Introduction
The purpose of Scrum is to maximize value by delivering a usable and useful Increment through Sprints. While the entire Scrum Team is accountable for creating a valuable, useful Increment, the Product Owner is also accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.
Deciding what’s the most valuable thing to do can be difficult. The transparency of the Product Backlog is key to facilitating decision making. Outcome Mapping is a powerful technique to enhance Product Backlog transparency.
Follow us through the story of the fictional company Amazing Decisions where Kathryn, Sharon, Bruce and a Scrum Team learn about outcome mapping.
Amazing Decisions
This is Kathryn. Kathryn is the CEO of Amazing Decisions, a company creating and selling digital products. She wants to increase revenue from sales. Kathryn has set up a meeting with her direct reports Sharon and Bruce to brainstorm ideas.
Bruce, the VP of Sales wants to produce new widgets to increase revenue - flashier than the rest of the product range and bigger too.
Sharon, the Product Owner isn’t convinced that more widgets will lead to more revenue. Instead, she suggests to take a step back and understand which customer behavior would lead to more revenue and what the organization would have to do to encourage this behavior.
