Take home case study

I'd wonder what a "junior" Product Owner was, how they would really be accountable, and why a cross-functional team would need engineering to be managed by another authority.

I'd look for a sponsor who recognizes that there is an organizational gravity to be overcome.

Since I don't even know my own role, I'd wonder why I am expected to determine equipment, KPIs, and other measures, and why I am expected to perform anything that could be measured at all.

Hi Ian,

Thanks a ton for your time and help.

Few things I missed to add in my original post.

Case is presented to the scrum master of the team. Team's PO is inexperienced (aka junior).

Hope this will make better sense now.

junior product owner [...] engineering manager who is new.

Teach then about Scrum and their Accountability/role. Help them doing it right.

What measures would you take to set the team for success?

Teach them about Scrum, make sure they understand the values and why we do what we do. Start with things like "what is an item?", Definition of Done, Definition of Workflow, Definition of Ready (start with the first 2, decide whether you need the latter 2).

What are other equipment that are needed to be taken care?

The team need the equipment they use for their work. If software development, add version control/CI/CD; if not software development, whatever equipment they need to develop the product.

Which KPIs would you track? Which methods will you utilize to collect KPI data?

Sprint Goal.

And if that works, look at EBM and see what works for your team.

If you use Kanban: Cycle Time, Throughput, Average Work Item Age and use the SLE with Work Item Aging.

How would you measure team and your own performance?

Why measure performance? Is the team happy, are you happy, are the stakeholders, users, customers happy? Measure that. I guess it's measuring performance?