• Agile Transformation

If you want to innovate, you have to dare to shoot out

I know how it goes. I, too, have had the role of Product Owner on several teams. Looking back, I often relied far too much on what my stakeholders within the organization asked of me. Those questions quickly became leading and caused alternative ideas to quickly snow under. Bold, creative, stimulating, challenging and truly innovative concoctions don’t get a chance. Once someone comes up with a great idea, it quickly seems too complex. It’s better to pick the low-hanging fruit first,’ is the short-term motto. But that low-hanging fruit doesn’t stay fresh for long. Delivers less value in the end.

If you want to get really good for once, dare to go for real innovation. Color outside the lines, think outside the box, cross a boundary. To do this, it is important to have a good conversation with your customer. And that can feel quite exciting. After all, sometimes your initial ideas or assumptions are completely wrong. Yes, that is an outlier and feels uncomfortable for a while. But at the same time it is super valuable and instructive. With these insights you tell your stakeholders what they should find important and not the other way around. Only then can you really start innovating. And of course you don’t bring that mindset into the organization on a silver platter, but I think the following two steps can be very valuable to you.

Focus on the voice of the customer as Product Owner

If you want to make your customers happy with real value, your best bet is to gain Product Owner skills. A Product Owner listens to customers and works with the Scrum Team to develop products and services that customers are only too happy to pay for. With money, attention or effort. Your delivered value then feels like a gift. Check out our Product Owner I training if you’d like to take your team into developing valuable services for your customers. Or maybe the Design Thinking & Lean Start-up Training is for you?

Triple your impact as a team of Product Owners

You may already be working as a Product Owner, along with fellow Product Owners. If so, you have a next-level challenge. Your team works in a complex web of internal and external customers. You pave your own path, but also align with the organization’s roadmap. What Product Owner teams then really appreciate from us is that we guide them as a team in our successful in-company Product Owner Master Track. Something for your team? Read more about it on our website or just call/email me to see if it really suits you.

Don’t be limited by frameworks, let us challenge you

To make an outlier for once. To color outside the lines. To think outside existing frameworks of the corporate structure. In short, to do things differently. I and my experienced colleagues at Scrum Academy challenge you with numerous training courses and in-company programs. What all our services have in common? They are interactive, PowerPoint-free and packed with tools and cases. This is how we build High Impact and Happy Teams together with dozens of organizations. What does that mean for you? You can read that here in our manifesto. Or get in touch, and we’ll be happy to tell you more.