Phillip Starke

Tag Project Leader

Product Owner, Project Leader, Scrum Master

A comprehensive guide to stakeholder management – how to do it effectively

Stakeholder management is a core activity for anyone working in product development. It is key to building a successful product in the confines of a company. Also, it is rarely a topic of conversation.

Phillip
November 24, 2023

Product Owner, Project Leader

Feature requests – Simple advice in 3 scenarios & 5 best practices

A comic about prioritizing feature requests. First, the main character has a list of all features. Then, he scores them. Then, he is depicted to burn the list and finally, he builds what management says.

Anyone responsible for a product knows the situation. Some stakeholder comes with a feature request along the lines of “Can we please add Feature X to the product. It is important because of reasons. Please add it yesterday. Thanks.” How can you deal with these stakeholder requests?

Phillip
September 1, 2023

Product Owner, Project Leader

Clearing the confusion: product manager vs. project manager vs. product owner vs. program manager

A picture from a comic: two spidermen pointing at each other.

Product Manager, Project Manager, Product Owner, Program Manager: a lot of managers, a lot of words that start with the letters Pr. Maybe that is at the heart of why so many people seem to confuse the roles. They all…

Phillip
July 21, 2023

Methods, Product Owner

Six best practices for maximizing the value of the Opportunity Solution Tree (OST)

The opportunity solution tree is an extremely useful method. Having already covered the why, how and what of the opportunity solution tree, I will focus on the best practices that I have found to be crucial in maximizing the potential of the OST.

Phillip
May 26, 2023

Methods

OKRs – a fancy name for leading by objectives or is there more?

A Vectorgraphic of three team members in front of a huge target with an arrow in the middle.

Although the big hype around Objectives and Key Results (OKRs) from a few years ago seems to have receded a bit, many companies still deploy OKRs to manage their organization. Many seem to consider this the “agile” way to set…

Phillip
April 7, 2023

Books

Inspired by Marty Cagan: five key points from this must-read book

A picture of the cover of the book Inspired by Marty Cagan.

Sometimes you come across a book at just the right time. The content immediately makes sense and you cannot stop reading. This happened to me when I recently read Inspired by Marty Cagan.

Phillip
March 28, 2023

Methods, Product Owner, Scrum Master

Sprinting to success with Scrum: how to make sure it is done effectively

In its essence, agile product development is a mindset for dealing with an uncertain environment. The best way to do that is to find the path forward one step at a time. This means delivering frequently, observing how users react and interact with the product, and adjusting the approach for the next iteration according to the feedback and observations. Scrum is the manifestation of exactly this approach within a project management method.

Phillip
March 10, 2023

Books, Self Management

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – 4 takeaways from a powerful book

A depiction of the seven habits of highly effective people

The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is probably the book that had the most overall impact on my life. Other impactful books mostly touched my professional life. This one not only did that, but also changed my life outside of work. It impacted my character.

Phillip
January 10, 2023

Product Owner, Scrum Master

The sprint review – why is it important and what are best practices

To me, the sprint review is an extremely valuable ceremony. The principles behind the session itself are powerful, universally true, and can be applied outside of Scrum as well. Nevertheless, I feel that the goal and the importance of the review is sometimes misunderstood.

Phillip
October 7, 2022

Product Owner, Project Leader, Self Management, Uncategorized

The four core competencies of an effective product owner

The Product Owner (PO) is an extremely important role that includes a diverse set of responsibilities and an empowered PO can have a tremendous impact on product development, if he or she is able to handle the many jobs of a PO. This raises the question of what skills are needed to do just that. Thus, in this third installment of the series on the PO I will focus on answering the question What are the core competencies of a Product Owner?

Phillip
July 29, 2022