As a trainer, I have the unique opportunity of hearing from a lot of people practicing Scrum in many different organizations. One of the recent trends that I am thrilled to hear about is that many organizations are - at last! - starting to take note of the importance of defining their products.
I am truly thrilled to hear this. Of all of the problems holding back value delivery, a siloed approach to delivery is the most devastating. Here's what I mean. When an organization adopts Scrum, most of the time, they adopt Scrum within their current team structure. Which means that they often end up with Scrum Teams that are siloed based on technology. For example, the SQL experts will all end up on a SQL Scrum Team, and the web developers will be on a web development team, and so on. When this happens, then in order to get anything done - as, for example, updating the product catalog of a website - the request has to go through many Scrum Teams and several different Product Owners before it can be completed.
This - obviously - slows down value delivery.
A much better approach to this would be for the organization to take a step back and ask the question: what are our products? And then to organize Scrum Teams around those products. This may mean that the organization has several different products, and that each product is supported by one - or more! - Scrum Teams where each Scrum Team consists of members with different skills (e.g. SQL, web development, testers, designers and content writers may all work together).
But how do you go about defining products in an organization? In this article, I will give you a possible roadmap that you can adapt for defining products in your own organization.
Define Your Product(s)
Before establishing a Scrum Team (or teams) to deliver value, you must understand your product. Many teams transition to Scrum without defining the product boundaries that the Scrum Team will create, resulting in a team that doesn't have all of the skills that they need to deliver value. A better approach is to understand what product you are trying to deliver and then build a team (or teams) with all the skills needed to deliver that product. It's the difference between organizing around technology silos and organizing around value delivery - in short, it makes all the difference.
Defining your product starts with describing your customer. Who are they, and what do they want/need? What value are you delivering to them, and how is your organization rewarded? Once you answer these questions, you are on your way to better understanding the definition of your organization’s product.
Here is a possible roadmap for defining products within an organization.
Step 1: Leadership Buy-In
There have been many books written about Change Management - and for good reason. The most successful change initiatives have leadership support, change champions, and address "what's in it for me" for all those involved in or impacted by the change. But before we can start talking about change management, we need to articulate why this is necessary - at all - to leadership.
Key Messaging:
Not a reorganization for the sake of change: Emphasize that this isn’t about moving people on the org chart or disrupting existing reporting lines.
Focus on team alignment: The goal is to align Scrum Teams around clearly defined products, not projects, features, or functional departments.
Benefits:
Accelerated value delivery through reducing handoffs
Improved moral by removing barriers to communication and collaboration
Improved customer focus and accountability.
Clear ownership and faster decision-making.
Easier Product Backlog management and prioritization.
Teams develop greater expertise and domain knowledge.
Step 2: Schedule & Identify the Right Participants
In this article, I am not going to focus on change management and instead, I am going to jump right in to how to conduct the product definition workshop. Nevertheless, in order for this to be a success, you must build leadership and organizational support. Once you have that, you can start planning how to have the discussion around product definition.
I suggest that the product definition discussion itself take place as part of a workshop. Who should participate in this workshop depends on the key players in your organization. Typically, a product definition workshop may include any - or all - of the following types of people:
Executives: Particularly those responsible for strategic vision and funding.
Directors and Managers: People who oversee multiple teams and understand operational dependencies.
Product Owners or Equivalent Roles: Those responsible for delivering customer value.
Business Stakeholders: Optional, depending on the scope of the discussion (e.g., Sales, Support, Marketing).
The more diverse the group (within reason), the better the product definitions will be. A good product definition workshop can include anywhere from 2-25 participants, depending on the organization size, complexity and many other factors.
Step 3: Schedule the Workshop
The workshop agenda is designed to guide a group of leaders and stakeholders through a structured, collaborative process for defining the organization’s products. It begins by asking participants to identify who the customers are. Working in breakout groups, participants compile lists of all the internal and external customers relevant to the part of the organization being analyzed. These lists are then shared across groups to promote cross-functional understanding, after which teams return to refine their original ideas based on what they’ve heard.
Next, the workshop shifts to uncovering customer insights by identifying the pains customers experience and the gains they seek. Each group connects these insights to specific services or solutions the organization currently provides—what pain relievers and gain creators are being delivered today. Again, teams present their findings, allowing for open discussion and refinement.
Finally, the workshop culminates in mapping out the organization’s services and grouping them into logical clusters that could be defined as products. This step is highly collaborative and iterative, often involving multiple rounds of feedback and discussion. The goal is not just to list services, but to distill them into coherent, customer-aligned products that Scrum Teams can be organized around. This high-level structure ensures the outcome is grounded in real customer value, cross-functional insight, and organizational clarity. Contact Rebel Scrum to schedule a Product Definition workshop for your organization. Once you have defined your product, Scrum training, self-organization and launching of new Scrum Teams is next!
Summary
You are not creating new bureaucracy—you are focusing your teams around meaningful, value-generating deliverables called products. This process enhances clarity, accountability, and customer alignment without upheaval. By using a structured, inclusive, and insight-driven approach, you ensure the outcome is something everyone can align with and support.