Software Product development is a great field to be in and to successfully contribute to a product team it is good to know your product owner better. Product owners share certain common traits when it comes to driving the product development initiative.

1. They are all focused on the success of the product
2. They are all responsible for the failure attributed to a product

The interesting fact is that irrespective of these similarities individual product owners approach the ownership equation differently. They bring with them a different set of challenges and expectations from their team members

So the first thing is to realize that product ownership is only one responsibility that an individual takes up among the other roles and responsibilities he or she has within the company

Further each product owner brings a different set of skills on to the table. They also bring varied experience levels into this new role as they try their best to drive it. Their backgrounds also bring them face to face with totally different challenges to address.

Their business goals often define their expectations from their team members and they push a different set of priorities as they drive the process. All in the good faith that the product should succeed in the market place.

As product team members the better you know the expectations of the product owners the better you can positively contribute.
As a Market readiness evangelist I work with several product companies and product owners and I have often found it easy to understand them when I broadly categorize them into three

Entrepreneurs as Product Owners

Here comes the visionaries, mavericks and dreamers who move from one dream to another converting them into reality. They are often in that role because they drive the whole business initiative behind the development. They primarily focus on market opportunity, profitability, revenue and cost advantage as their driving factors

Technologists as Product Owners

Often taking up ownership the technologists are asked to deliver under a set of rules and guidelines and often pre planned budget. They have the responsibility to build a team from scratch. Technology is the driving factor for this group

Business Managers as Product Owners

They undertake ownership because business demands it and their knowledge of market is of prime importance in building the said product. They are very customer centric and often marketability will be their driving force. Their realization that new markets can be sustained only by happy customers they will focus their energy in creating the best customer experience to a business need

While product owners and team members spend several hours trying to understand each other, I always recommend a business impact session that every product owner should have their team. A session to understand the business impacts associated with each release. A session to acknowledge the challenges and expectations so that everyone will be able to work as a team for a common goal.

Transparency is so important when you work in teams. It helps in building a connection between team members. Transparency will also bring the abilities and inabilities to light. But if the team has been formed with a common goal in mind then team members help each other to succeed.

Now transparency without the urge to succeed or the commitment to progress is the end of the road for many. And that serves right because you are in the team because you want to succeed and you are willing to commit your time and energy for it.

So if you think you might have a few areas that you are not very thorough about I would always recommend that you let your team know so you are able to contribute better before it is late

This is also very true in a customer – vendor relationship. The need to be sure on what can be done and what your capability is and informing it to your customer. Telling the customer that you are not capable of something might loose you an order, but in a good way and often referenced.

The sad part in software services industry is over commitment and under delivery and a direct reason for this is competition and price negotiation.

There are much in a vendor beyond actual capabilities and it is the willingness to be transparent. Being transparent is the first step to being ready.

An interesting analogy struck me yesterday as I was watching the movie “Are we there yet?”

Product Stakeholders during a software product life cycle can become more like the kids in the movie who sit in the back seat and keep asking the question  “Are we there yet?”

A product development group is much like a car into which all the responsible roles put in with the developer driving, the project manger sitting on the passenger seat acting as a trip manager giving directions and the stakeholders sitting in the back seat impatiently

The destination is the Product Release into the market

Before the trip starts all parties get chance to see the trip plan and pretty much know (or that’s the understanding) about the stops they need to make and the number of times they will need to fuel up, change drivers etc. etc. Much about everything that can be possibly imagined is documented

The clock starts and everything kicks off smoothly and quite relaxed they set off

The front seat action starts with figuring out that the planning was not that perfect after all

An unusable spare tire, a few road blocks en-route that did not come with detour information and above all the driver having a headache from his late partying last night

While all the much action happens in the front seat with the trip manager trying to fix problems by making more stops than planned and sometimes even taking the wheel to help out the driver’s aching head; they all miss on one important thing and that is

“The time of arrival has been slowly but steadily slipping beyond catch-up in any humanly possible way.”

The back seat buddies seem to have dozed off a bit and now wake up to a cold breeze from the slight opening on the front window. The trip manager had apparently opened the window slightly to divert the odor of perspiration from making its way to the backseats.

The backseat buddies as character demands; check the watch as the first thing they do when they wake up.

They then look out of the window to get a glimpse of the highway sign that might tell them where they are. They sit back and probably make some mental calculation and then lean to the front and ask

“Are we there yet?” or  “Are we Market Ready yet?”

Now rest of the story you may well know.

Leaving the driver to take care of the wheel, push the gas as much as possible and follow the last known direction, the rest of the crew re-group, re-assess and re-create a new trip plan.

They will not reach in time that’s evident and clear, but now the decision for the stakeholders is to reach somehow as fast as possible or else they will have no choice than driving to the nearest airport, let go the trip manager and driver, sell the car for peanuts or abandon it and take the first plane back home.

With all this looming in the air the new plan is put into action.

The commotion that had adorned the front seat now spreads through out the vehicle. Due to the lack of time now we have a driver who has not been given a complete primer on the course but is being advised on demand and from time to time.

The driver’s role pretty much becomes taking care of the wheel and pushing the gas

The Trip Manager takes the totally unenviable position between explaining to the driver who looks at him and asks “Why are we in here?” and stakeholder’s annoying and the only relevant question which has also increased in frequency by ten fold…

“Are we there yet?” or “Are we Market Ready yet?”

The stake holders when they don’t stab the trip manager with the question they look out to see if there is a nearby airport or a second hand car dealer and continue the ride depending much more on luck than they did when they started

The only questions that ever matters in the whole trip are

The starting question of “When will we be there?”

And then every 5 minutes a repetition of the same question over and over again
Are we there yet?… Are we there yet?…..

Are we Market Ready yet?….   Are we Market Ready yet?…..

Finally that’s the only question that is worth asking. For all involved the answer to this will bring result to their actions, rest is all always just fiction