When discussing the impactful role of Product Owners in Agile development, we often cite examples of those who’ve significantly turned the tide in their organisations. I’m talking about not just fulfilling roles but altering the very fabric of product management - these are the MVPs who redefine the game. 🌟
Crafting Agile Journeys: The Microsoft Model
Let’s dive into an illustrative saga at Microsoft. The protagonists of this story are none other than Brian Harry and Aaron Bjork, whose work on Team Foundation Server paved the way for a transformation within Microsoft’s Developer Division.
Agile Enlightenment: Brian Harry’s Vision 🔑
Brian Harry wasn’t just managing a product; he was orchestrating an Agile revolution. He saw the clunky, slow-moving behemoth that was the two-year release cadence and knew something had to give. Under his guidance, Microsoft took its first major steps toward embracing agility - a significant shift for such a colossal entity.
Let’s break this down:
Vision and Strategy:
Brian Harry’s foresight to move from a rigid two-year cycle to a more flexible, agile framework.
Implementation of a season-based model aligning with product goals and market demands.
Cultural Transformation:
Initiation of a cultural shift within Microsoft, embracing agility at its core.
Encouraging cross-departmental collaboration to adopt these new Agile practices.
Innovation Through Feedback:
The Pioneering Change: Shorter Cycles for Better Feedback 🌀
Understanding that feedback cycles were prohibitively long, Brian Harry catalysed the move towards a season-based model.
This wasn’t merely a process adjustment; it was a strategic pivot towards what now forms the core of Microsoft’s product release philosophy.
The Impact of Strategic Vision and Relentless Pursuit
Harry’s relentless work ethic, combined with his strategic acumen, was a force to be reckoned with. By leveraging his stature and respect within Microsoft, he initiated changes that many others wouldn’t dare to. It’s a testament to the power of a Product Owner with a vision backed by the vigour to see it through. 🛠️
Aaron Bjork: The Catalyst for Agile Culture
Working in tandem with Harry, Aaron Bjork became a key figure in nurturing the seeds of Agile methodology within Microsoft. His role was pivotal in translating Harry’s vision into the cultural fabric of the Developer Division, showcasing the synergistic power of collaboration.
Let’s break this down:
Advocacy and Promotion:
Championing the Agile mindset across teams and management levels.
Spreading Agile best practices through workshops, talks, and one-on-one mentoring.
Cultural Advocacy:
Sustainable Change:
Satya Nadella: Watering the Agile Seed
While Harry and Bjork laid the groundwork, it was Satya Nadella who amplified and watered these ideas of agility across Microsoft. His leadership enabled an environment where these Agile principles could flourish, demonstrating the significance of executive buy-in for transformative change.
From Azure DevOps to DevOps Culture: A Legacy
The legacy left by Harry and Bjork is not confined to Microsoft’s walls. They have influenced the broader narrative of product development by demonstrating that it’s possible to have both scale and agility, to shorten feedback loops without sacrificing quality or vision.
In Summary:
Let’s take a closer look at what makes for great Product Ownership
💡 Visionary Leadership: Brian Harry saw the future of Agile at Microsoft and made it a reality.
🔄 Shorter Feedback Loops: Moving from two-year to three-week cycles, they transformed how feedback influenced product development.
🎯 Strategic Implementation: By harnessing his position and respect, Harry could champion change that resonated across the organization.
🌱 Cultural Shift: With Aaron Bjork, the duo not only changed processes but also the mindset towards product building.
📈 Executive Support: Satya Nadella’s support exemplified how leadership could amplify and sustain Agile transformations.
🌍 Industry Influence: Their work has become a benchmark for Agile practices in the industry.
In conclusion, the contributions of Product Owners like Brian Harry and Aaron Bjork go beyond mere product management. They have reshaped the approach to product development and Agile practices.
It’s a narrative that underlines the power of visionary leadership, relentless execution, and the ripple effect of pioneering change in the tech landscape. 🚀
As we continue to evolve in the Agile realm, stories like these remind us of the impact one or two individuals can have in steering the ship towards uncharted yet revolutionary waters.
Question is, what’s the biggest contribution from a product owner that you know of? I think there are a lot of great product owners out there, great product managers, but the one that I always think of when I think about great product management is kind of two people in the same organisation, both kind of product owners in the same product, which is confusing because then there’s two product owners, right? But I’ll try and explain.
That’s effectively Brian Harry, who was the product unit manager for Team Foundation Server for the entire developer division at Microsoft back in the day. When I was getting into all of this stuff, he was the man. He realised, as the single responsible person for about 650 people working on this product, that a two-yearly release cadence kind of sucks, right? So his was the first team in Microsoft to start really en masse moving towards a greater degree of agility.
The way they came up with, within the context of Microsoft, for doing that stuff is almost the model that was replicated across the organisation. It’s never going to be identical, right? But that’s when, if you hear Microsoft talking about their season-based model, which they do talk about, they have the spring release and the fall release, right? This kind of cadence of bigger things that they’re working on, of product goals maybe, right? That’s really what they’re talking about, is this season-based model where they have that urban flow of work and ideas.
Brian Harry worked on that, very much supported by my other favourite gentleman, Aaron Bjork, who was, in effect, if you’re not familiar with TFS, and it’s now called Azure DevOps, right? That’s effectively what it is. Back in the day, Microsoft was doing two-year releases of Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio, right? They found that the cadence for closing the feedback loop was actually four to six years because they were in a two-yearly cadence. It’s two to three times whatever your delivery cadence of usable working product is. That’s ultimately your feedback cadence because what they found was that they would do a beta halfway through to get feedback from people, but as soon as you’ve shipped that beta, you’re now working on this stuff that you need to do for launch, and the feedback you get on the beta you can’t actually fit in here because you don’t have any time left. You’re all booked, right? You’ve booked out that time for the stuff you need to do to get it to production.
So then you start thinking about, well, maybe we can fit it into the next yearly release, and they were able to fit some stuff in there. But what they also often realised was the closer they get to that production release, by the time they finish the beta, they’re planning for the next two-yearly release, right? So they’ve already booked out this time as the feedback comes in on this product. The earliest you can possibly get that feedback from the beta into the actual working product is two years down the line, right? Or two and a half, up to two and a half years down the line. But in actual fact, some stuff might not make it into that time box, so it’s the next time box, which is another, which is four years, four to four and a half years down the line, which is just too long, right? It’s just too long.
So what, in realising that, this leadership group in this organisation, in this part of the organisation, they realised that they had to do something different, and he led the way in his organisation in making those changes, largely leveraging the respect for his choices, his wisdom within the organisation. The respect and the rest of the organisation for his wisdom allowed him to maybe do things that other people weren’t able to do or hadn’t been able to do in the past. He is relentless. This guy, he’ll work 20-hour days, no problem at all. He’s just one of those folks that has that outlook.
Him, along with Aaron Bjork, effectively changed the way Microsoft do business, changed the way Microsoft approached building products, and changed the whole ethos. I mean, not without support, right? Somebody else has to come along and water those ideas and help them grow, and that was Satya, who was able to come along into Microsoft and then start encouraging a lot of these ideas. But the kernel for these ideas was pre-Satya. It was the Azure DevOps team, and they moved to a three-week continuous cadence.
So, in fact, the product owner, that’s how I see the product unit manager, right? Fully fiscally accountable person in your product structure. They’re the ones that are actually best placed to enable changes in your organisation anyway. They’re the ones with the money. They’re the ones with, well, if I’m going to spend your money building this product, I need to be able to control this and this and this in order to be most effective at building this product. They’re the ones who need to have that argument. It’s not your agile coaches or your consultants or any of these people. Like, what the hell do they know about your business, right? That’s the attitude internally.
But one of the core purposes of that agile coach and consultant is to help that person who can make that change, who does have that respect inside of the organisation, who does have that fiscal accountability, make those changes. And that was the huge, I just think it’s such a huge contribution that Brian Harry and Aaron Bjork made to this idea of building products inside of Microsoft, right? But building products in general, because the whole ethos of Azure DevOps is about DevOps, right? It’s about shortening those feedback loops. What tools do we need to support that idea? And yeah, that for me is the most powerful story.
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