Articles

By Andrew Park | 2024-10-31 In a recent conversation with Simonetta Batteiger, a seasoned product leadership and executive coach, we explored the evolving role of Agile and Scrum in product management. Simonetta, founder and CEO of Inclusive Leaders, brings over 15 years of experience in product management across multiple industries. As an advocate for inclusive leadership, she supports teams in thriving and building impactful products. This article captures insights from our

By Andrew Park | 2024-10-21 In today’s evolving product landscape, the role of the Product Owner, as defined by Scrum, was formulated in the late 1990s when software projects were much smaller and simpler, and most companies operated on sales-led product teams. Since then, software project complexity has increased by 50x, and user experience (UX) standards have risen dramatically. These two forces have driven the rise of the Product Oriented Model, which has gained significan

By Andrew Park | 2024-09-11 Gary Cohen is a seasoned software development leader and product development consultant with over 20 years of experience. As the Principal Consultant at Practical Agility LLC, Gary works with organizations ranging from startups to Fortune 10 companies to improve their agile practices and drive better outcomes for customers and employees. His leadership roles have spanned across major companies such as Assurance Software, Oracle, and Kenexa, where h

By Andrew Park | 2024-09-02 As a Chief Product Officer, Head of Product, VP of Product, CTO, Engineering VP, or Engineering Director, your focus is on aligning product and engineering teams with the broader business strategy. One critical area where alignment often falls short is in the role of Product Owners. Too often, Product Owners are reduced to “order takers,” executing tasks without contributing to the strategic direction of the product. This issue is particularly prev

By Andrew Park | 2024-08-23 In my experience, the role of Product Owner, as defined by Scrum, was originally created to give prominence to a single individual who would manage the product backlog and ensure development efforts aligned with the customer’s needs. Scrum, as an Agile framework, deliberately chose the term “Product Owner” to emphasize this person’s authority and responsibility over the product’s success. The intention was to create a single point of accountabilit