurement that might help me?

     
  2. As i said i´m new to the PO role. So i´m trying to get a better understanding about the future development. Therefor i´m listening to my stalkeholders some of them are quiet influental. And this is the second thing i´m wondering about. In order to regain a higher customer base some of the influental stakeholders want to add more features to the product. I can´t see where this is going because none of the previous measurements are showing this kind of relation. I also want to run a small experiment (for example customer feedback) to validate this (again).



    Furthermore i dont think that this will be the final solution, because on the one hand as i said the existing measurements are not showing this relation between customer base and the amount of features. On the other hand the stakeholders are sure this is the right way despite the numbers. So i want to collaborate with all stakeholders and let them vote if this idea should be considered.



    The previous mentioned PO states that i should instead acknowlege but also decline the idea to add more features, based on the current data. I fear that this could also lead to unsatisfied stakeholders. My other idea - based in the recommendation of the PO - is that i can add the mentioned features to the backlog but dont realize them until it is clear that they are realy necessary for increasing the product value.



    Am i correct with my thinking? If not, why?



    Kind regards

    Martin

05:55 am May 26, 2020

The Ebmt Guide also didnt mention such kind of measurement.

What about the Customer Usage Index described in the appendix?

"Measurement of usage, by feature, to help infer the degree to which customers find the product useful and whether actual usage meets expectations on how long users should be taking with a feature."


06:59 am May 26, 2020

What about the Customer Usage Index described in the appendix?

I stand corrected !



After your statement ian i downloaded the newest version of the EBMgt and compared it to my printed version ... i just referenced an old version of the guide ... shame on me ...



Thanks!


03:31 pm May 26, 2020

 

The previous mentioned PO states that i should instead acknowlege but also decline the idea to add more features, based on the current data

Mike Cohn wrote about Six Guidelines for Saying No to a Stakeholder

At the very beginning he states

Saying no can be very difficult. Most of us like to please others. But when we say no, we disappoint the requester.

But saying no to stakeholders is an important part of the product owner’s job. The product owner is tasked with optimizing the value delivered by a product, not with saying yes to every customer request.

For every time a product owner says yes to some stakeholder’s feature request, the product owner will need to say no to some future customer request. The team’s time is limited and a yes today will necessitate saying no to some later opportunity.

It´s the PO´s responsibility to maximize the value of the product and from my point of view that is something - if your data wont match with the stakeholders idea - you can´t guarantee. Giving away the choice to say no and therefor let the stakeholders decide what to do e.g. let them vote... how will this impact your product ownership?





I can also recommend Evolution of the product owner


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