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KentMcDonald

Writer & product manager helping product people deliver powerful internal products. #Ubersherpa to my family, listens to jazz and podcasts (but not necessarily podcasts about jazz), and collects national parks.

This meeting should be an email, but will people read it?

February 27, 2022 by KentMcDonald

A look at how asynchronous communication can help address the communication conundrum product managers face with too many meetings and too many emails.

Read moreThis meeting should be an email, but will people read it?
CRUD story splitting pattern

Story Splitting

February 28, 2021 by KentMcDonald

Story splitting is the act of examining a large backlog item and splitting it into smaller backlog items that provide value and can be delivered in a short time frame.
You can consider story splitting to be a planning technique that helps you organize your backlog into manageable chunks. You can also think of it as an analysis technique that helps you understand a particular backlog item through the act of splitting it into smaller, valuable backlog items.

Read moreStory Splitting
Example mapping example

Example Mapping

February 14, 2021 by KentMcDonald

Example Mapping is a backlog refinement technique that helps you structure your team’s conversation around a backlog item. The conversation focuses on drawing out all of the relevant acceptance criteria (or rules), related scenarios and pertinent questions associated with the backlog item you are discussing.

Read moreExample Mapping
Usability Testing

Usability Testing

December 24, 2020 by KentMcDonald

Usability testing is a way to test how intuitive the design, user flows and content is in your product, app or website. Usability testing consists of asking real people who are similar to potential users to perform various tasks on your product. You can use the information gained from this exercise to identify opportunities for improvement in your product’s design, user flows and content.

Read moreUsability Testing

Sprint Reviews

December 20, 2020 by KentMcDonald

Sprint Reviews exist primarily to get feedback from your stakeholders when you can’t get feedback from them during the course of a sprint.

Read moreSprint Reviews

AMA: Southeast Wisconsin IIBA

November 18, 2020 by KentMcDonald

On November 17, 2020 I joined the Southeast Wisconsin Chapter of IIBA for an Ask Me Anything session focused on Business Analysis in an Agile World.

Here are the questions that came up during the session along with my answers.

Read moreAMA: Southeast Wisconsin IIBA
Roadmap with outcomes

Product Roadmap

November 2, 2020 by KentMcDonald

A product roadmap is a statement of intent for how you are going to implement your strategy. The product roadmap is a living thing that indicates your best understanding at the point that you last updated it and it also reflects whatever uncertainty you faced when you last put it together. 

Read moreProduct Roadmap
Outcome over Output

Working backwards in business intelligence

August 2, 2020 by KentMcDonald

The story of how I helped a team do the right amount of analysis in their business intelligence project by starting with outcomes and working backwards.

Read moreWorking backwards in business intelligence

AMA: Business Analysis in an Agile Context Tips, Tricks & Pitfalls

July 24, 2020 by KentMcDonald

I joined Adrian Reed In this #BACommunity webinar to discuss the Business Analysis in an agile context. Here's answers to questions asked in the webinar.

Read moreAMA: Business Analysis in an Agile Context Tips, Tricks & Pitfalls

AMA: IIBA Hyderabad

June 11, 2020 by KentMcDonald

Questions and answers from a Fireside Chat with the Hyderabad Chapter of International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA).

Read moreAMA: IIBA Hyderabad

The roles product people play

May 30, 2020 by KentMcDonald

This post explores the product people roles of product management, product ownership and business analysis and identifies which titles fill those roles.

Read moreThe roles product people play
Delivery Lead

What is a delivery lead?

May 10, 2020 by KentMcDonald

An exploration of the delivery lead role, its key responsibilities, its relevance to product people and different perspectives on the role.

Read moreWhat is a delivery lead?
Remote product people

A product person’s guide to remote product teams

April 5, 2020 by KentMcDonald

A look at how product people can work with remote product teams. Including principles, tips for successfully working remote, interactions, and FAQs.

Read moreA product person’s guide to remote product teams

Discovery Sessions: Start a project off right

February 29, 2020 by KentMcDonald

A look at how discovery sessions help you to get you project off to a good start by making sure your product solves the right problem.

Read moreDiscovery Sessions: Start a project off right
Identify SME with a context diagram

A product person’s guide to working with SMEs

February 1, 2020 by KentMcDonald

Some experience backed advice on how product people interact with subject matter experts (SME) including who should your SMEs be and how to work with them.

Read moreA product person’s guide to working with SMEs
Build measure learn loop

Build Measure Learn

January 12, 2020 by KentMcDonald

The Build-Measure-Learn loop is a concept coined by Eric Ries in The Lean Startup to capture the feedback loop startups use to convert ideas into products. 

Read moreBuild Measure Learn
Agile Mindset

7 Things product people need to know about agile

December 1, 2019 by KentMcDonald

In order to provide clarity about agile techniques and practices, here are 7 things product people need to know about agile.

Read more7 Things product people need to know about agile
product management

How to use outcomes to decide how to deliver a solution

November 16, 2019 by KentMcDonald

Just about every organization I've come across struggles with finding the right product team structure. Here are some ideas from the INDUSTRY conference.

Read moreHow to use outcomes to decide how to deliver a solution
product management

How to decide what to do using outcomes

November 9, 2019 by KentMcDonald

Just about every organization I've come across struggles with finding the right product team structure. Here are some ideas from the INDUSTRY conference.

Read moreHow to decide what to do using outcomes
How to be an agile business analyst

What is an agile business analyst

November 1, 2019 by KentMcDonald

An excerpt from How To Be An Agile Business Analyst, a book that explores how to apply your business analysis skills in an agile manner so that your team solves the right problems with the right solutions.

Read moreWhat is an agile business analyst

How do you deal with testing issues in a sprint?

October 18, 2019 by KentMcDonald

Here’s a description of how my current team approaches testing and dealing with test issues, as well as an explanation as to why we approach testing in this fashion.

Read moreHow do you deal with testing issues in a sprint?

How to structure your product team

September 28, 2019 by KentMcDonald

Just about every organization I've come across struggles with finding the right product team structure. Here are some ideas from the INDUSTRY conference.

Read moreHow to structure your product team
Technical Product Manager

What is a technical product manager?

September 6, 2019 by KentMcDonald

I decided to do a little bit of research to find out what this technical product manager role is all about and if it is a bit better description of the type of work I find myself drawn toward. Included in this post are some of the resources I came across to get a better understanding.

Read moreWhat is a technical product manager?

Should agile adoption be top down?

August 23, 2019 by KentMcDonald

Sometimes the outcome you're asked to deliver is a reduction in staff. This post explores how to deal with mandated outcomes such as reducing staff.

Read moreShould agile adoption be top down?
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