I’ve submitted a session for the 2014 Keep Austin Agile conference. Any feedback on this is appreciated via email, or comment below. You can also view, comment, and rate this session on the Austin Agile site.

If you havent’s heard of Keep Austin Agile, it’s a one day agile conference that’s put on every other year. Next time is March 21st, 2014. I highly recommend this conference, as the cost is low, the content is great, and the attendee vibe is inspiring.

Are You Compromising Your Product Owner?

The Product Owner role is key to creation of software that users value. It’s also the most compromised role in Scrum – organizationally, politically, and functionally. From political appointments to part-time assignments to lack of stakeholder support, there’s lots that can go wrong. In this highly interactive session, you will learn how to select, on-board, and support your Product Owner by solving real-world problems and removing constraints placed on this critical role.

We’ll cover three key stages in the life of a Product Owner:

Selecting a Product Owner On-boarding a Product Owner Supporting a Product Owner No single person controls all of those phases, so we’ll show you how to use influence and education to achieve your objective, no matter what your role.

This session is highly interactive, requiring participants to work as a team with provided materials through several real world problems in each of the key areas.

In this session, you will learn:

  • How the larger organization and type of software impacts the Product Owner role.
  • How to sell stakeholders and management on the importance of the Product Owner role.
  • How to set expectations so the right product owner is chosen and is available to the team.
  • How to get a new Product Owner up to speed quickly.
  • How to gel a Product Owner and Scrum Team into a working whole.
  • How to get multiple stakeholders to agree on backlog priorities.
  • How the Scrum Master, Team, management, and stakeholders support the Product Owner.
  • How to handle turnover in the Product Owner role.
  • How to handle a series of different Product Owners when required by your business.
  • How to work with a (gasp) real customer as your Product Owner.

Time is reserved for debrief and questions/answers at the end of the session.