The Unjustified Reign of Keyword-Driven Candidate Screening: A Hard-Hitting Analysis

In today’s competitive job market, organizations are inundated with a deluge of resumes for every open position. To streamline the hiring process and manage this influx, many companies have turned to Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) that rely heavily on keyword matching to screen potential candidates. However, this automated approach is not only inefficient but also unjustified, leading to significant drawbacks and missed opportunities in identifying the best talent for the job.

The Unjustified Reign of Keyword-Driven Screening

The use of ATS software has become ubiquitous in modern recruitment practices, with the promise of saving time and effort by quickly filtering through a large volume of resumes. These systems are programmed to scan resumes for specific keywords related to job requirements, skills, and qualifications set by the hiring team. Candidates whose resumes contain these keywords are then flagged for further review, while those lacking them are often discarded without human intervention.

However, this reliance on keywords overlooks the nuances of a candidate’s experience, achievements, and potential cultural fit within the organization. It fails to capture the full scope of a candidate’s capabilities beyond what is explicitly stated in their resume, leading to a narrow and incomplete view of potential candidates.

The Unintended Consequences of Keyword-Centric Screening

Keyword-driven screening can have severe consequences for the recruitment process and the future of the organization:

1. Ineffective Candidate Evaluation: Relying solely on keywords overlooks the nuances of a candidate’s experience, achievements, and potential cultural fit within the organization. It fails to capture the full scope of a candidate’s capabilities beyond what is explicitly stated in their resume.

2. Perpetuating Bias and Discrimination: Keyword matching can inadvertently perpetuate bias in hiring by favoring candidates who use specific industry buzzwords or have certain educational backgrounds. This can result in overlooking qualified candidates from diverse backgrounds or unconventional career paths.

3. Wasted Opportunities for Hidden Gems: Exceptional candidates who possess valuable skills or experiences not captured by standard keywords may be unfairly excluded from consideration. Creativity, adaptability, and potential for growth are often overlooked in favor of rigid keyword criteria.

4. Negative Candidate Experience: Candidates who feel their applications are being judged solely on keyword matches may perceive the hiring process as impersonal and dehumanizing. This can damage the employer brand and deter top talent from engaging with the organization in the future.

5. Identify incorrect candidates: This has been a recent experience, where in based on a few key words, the hiring team is short listing potential candidates, when reviewed / test evaluated / interview – these candidates are found lacking in their relevant skills as quoted on their problems.

The Need for a Holistic Approach

To address the shortcomings of keyword-driven screening and enhance the quality of candidate selection, organizations must adopt a more holistic approach to recruitment:

1. Define Clear Job Requirements: Instead of relying solely on keywords, hiring teams should clearly outline the essential skills, experiences, and qualities required for each role. This ensures that screening criteria are aligned with actual job needs.

2. Utilize Technology Wisely: While ATS systems can be valuable tools for managing high volumes of applications, they should be used as aids rather than substitutes for human judgment. Combining automated screening with manual review can help identify top talent more effectively.

3. Emphasize Soft Skills and Potential: Look beyond technical qualifications and prioritize soft skills such as communication, problem-solving, and adaptability. Assessing a candidate’s potential for growth and cultural fit can lead to more successful long-term hires.

4. Implement Diverse Hiring Practices: Actively seek out candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences to foster innovation and inclusivity within the organization. Encourage hiring teams to look beyond traditional metrics and consider a wide range of perspectives.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the reign of keyword-driven candidate screening is not only inefficient but also unjustified. It leads to missed opportunities, bias, and subpar hiring decisions. By adopting a more balanced approach that combines technology with human judgment, organizations can improve their ability to identify top talent that aligns with their values and goals. Embracing diversity, emphasizing potential over checkboxes, and prioritizing candidate experience are key steps towards building a stronger workforce capable of driving innovation and success in today’s dynamic business landscape.

Golden Quadrangle – A Choice between Scope, Quality, Cost and Time – Choosing the lesser evil

It is always known, observed, and seen that Project Managers use tradeoffs to provide decision-makers with data on the impact of a change on scope, time, cost, quality and risks (Though I mention this, I have never seen a proper and adequate level of impact analysis to the level as needed and required), then the sponsor understands the full impact whenever they have a variance or a change request.

Tradeoffs help maintain the project’s feasibility.

Check this fictional conversation:

Situation – Fixed Price, Fixed Scope, Quality Parameters have been agreed and Cost is Pre-agreed, The SoW is signed off. Contracts are in place. Planning is done and dusted, now the project is in execution phase.

And Bingo … we have an interesting request from the customer to the sponsor to change the dates of delivery and so the conversation happens somewhat like this:

The sponsor says to the project manager, “I want to move up the finish date from June 30 to May 30. Make it happen.” The sponsor starts to leave the meeting.

The project manager says, “Yes, I can shorten the duration of the project by four weeks. Your assistant told me about that, and I modeled it. To cut a month off the duration, I will need to have two additional developers and a tester for the month of April and the budget will increase by $10,000 for extra resources.”

A tradeoff has two sides. First, there’s the positive side where the PM shortens the duration of the project. Second, there’s the negative side where the project manager says they need an added budget for two additional engineers for the month and additional consultants.

The sponsor says,” No all I want is to cut the duration. No additional people or money.”

The PM says, “If I told you I could do that it would be lie. To shorten the date there will be other changes. It is not possible without consequences.”

The sponsor responds, “A good PM would be able to do whatever I want!”

Then the project manager replies, “But it would be a lie.”

Who wins this conversation / argument / decision making process, well it may seem that that the Sponsor would force the Project manager to agree to his / her ideas and thought process, but ultimately project drags on time and cost, has poor quality (a lot of defects, un-tested elements), team members have burnt out, the morale is low and customer is unhappy writing stinker of emails, there is a all-round loss and credibility issue, but who cares.

Did the sponsor review the impact of the new need / requirement where in the timelines / duration has been reduced?

Requirements for Trade offs

Tradeoffs are part of the toolset good project managers use. They must build the project plan with quantified measurable outcomes for every delivery. And the schedule must have work estimates and accurate precedence relationships. Then model every change with its compensating tradeoffs.

When project sponsors want to make a change, successful project managers never say, “Oh no, we can’t add that to the project.” What they say is, “Certainly I can add that to the project, but I will need three more people full time.” Other negative sides of the tradeoff could be, “We will have to increase the budget by $ XXX” or “We’ll have to reduce the savings in our scope by $ XXX.”

This is the language of tradeoffs. The project manager is not saying no. Instead, they are telling the sponsor or stakeholder what it will “cost” to bring about the change they want. Tradeoffs maintain the feasibility of the project. Merely shortening the duration does not.

There are no easy solutions and no easy decisions that one could make … Impact Analysis and Cost of Delay as a concept should be utilized for proper decision making.

Remember in any project, on one side we have the leadership / sponsors and others who at times have un-reasonable demands and the other end of the spectrum we have project manager who is trying to make the ends meet … Due to job constraints and lack of their ability to standup, the project manager looses the game and finally leadership and sponsors lose money, get poor quality and loss of face to the customers.

We have always tried to be penny-wise pound foolish

With all said and done, changes would occur and would be required to be managed. How should a tradeoff occur? What parameters should the Project manager be concerned about?

Juggling the 4 corners of the Project (Standing on 4 Pillars)

Any project would have to learn to live with these 4 corners of the game:

• Project scope (including quality of deliverables)
• Time / Duration
• Risk
• Cost (human resources and materials).

Which is more important? Given an option to make a choice, Let see a few permutation / combination to make a judgement call.

Let us say Scope is Changing, it is increasing … Then

Scope Change: Impact would be on: Quality, Cost, Time (atleast on one of them, but if you really think, it will impact all of them)

Where do we prioritize the approach, what should be the order of our decision making and relevant / related impact, Should it?                               

Order of Impact / Decision	Order of Impact / Decision	Order of Impact / Decision
Cost	Quality	Time
Time	Cost	Cost
Quality	Time	Quality

It is not an easy decision, but if quality is a thought, then as per me, it is a bad / poor idea. Spend more on Cost and try to minimize the impact on Quality and Time

The project is like a tube of toothpaste. When management / sponsors squeezes on a project’s duration corner by cutting the due date by a month, the toothpaste compensates by oozing out from one of the other corners. When the sponsor squeezes the duration, it will deliver less scope, cost more, or have a higher risk of failure and this is the kind of impact analysis that is required to be performed by the project and related stakeholders.

Changes in one parameter would always impact at least one other corner. That fact exists whether people recognize it or not. It’s not realistic to assume that making arbitrary changes to one corner of the project, like the duration, can happen without any compensating effects through the rest of the project.

Interestingly, the majority of the leadership and sponsors fail to recognize this impact. Because in most projects only one, or at most two, of these corners is measurable. The completion date is always measurable and is often rock solid. In some situations, the project budget is also measurable. But most internal projects have no other measurable dimensions. Even with the two measured dimensions of duration and budget, the business value of the project (the scope) and the risk of not delivering that scope on time are usually unmeasurable. So executives continue to make arbitrary changes to the duration and the budget and think that it will have no impact on the project’s scope, quality or risk.

What concerns me is that most of the leadership have no clue on this front, each of these leadership person must have risen through the ranks and would have faced these similar challenges in their project management days and now they behave very differently. Does change in position also impact the way a correct process should be adopted?

Is this science so difficult that we do not understand elements?

I recommend performing “What If” Analysis, where one can watch the impact of moving one parameter (or as we say one pillar) over others. This requires building some models (but once you do it, will serve the organization for its life), then performing different permutation and combinations can give all type of results, choose the lesser evil.

When doing such analysis, keep emotions out of the window and work on real and hard facts.

Do let me know your experiences on this front, would be an great discussion over coffee !!!

Scrum Master = People Oriented Master

One of the main task for any Scrum Master is to manage and motivate the development team (do not forget the Product Owner) to deliver the best-in-class output with outcome to the respective end-users / stakeholders. Pure Agile / Scrum processes will not achieve this, A Scrum Master above all else should be a people person.

During the life of the product development, Scrum Master would enable / facilitate creating a range of tangible deliverables that are critical to the meeting of DoD and release to the production. These would include Impediment board, risks, teaming agreement, cadence of sprint and so on… The funny part of the story is that when the product is delivered all the tangible outputs that we are speaking about would be of no use (atleast to the end-user community). They have little or no value outside the life of the product.

It is important for us to understand that Scrum is all about people, who help to create beautiful and meaningful outputs that serve the needs of the stakeholders and market in general.

The main task for the Scrum Master is to ensure that the development team can deliver and all blockages that occur in the journey of theirs are removed or assisted to be removed.

Over next few paragraphs, we shall de-mystify the needs and requirements on what and how a Scrum Master should enact the approach.

Step # 1 – Get the basics right – Right People, Right Skills, Right Tasks.

As a Scrum Master, help, guide and assist / facilitate the development team to get the right skilled people -with adequate dose of attitude and aptitude. Do not focus on technical skills, focus on learnability, ability to survive in a tough environment, how to respect, being open, have the right level of commitment to the team and others.

There would always be some gap between your needs / wants vs. what talent is available. Remember a perfect match may not be available, try to manage this as a risk and work towards mitigating the same. Try to always get a balanced set of capabilities and skills, do not fall in the trap of choosing all the folks that favor you or you like. Infact look for people who can work with others and create magic for your customers.

Also find a balance between internal and external resources, several times you may be forced by the Leadership to take an internal person (in order to save on cost) but evaluate the person as you would when you take any external resource and ensure it fits in your culture band that you are building in your team.

Step # 2 – Go for Quality rather than Quantity.

More resources may not always be the right approach, but the right resources is what matters. Life and experiences have always suggested that a small set of motivated people have delivered far more than a much larger group of able people. Be the master negotiator with the leadership or the resource allocating person to get the best talent for your team, you may have to act as a salesman to get the right quality in your team (Scrum does not talk about this … but it is critical)

Step # 3 – Clear Roles and Responsibilities.

For any team and individual – we all look for clarity of our roles and expectations, how shall we be judged. Yes, there are no defined / allocated roles in Scrum, but it does not hurt to have pseudo approaches for the initial few sprints and then educate the team to self-allocate, self-define how they want to work out. Scrum Master is like parenting job, initially we would be required to do babysitting, but the as team grows, becomes more mature , our role should be limited to guidance and coaching.

Step # 4 – Building the team

Do not take for granted that Team is automatically built – You need to invest your sweat equity into it.

There is no right or wrong way to build a team, different cultures, different set of people will bond in different lengths of time. To build the team with right values, try these elements:

• Ensure roles are clearly understood
• Ensure communication channels are open between you and the team and amongst the team
• Bring people together (More physically)
• Give people time to know each other
• Have the Product Owner address the team on the needs, vision, big picture, roadmap of the product in focus

Step # 5 – Focus on personal development of team members

It may not be the core objective of Scrum Master, but not focusing on the same would have adverse impact.

Face this task much earlier in the life cycle, ideally when people first get involved in the team, As a part of their initial induction have an understanding of their career needs and wants. The areas where they want to grow and contribute. If their expectations are out of line or un-reasonable, then put it straight on the record.

Help the Product Owner agree to have about 4-6 Hrs / Sprint (Assuming 2 weeks of Sprint cycle) to get it invested in growth, learning of new tools, more on the product development, team building, exploration of new ideas (like using Gen AI to help in the development) and so on … this is a bit of selling exercise with the PO and team (also!)

However, make sure that the training / workshops or getting people involved in specific things do not derail the product development, it should not deviate from the core objective with which the team was formed.

Step # 6 – Be aware of team dynamics and politics

When people work together, they develop their own style of communication. Working together, as a Scrum Master your ability to understand the team dynamics is going to become more critical and critical.

Note: There is no right or wrong team working style or responding to team dynamics. Team dynamics will never remain static, it changes over a period – and when the team matures or new team members join, old ones move on, this can help you rebalance the approach for the team.

Implement PI (Predictive Index Assessment) for everyone on your team. Identify their personalities and ensure you and others in the team understand how to deal with a given personality. This is no rocket science, but not knowing how to deal with a Collaborative vs. Strategists can cause unwarranted losses and damage to the morale of the team and thereby to the product.

Encourage openness and honesty – when these elements are in place, then the team would have few barriers to open communications.

Remember to lead by example if you do not want politics in the team, then do not politic yourself. You want to be trusted by the team.

Final note on this one – Team is more important than any individual, In Agile it is the team that would deliver and not an individual.

Step # 7 – Managing Part time resources 

At times, you may not get a fully dedicated person to work on your product development. You would have to work with Shared resources, when such a situation arises, ensure:

• To get fixed and measurable time from shared folks
• Make sure you have sufficient skills and talent and working hands, remember it is not the number of people in your team, but it is the amount time that these folks are ready to devote to you.
• Recommend your team to build a little slack and inefficiency in the approach (this acts like a risk mitigation strategy)
• Your approach to managing the time utilization (not saying to act like a project manager- but watch the game) would be critical to the success of the delivery

Step # 8 – Working with the Wider Organization 

Remember your team, the product’s existence is never in isolation. There is always a requirement with some other function, department to get your product out of door, it could be the marketing or the sales team or the travel team (to book your tickets, hotels) or some other platform team whose output would be critical for integration and working of your product.

There is always to a need to manage relationships with the wider organization, and it would vary depending on context and content of the product as developed, Therefore as Scrum Master is it important to guide and assist the team to manage these relationship internally in the system.

Providing adequate and timely notice to dependency would help them plan their side of the work and provide sufficient time allocation for your work.

Step # 9 – Have a sense of humor  

The ability to generate and enjoy humor is an extremely positive trait for a Scrum Master. Developing products / projects can at times be quite stressful – the ability to laugh and crack jokes (not on any individual) would help the team manage the stress.

If you are not natural at this … do not worry, just smile a lot. People love to see a smiling face, do not underestimate the power of a simple smile. A well-placed smile of yours can completely change the dynamics of the conversation, can lift an individual from a negative stance to a positive frame of mind.

These are a few ideas that has potentially given me the required results and mind you – it has always worked.

Try it – and then Inspect and Adapt.

Ego Management – Challenges to manage Project Deliverables and Goals / Objectives

Ego, as defined in psychological terms, represents an individual’s sense of self-importance and self-worth. In project management, ego manifests as a personal need for recognition, power, and control. While a certain level of self-confidence is essential for effective leadership, an unchecked ego can lead to conflicts, communication breakdowns, and hinder project progress.

While having a healthy level of confidence and self-assuredness is generally beneficial, an excessively inflated ego can be challenging to handle and can have a significant impact on our work life.

In the realm of project management, achieving success requires more than just technical expertise and organizational skills. The human factor plays a pivotal role, and one aspect that can significantly impact project outcomes is ego management. Ego, often associated with self-importance and pride, can become a stumbling block or a catalyst for collaboration and success in project management. Today in this blog / article, we shall explore the concept of ego management and its critical role in project management, highlighting strategies to nurture collaboration and enhance project outcomes.

The Role of Ego Management in Project Success: Effective ego management fosters an environment where individuals can collaborate, share ideas, and work together towards a common goal. By minimizing egotistical behaviors, project managers can create a culture of trust, open communication, and innovation. Ego management is particularly crucial in project teams that comprise diverse individuals with unique perspectives, experiences, and expertise. When ego is managed effectively, it paves the way for improved decision-making, conflict resolution, and overall project success.

Based on past experiences of managing and participating projects, I have observed others, my bosses, leadership, Project managers on how they managed Ego to ensure their project success … I am listing based on my bets memory recall a few of those approaches:

Strategies for Ego Management in Project Management

1. Establish Clear Roles and Responsibilities: Clearly defining roles, responsibilities, and expectations helps minimize power struggles and conflicts arising from ego-related issues. When everyone understands their contributions and how they fit into the project’s overall objectives, it reduces the chances of ego-driven conflicts.

2. Foster a Positive Team Culture: Encouraging a positive team culture characterized by trust, mutual respect, and recognition of achievements helps diminish ego-related challenges. Recognize and appreciate individual contributions while reinforcing the importance of teamwork.

3. Implement Conflict Resolution Mechanisms: Despite efforts to manage egos, conflicts may arise. Implementing effective conflict resolution mechanisms, such as mediation or facilitated discussions, can address, and resolve conflicts before they escalate and impact project progress. In one of my earlier engagement, the Scrum Master implemented the concept of Team Agreement and Conflict resolution approach, She split the team into two and then asked the team to develop Team agreement (with one group) and Conflict resolution (with the other), Once it was done, then the teams were exchanged and asked to review and suggest chances to the data as written by the other team and finally come to an agreement – which then became the BIBLE for the team to behave and manage relationships internally

4. Promote Collective Ownership: Emphasizing shared responsibility and recognizing the team’s collective achievements helps to mitigate individual ego-driven tendencies. Celebrating team accomplishments rather than individual achievements creates a sense of unity and encourages collaboration. – This has been one of the major elements of implementation with one of my earlier managers – Approach was simple – celebrate the smallest of achievement – Even if that was a successful code review or a major bug fix found, or a Sprint Goal achieved.

5. Cultivate a Collaborative Environment: Project managers should prioritize building a culture of collaboration by encouraging open dialogue, active listening, and valuing diverse perspectives. By creating an atmosphere where team members feel heard and respected, ego-driven conflicts can be minimized. For instance in one of my previous organization, there was a process, where the Project manager would have at least 2 one on one with the team members daily and one meeting (called – “All Hand Meet”) – during this meeting – no project discussion, but more of personal touch, life discussions, general elements were discussed, this helped all the team members to know each other and value the skills and talent that others bought to the table.

Though we have a few interesting ideas for managing Ego, we also need to understand the reasons and challenges from the other side of the fence. Observations and better understanding after 3 decades of working gave me the following elements on Ego:

1. Intrinsic Nature: Ego is an inherent part of human psychology. It stems from our need for self-identity, self-worth, and recognition. It can manifest in various forms, such as the desire for power, control, or validation. Since ego is deeply rooted in individuals, managing it requires self-awareness and conscious effort. At times this can also happen due to our local environment at home or office
2. Lack of Self-Awareness: Ego management requires self-awareness, which can be lacking in individuals who are not introspective or reflective. Without recognizing and understanding their own ego-driven behaviors, individuals may inadvertently perpetuate conflicts, hinder collaboration, and impede project progress. Sometimes what a person does, may not realize that their actions are counter-productive, but they fail to understand & appreciate this
3. Resistance to Change: Ego often resists change, as it challenges our sense of self and disrupts established patterns of behavior. When confronted with alternative viewpoints, suggestions, or feedback, individuals with strong egos may feel threatened and resist adopting new ideas or approaches. This resistance can hinder collaboration and innovation in project management – This is a basic human nature to resist, we form opinions about things and do not want to change and this itself could be a showstopper in our life.
4. Fear of Vulnerability: Ego can serve as a defense mechanism to shield individuals from vulnerability. Admitting mistakes, seeking help, or acknowledging limitations can be seen as a blow to one’s ego. This fear of vulnerability can make it difficult to foster open communication and address issues proactively, leading to strained relationships and project challenges. This is the most dangerous part of the human character and nature.
5. Competition and Comparison: Ego often thrives in environments where competition and comparison prevail. When individuals feel the need to outperform others or maintain a superior image, collaboration and teamwork can be compromised. Project environments driven by ego-focused competition can undermine trust and hinder collective progress. At times this can be hugely negative element for the project and its team members – but at times it could be a savior in some manner.
6. Power Dynamics: Hierarchical power structures can exacerbate ego-related challenges. In environments where authority is concentrated and decisions are made unilaterally, individuals may feel the need to assert their own importance or protect their ego. This can lead to power struggles, lack of transparency, and diminished collaboration within project team.
7. Emotional Investment: Ego is closely linked to emotions and personal identity. When individuals become emotionally invested in their ideas, decisions, or positions, it becomes harder to objectively evaluate alternatives or consider differing perspectives. Emotional attachment to one’s ego can hinder rational decision-making and impede effective collaboration.

Last few words of wisdom:

Overcoming the challenges associated with ego requires a combination of self-reflection, open communication, empathy, and creating a supportive project environment. By promoting a culture of humility, self-awareness, and collaboration, project managers can address ego-related challenges effectively and foster an atmosphere conducive to project success.

To foster a healthier work environment, it is important for individuals to develop self-awareness and emotional intelligence, which can help them manage their ego and cultivate more constructive behaviors. Organizations can also promote a culture of collaboration, open communication, and continuous feedback, which can mitigate the negative impact of ego-driven behavior and promote a more productive and harmonious work environment.

Ego management plays a vital role in project management. By effectively managing ego-driven behaviors, project managers can create an environment conducive to collaboration, open communication, and innovation. Nurturing a culture of humility, respect, and shared ownership cultivates a high-performing project team that maximizes its potential for success. Embracing ego management strategies empowers project managers to navigate the complexities of human dynamics, ultimately enhancing project outcomes and achieving organizational goals.

It will always be the ownership of leadership to have the right environment and culture in the organization, This should also be reflected in our hiring practices, can we devise some approaches where these symptoms of Ego can be tracked and traced, this would help the organization and project at large in a long way post hiring of the candidate; but to have these ideas and thoughts implemented (at least on a pilot basis), it requires courage, forward thinking, ability to navigate thru a maze of negative and not so proactive thoughts and actions of people and finance (tools are not free)

Leadership / Management should see the writing on the wall before it is too late and the we miss the bus ….

See you later in some other thought provoking article ….

If you have ideas what you want to see me write – Pls let me know.

Business Analyst to Product Owner – A journey to unfold or it is a mismatch of roles and responsibilities.

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape with many disruptions, new technology changes, digitization’s, certifications, Customers becoming more demanding and , agility has become paramount for organizations seeking success.

As Agile frameworks continue to gain momentum, the role of a Business Analyst (BA) is also transforming. Many Business Analyst aspire to take on more strategic responsibilities and broaden their impact within the organization, many of them would like to be associated with Agile teams, but business analyst is not even a role as recognized by Agile world.

One such transition that often comes to mind is moving from a Business Analyst to a Product Owner (it seems a natural movement). Is it so simple to migrate to the new role in new ways of working?, If you are as confused as I was a few days ago, then continue to read and explore the thoughts that I have jotted down here.

In this blog, we will explore how a Business Analyst can upgrade / migrate to become a Product Owner in an Agile environment.

Before we delve into the transition process, it is essential to understand the key distinctions between a Business Analyst and a Product Owner. While both roles involve collaborating with stakeholders, their focus and scope vary.

A Business Analyst primarily acts as a bridge between business stakeholders and development teams. They gather and analyze requirements, identify business needs, and ensure alignment between stakeholders and the project team. BAs are skilled in eliciting, documenting, and managing requirements throughout the project lifecycle.

On the other hand, a Product Owner is a critical role within Agile frameworks such as Scrum. They represent the voice of the customer and are responsible for maximizing the value delivered by the team. Product Owners prioritize the backlog, work with the team and the stakeholders (including but not limited to End users) to define user stories, and ensure the team understands the product vision.

To transition from a Business Analyst to a Product Owner, it’s important to identify and address the skill gaps. While BAs possess valuable skills, they need to acquire additional competencies related to product management and Agile ways of working.

1. Product Management: Business Analyst should develop a deep understanding of product strategy, market analysis, user research, and product lifecycle management. They need to think strategically, define product vision, and make informed decisions to maximize product value. You need to master more tricks in the game to learn how to negotiate, prioritize and formulate the product backlog.
2. Agile Frameworks: BAs should familiarize themselves with Agile principles and frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and others. They must understand the iterative nature of Agile, embrace adaptive planning, and learn to collaborate effectively within cross-functional teams and not worry about ever evolving requirements, but learn how to manage the stakeholders, keep expectation management in scope and manage the risk of not meeting the commitments.
3. Stakeholder Management: As a Product Owner, relationship management becomes vital. Developing skills in stakeholder engagement, negotiation, and conflict resolution will enable smooth communication and alignment with stakeholders throughout the product development journey. Product owner needs to be decision maker. Understand the different stances of the product owner and know when to en-act which stand with stakeholders at the different durations and time intervals with the stakeholders / customers.

To upgrade to a Product Owner, Business Analysts should actively seek opportunities to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for the role. Here are a few practical steps to consider:

1. Self-Study: Read books, articles, and blogs on Agile frameworks, product management, and the role of a Product Owner. Online platforms and communities offer a wealth of resources, webinars, and podcasts that can aid in self-learning, Participate in webinars, meetups, conferences, online sessions, review and listen to podcast – there is tons of data and information available in the industry – know the right source and the right place to acquire the available information. Again, a word of caution – do not read everything – follow some known Guru’s and experts from the market to get the right guidance.
2. Collaboration and Mentorship: Engage with experienced Product Owners, Agile practitioners, and industry professionals. Seek opportunities to shadow and collaborate with them, learning from their experiences and gaining practical insights. Try and seek a 1:1 session, exchange your queries and doubts, create situations and scenarios to gain insights into the thinking pattern of these experts – a lot of data to consume, filter the information for the right reasons.
3. On-the-Job Experience: Look for opportunities to take on Product Owner responsibilities within your current organization or in side projects. Start by actively participating in backlog refinement sessions, sprint planning, and user story development, at times participate (with permission) to only observe and see the whole flow getting worked out. – You may not be associated with the project, but by participating, observing one would gain tremendous thought process, which again should be harnessed by self-study and mentoring approaches
4. Training and Certification: Consider attending workshops, seminars, and certification programs that focus on Agile frameworks and product management. Certifications such as Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) can help validate your knowledge and enhance your marketability. Test your skills and knowledge via external validations, which can be easily done with different certifications from the industry, when you choose a training or workshop, evaluate the trainer, seek past feedback and references, do not evaluate over the cost.

Final element of this game should be to practice what we have gained, learnt or mastered, Transitioning to a Product Owner role requires effectively showcasing the skills and experiences gained as a Business Analyst. Highlighting these transferable skills will help demonstrate your readiness for the new role:

1. Requirement Analysis: As a BA, you have honed your ability to understand complex business processes and translate them into functional requirements. This analytical and problem-solving skill set is highly valuable for prioritizing features and defining user stories, Learn techniques such as Cost of Delay (CoD), MoSCoW, Force Field Analysis, Buy a Feature approach – these techniques would enable better management of the product backlog and meeting the needs and requirements of your customer.
2. Domain Knowledge: BAs often gain industry-specific knowledge through their projects. This domain expertise can be invaluable in understanding user needs, identifying market trends, and making informed product decisions. Understand the working of the industry, if the industry as you are associated with, is regulated, then learn about the issues, impact of decisions by the statutorily bodies on your product and services and how the requirements would evolve in the given situation and context.
3. Stakeholder Collaboration: BAs frequently interact with stakeholders, ensuring their needs are met throughout the project lifecycle. This experience in gathering and managing requirements and facilitating communication can be leveraged in the Product Owner role, this is no different for the Product Owner role, but learn to play the different stances of the product owner at different time to create the necessary impact on the product, its evolution.
4. Communication and Documentation: Business Analysts excel at clear and concise communication, as well as documenting requirements and user stories. These skills translate seamlessly into effective communication with development teams, stakeholders, and user groups as a Product Owner, Learn to communicate with minimum documentation, embrace the Agile manifesto and its principles – Interact with teams and stakeholders, have informal coffee chats. Get engaged with the people whom you work with or people who work with you.

Before you take the final call, be aware of these Anti Patterns when you move from Business Analyst role to a Product Owner one

1. Difficulty in prioritization: BAs often deal with multiple projects and requirements simultaneously, which can lead to difficulties in prioritizing features effectively. As a Product Owner, having a clear understanding of the product vision & strategy and the ability to prioritize based on user value, business impact, and market needs is crucial. Failure to prioritize effectively may result in a product that lacks focus or fails to deliver the most important features first. Remember Product Owner is a decision making role.
2. Lack of ownership and accountability: BAs typically operate within a structured framework and may not be accustomed to taking full ownership and accountability for the product’s success. As a PO, it is essential to take responsibility for the product, make tough decisions, and drive its overall direction. Without a strong sense of ownership, the product may suffer from indecisiveness or lack of direction. Remember in Nutshell PO = CEO of the product
3. Insufficient collaboration with development teams: BAs are accustomed to working as intermediaries between stakeholders and development teams. However, as a PO, close collaboration with the development team is crucial. Failing to actively engage and communicate with the team can lead to misunderstandings, delays, and suboptimal outcomes. The PO should work closely with the team, provide clarifications, prioritize features, and ensure the team’s understanding of the product vision. Note that the Agile teams work in clear autonomy approach, give them the product needs and requirements and allow them to function in a manner where in their creativity can emerge and provide the right value for the customer.
4. Requirement-driven approach: BAs often have a strong background in gathering and documenting requirements. However, it is essential for a PO to adopt a more holistic and strategic mindset, considering the overall product vision, market dynamics, user needs, and business goals. Look beyond the obvious and there is a wealth of information on needs and wants of the customer there to be address and resolved.
5. Lack of user-centricity: BAs sometimes prioritize the needs and wants of stakeholders over those of end-users. This can result in a product that doesn’t effectively address user pain points or deliver value to the target audience. A successful PO should place a strong emphasis on understanding user needs, conducting user research, and ensuring the product meets user expectations, use approaches such as “Gemba” or “HMW – How Might We”. Use thoughts and elements from Liberating Structures.
6. Resistance to change and agility: BAs typically operate within defined processes and methodologies. However, a successful PO needs to be adaptable, open to change, and embrace an agile mindset. Resistance to change can hinder the ability to respond quickly to market shifts, adapt to feedback, and make necessary adjustments to the product strategy. At times the product as developed could be required to be changed once the requirements are developed, this is an iterative approach, we work and act as we learn more about the users, their issues, pain points, technology capabilities and so on. Agility is all about responding to change.

It’s important to recognize these anti-patterns and address them proactively. By understanding the challenges that may arise, BAs transitioning into the role of a PO can develop the necessary skills, mindset, and behaviors to be effective in their new position. Continuous learning, collaboration, and a focus on user value are key to overcoming these anti-patterns and succeeding as a Product Owner

Last few words of Wisdom:

Transitioning from a Business Analyst to a Product Owner is an exciting journey for professionals seeking to expand their impact in an Agile environment. By identifying skill gaps, acquiring relevant knowledge, and showcasing transferable skills, BAs can successfully upgrade their role. Embracing continuous learning, collaborating with experienced practitioners, and gaining practical experience will empower Business Analysts to become effective Product Owners who drive value and contribute to the success of Agile team. Remember one key element – Product Owner is the Value Maximizer in the game.

Conflict – Is it Good or Bad – It depends on how you treat it within your Team

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Hiring of Leadership in an Agile Organization

This was in my Product Backlog for a long time, and I always wanted to jot down a few of my debatable thoughts (as others may not agree with my views) on how to identify the skills that we should look for when hiring for Leadership roles for an organization that follows Agile ways of working or is at very advanced stages of adoption and transformation.

Visualize that your organization is in a steady and stable Agile way of working. Across the board (including non-IT functions are also implementing Agile ways of working like Kanban and your product development teams are involved in Scrum or Kanban as the need may be). Your organizational Leadership is undergoing a massive change and restructuring is planned, wherein your company would be hiring Leaders (Heads for various Business Units) from the industry to take your organization forward. 

Now with the requirement in our focus, we should design our Job Description (Do remember every hiring and at all levels should have a JD). The Leadership of an Agile organization is responsible for leading and implementing the company’s strategic vision, objectives, and goals in an Agile environment. They are accountable for developing and executing strategies that drive the organization’s growth and success while promoting a culture of agility, innovation, and continuous improvement.

Having the wrong leaders in an Agile organization can have a significant negative impact on organizational performance and the team’s productivity. Here are some potential consequences:

• Slow decision-making: Agile teams require quick decision-making and responsiveness to changing requirements. If leaders are indecisive or take too long to make decisions, it can slow down the team’s progress.
• Lack of clarity and direction: Agile teams require clear goals and direction to work effectively. If leaders are unclear or constantly changing their minds, it can cause confusion and make it difficult for the team to focus on their tasks.
• Poor communication: Effective communication is critical in Agile teams. If leaders are poor communicators or don’t listen to their team members, it can cause misunderstandings, delays, and ultimately result in poor-quality work.
• Lack of trust: Agile teams require a high level of trust between team members and their leaders. If leaders don’t trust their team members or their abilities, it can create a negative atmosphere and lead to decreased morale and motivation.
• Lack of support: Agile teams require support from their leaders to be successful. If leaders are unsupportive or don’t provide the necessary resources, it can hinder the team’s ability to deliver high-quality.

If you or your organization has a dysfunctional leadership, then it can be challenging, but several steps can be taken to address the situation and promote a more collaborative and effective leadership culture. Hiring the right candidate is a critical element of the game and the first step that your company should be embarking upon.

In one of my previous engagements, we experienced a significant negative impact of Leadership approach and behavior on their organizations, agile teams, and employees. Listed here are some of the ways in which poor leadership had adverse effects on the entire journey:

• Low Morale: It created an environment of low morale and a lack of motivation among employees. This led to high turnover rates and low productivity and a lot of sick leaves. 
• Poor Performance: When we experienced ineffective leadership, it resulted in poor performance from employees. This led to missed deadlines, and sub-standard quality, and this resulted in missed revenue targets.
• Unhealthy Workplace Culture: Poor leadership in the organization led to a toxic workplace culture that was characterized by favoritism, discrimination, and harassment.
• Lack of Direction: Poor leadership did not provide clear direction and vision for the organization. This resulted in confusion (across all levels), frustration, and a lack of focus among employees, causing considerable wastage of resources and missed opportunities.

Now with this background, let’s identify what are the good attributes of a Leader in an Agile Organization and check for these thoughts and approaches when you engage any person who would be part of your leadership team:

• Visionary:  Good leaders have a clear vision of where the organization is heading and communicate it effectively to the team. They inspire and motivate the team to work towards a common goal.
• Agile Mindset: Having an Agile mindset and being open to change is vital. They embrace the Agile principles and values and lead by example. They promote a culture of continuous improvement and experimentation.
• Servant Leadership: Effective leaders practice servant leadership. They focus on serving the team and removing impediments that hinder the team’s progress. They empower the team to make decisions and take ownership of their work.
• Collaborative: A good leader in an Agile organization is collaborative and fosters a culture of collaboration. They encourage cross-functional collaboration and communication to ensure that the team is aligned and working towards the same goal.
• Effective Communicator: It is important for the leader is an effective communicator. They communicate clearly and regularly with the team and stakeholders. They provide feedback to the team and encourage feedback from the team.
• Decisive: Ideal leaders make informed decisions in a timely manner and are not afraid to take risks. They allow the Product Owner to prioritize the team’s work and ensure that the team is working on the most valuable work items (they would not and should not interfere in the working of the team).
• Empathetic: Empathy is an essential quality that leaders should imbibe. They understand the team’s perspective and concerns and consider them when making decisions. They create a safe and inclusive environment where everyone feels valued and respected.
• Continuous Learner: Leaders must be lifelong learners. They stay up to date with the latest Agile practices and methodologies and encourage the team to do the same. They seek feedback and learn from their mistakes to continuously improve themselves and the team.

One would always want a leader who would provide support, and ensure the team has sufficient resources and support that they need to implement Agile. This may include providing training, coaching, or other support, led by example. Leaders must adopt Model Agile behavior and demonstrate how it can improve the team’s performance. This can help to motivate the team to adopt Agile principles.

Managing an organization that applies and adopts Agile requires patience, persistence, and a willingness to work with the team to find a solution that works for everyone. By educating the team, addressing concerns, starting small, providing support, leading by example, and monitoring progress, you can help the team become more open to Agile and ultimately improve their performance.

Conversations – The Forgotten Art of Managing relationship and Creating a Sustainable Team

Good conversations are a two-way street. It’s important to not only express your own thoughts and ideas, but also to listen to and learn from others.  Having a bi-directional conversation within a team is essential for building strong relationships, sharing ideas, and achieving common goals.

It’s important to be aware of how our behaviour can impact a conversation. If you want to keep a good conversation going, focus on being respectful, open-minded, and engaged in the conversation.

In an Agile team, conversations play a crucial role in ensuring that everyone is aligned with the team’s goals and priorities.

Let’s create a background on how to mess up with a team in engaging with a behaviour that is not conducive for any further team building.

If you want to spoil a good conversation, here are some things you can do (and believe me they work and give you the desired results):

1. Talk too much: If you talk too much and don’t let others contribute to the conversation, you can quickly spoil a good conversation.
2. Be negative: If you’re negative and focus on the negative aspects of the conversation, you can bring down the mood of the conversation and make it less enjoyable.
3. Interrupt others: If you constantly interrupt others when they’re speaking, you can quickly make the conversation feel disrespectful and unproductive.
4. Be closed-minded: If you’re closed-minded and not open to new ideas or perspectives, you can shut down the conversation and prevent it from evolving into something productive.
5. Be judgmental: If you’re quick to judge others and their ideas, you can create a defensive atmosphere where people are hesitant to share their thoughts and opinions.
6. Take things personally: If you take everything personally and get defensive, you can quickly turn a good conversation into an argument.
7. Be distracted: If you’re distracted and not fully present in the conversation, you can make others feel like you don’t value their contributions.

It’s important to be aware of how your behaviour can impact a conversation. If you want to keep a good conversation going, focus on being respectful, open-minded, and engaged in the conversation, with this negative approach, you can destroy a team culture, you would not be respected, your opinion is not heard, you are a non-required person on the team.

Scrum master’s should help the team develop a behaviour and approach, where the Scrum Values are practiced and respected, this would help the team to evolve into the next orbit of collaboration.

When you are getting into a new team or supporting a tenured scrum team … I recommend you to adopt the following:

1. Create a comfortable environment: It’s important to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable and safe to speak their minds. Encourage open communication, active listening, and respect for each other’s opinions.
2. Define the purpose of the conversation: Ensure that everyone is on the same page about the purpose of the conversation. Make sure that you have a clear agenda, and that everyone knows what they are expected to contribute.
3. Ask open-ended questions: Instead of asking yes or no questions, ask open-ended questions that require more thoughtful and elaborate responses. This can help promote deeper and more meaningful conversations.
4. Be an active listener: Pay attention to what your teammates are saying and respond thoughtfully. Clarify any misunderstandings, and make sure that everyone feels heard and valued.
5. Stay focused: Keep the conversation on track and focused on the topic at hand. Avoid going off on tangents or getting side-tracked by unrelated issues.
6. Encourage participation: Make sure that everyone has the opportunity to participate in the conversation. Avoid dominating the conversation or letting one or two people monopolize the discussion.
7. Summarize the conversation: At the end of the conversation, summarize what was discussed, and identify any action items or follow-up tasks. This can help ensure that everyone is on the same page, and that the conversation was productive.

By following these tips, you can help create a team environment that promotes open communication, mutual respect, and shared success.

Some additional elements to engaging in a delightful and result oriented conversation would be:

• Use visual aids: Use visual aids like Kanban boards or task boards to track progress and make it easier for everyone to see the status of each task.
• Focus on collaboration: Encourage collaboration and teamwork by encouraging team members to work together to solve problems and achieve shared goals.
• Be open to feedback: Be open to receiving feedback from team members and be willing to adapt and make changes based on that feedback.
• Celebrate successes: Celebrate team successes and achievements to build team morale and motivate team members to continue working towards the team’s goals.

Engaging conversations would also aid the Scrum values to be implemented, adopted and lived.

Remember, good conversations are a two-way street. It’s important to not only express your own thoughts and ideas, but also to listen to and learn from others. By following these tips, you can help create a team environment that promotes open communication, mutual respect, and shared success.

Believe that every team and each individual in every team is different, they have different needs, their personalities are different, their skills set, experience, talent, collaboration style are all unique and when we apply the same yard stick of discussions and conversation that has proven to be successful with some other team – we make the classic mistake of One Size that Fits All.

An experienced Scrum Master would / should be able to adjust its own approach / strategies and cater to the needs of the current team where the services are rendered  / provided / assisted

In summary, managing dysfunctional team in an Agile environment requires a proactive and collaborative approach, focusing on communication, education, coaching, and team involvement, and measuring progress and adjusting as needed.

As we always say in Agile … Inspect and Adapt and Be transparent to yourself atleast and do a daily retrospective of Self-Behavior

Product Owner Needs to Master “The Art of Saying No”

One skill that a Product Owner should master is “The Art of saying No.” One does not have to please everyone and make a mess of the product and the value it provides to your customer.

Saying ‘No’ is an art, and it is not easy when you have management, stakeholders, sponsors, end users, and your Agile team as part of the game. You must engage them for all the right things to be done in the right way and the wrong things to be done in the right manner.

It is important to note that the primary responsibility of the Product Owner is to maximize the value, and to do this effectively, he needs to be empowered. 

The Product Owner should be like the CEO of an organization. Consider the product to be an organization and the PO to be its CEO. Remember, a successful product solves/resolves the customer’s pain areas or challenges, enabling the smooth functioning of the business. A good product evolves over a period of time, and features and functionality are not built in from Day 1. 

Visualize the current version of iPhone and its earlier versions like iPhone 5 or 6. It has evolved immensely. We cannot think of all the features and functions on Day 1; we learn and grow as we observe, use and get regular feedback.

You need to evaluate competitors’ products and evolving technology, think five years ahead of the current times to identify the needs of the future, and start to put them in our blueprint. You ought to lead the pack, not copy and follow others. Instead of focusing on Best Practice you should work on Next Practice, which would be the new best practice for the world.

There is a famous quote that states, “We should learn to say the slow Yes and quick No.”

To be a good CEO, one should know the needs and requirements of stakeholders and how to handle them. Do we treat all stakeholders equally and have a common communication strategy across the board? Do we consider the information required by our stakeholders, investors, and management when developing a communication plan? 

Designing the communication strategy would help you to more effectively say “No” when you understand the ‘Why’ and ‘What’ of your communication game plan. Product Owner should not be thinking about consensus every time. It may not always be a good practice and may hurt the product in the long run.

Saying ‘No’ is an art. You need to know how to phrase a sentence and what would form the most appropriate way to start the sentence when intending to say No. One could respond by:

• That is an interesting idea, however 
• I hear what you are saying and 
• I understand that this is important to you, however
• If I would say Yes to this, then 

Define and identify your approach depending on the stakeholder and current situation. You do not need a cookie-cutter strategy. Learn to understand the psychology of your requestors, and the impact that your response would have on them. Also, understand the product, the requestor’s behavior towards you, your team, funding, and support (it is all politics at the end of the day).

Remember, Product Owner’s thought process is not to say “No” to everything. The goal is to say No to good ideas so that you can say Yes to great ideas.

Different ways of saying “No”

Crystal Clear –This method of saying no is suitable when you have a strong relationship in place and there is enough trust between the stakeholders and the product owner.

Timing Based – This approach would be critically deployed when you are facing issues with deadlines and milestones, as per the statutory & regulatory needs. The ideas which are nice to have and do not meet the timeline criteria should be kept on the back burner.

Impact Management – Evaluate the impact of saying Yes vs. No. One person’s gain would be another’s pain. Before arriving at any decision, analyze the impact of your decision on the stakeholder, considering the product vision, market impact, competition, and so on. Compare the present request with other requests from different stakeholders and perform a CoD (Cost of Delay Concept) for comparison.

If-all-else-fail – Use this approach when all the other techniques have not yielded results or failed for you. This should be your last resort. Use this approach for stakeholders who fall under the category of High Influence and Low Impact. When using this approach, ensure that you have the backing of your key and important stakeholders.

Levels of Communication

When communicating with anybody, it is crucial to consider the following: 

1. Start with understanding your emotions and those of others
2. Analyze your relationship with them and their relationship with your product/service
3. Adopt the process
4. Construct your message
5. Communicate

Speaking about emotions, consider whether you are calm, relaxed, anxious, or upset. This process can make or break your approach. If you are comfortable with your emotions, move forward and answer a few questions. 

• Have you spent time building your relationship?
• Has the stakeholder developed a close affinity with you and your product?
• Will they promote your product in all situations? 

When speaking about the process:

• Think about how you are constructing your thoughts, phrasing, and developing your sentences,
• What tonality you are adopting?
• What is your body language?
• And how controlled are your facial reactions? Have you used a common vocabulary?

When communicating, have you seen your environment and the people around the place of discussion? How do you start your conversation? Where and how do you pause? Do you provide adequate time for the message to be accepted? Is there any scope for further discussion?

Do remember, this article is not about saying No, but it is about developing approaches to have great value in your product. It’s a guide to prevent the unnecessary stress of developing something that would not add / create value to the outcome and no true ROI would be achieved.

The thought process here is all about understanding how to manage the various types of stakeholders that you would encounter in your product development journey. How do you ensure that all features and functionalities just do not land up in your product? While you should not undermine the importance of any feature or functionality, it is important to identify the source of the highest ROI. Analyze what creates excitement in your product, what features can move to the next release, and so on.

Efficient Product Owners should continuously try to evaluate the direction of the product, how things are shaping up, and what they must do next in the journey. Equally important is that as a Product Owner, you do your retrospective and find approaches to doing things better.

As a Product Owner, if you cannot protect your product and maximize its value, rethink your approaches and strategies and understand whether you are doing justice to the role of the Product Owner or acting as a glorified scribe (Only writing user stories) for the product backlog.

The choice is always yours. 

“How Might We” – A Tool to solve issues that surface @ Retrospective (Innovate your Retrospectives and Product Backlog Management)

The How Might We framework is quite often called HMW. The framework was originally created to define and frame design challenges, but you can use it to address a lot of different challenges you might encounter.

The How Might We framework is basically a way to reframe a problem. You’re not only trying to see the problem from a positive perspective, but also opening your mind and consequently your possibilities to new solutions. This can be an amazing opportunity.

This concept has been borrowed from Design Thinking approaches. I have personally used this concept to resolve issues and impediments in my clients Agile transformation and adoption journey. It is a different way and a method to tackle things that would bring different views and perspective to life.

Normally HMW question can be quickly formulated if good findings / issues / problems statements have been identified. This definition of HMW should not take more than 15-20 mins / issue or problem. We would typically do this with a lot of white boarding, using Post Its, Pen and Paper.

When we redefine our problem with the How Might We approach, we are actually turning challenges into opportunities. It’s a process, and you might not get it right the first time. It’s an important tool for mastering the ability to develop creative solutions to problems. Redefining our problems in this way can unlock a world of possibilities.

Make sure your team is empowered to come up with even silly and crazy ideas. Create a safe environment where brainstorming is truly valued. At this point, don’t worry about the feasibility of the ideas, just brainstorm and go crazy. In some cases, the crazy-impossible ideas can be reframed in a brilliant and innovative way, so don’t constrain your mind or your team. HWM questions are a way to foster brainstorming and other ideation sessions.

Why are they called “How Might We”

“How” part suggests that we do not yet have the answer. It allows us to consider multiple avenues for innovation and reinforces that we are still exploring the problem and solution space.

“Might” emphasizes that there are many different paths we can go down when thinking about solutions. This allows for open-minded creativity and brainstorming and thinking about the problem from multiple perspectives. This “might” is where innovation becomes part of the process.

“We” immediately brings in the idea of teamwork. “We” should all work collaboratively to come up with a joint understanding of the problem and put our heads together to come up with a joint solution.

How should this work for an Agile team?

Reflect upon all the issues / challenges / Improvements as needed and identified during the retrospective, then reflect upon them to see and understand the context a lot more better (at times, we are emotional during the retrospective and want the whole world to improve)

Motivate the team to explore and come up with several HMW questions that could address the needs or the problem statements

Each question should follow the logic of “How Might We” and it should be followed by a verb, noun and type of the user base that we are trying to address the problem for

As a passing thought this approach of HMW can be used for any type of problem solving or identifying new ideas / thoughts / innovations or opportunities – this could be used in resolving the issues or challenging the current status quo of the Product backlog approaches, how user stories are to be developed, what solution would address the problem in hand.

I have seen a lot of people using HMW statements to invoke discussions leading into innovation, but as the case with some other models, they can go horribly wrong… Like too much of Open Ended Ness

• How might we make our app more usable?
• How might we redesign our website to make it better?

Or at times, we go so deep, that we have created a narrow view:

• How might we make our app’s add to cart experience more functional?

When HMW statements are too narrow, we lose all the incredible, innovative ideas that can come from them. With too much focus, we are stuck on one particular solution already. We want several different ideas to test at the end, so focusing too much on one solution will limit creativity and innovation.

Always remember that in addition of the description of the problem, a target customer must be defined for the project / problem to be resolved. In doing so, we are now trying to highlight the user and his / her needs (now notice we have got Persona as concept involved here)

Have multiple HMW ‘s for each problem statement, Each HMW question can then be understood as a prototype and testing in a short brainstorming session, The one that is the most appropriate one will then be chosen and pursued.

Key elements to take care of:

• Do not discuss a HMW question for too long, Timeboxing should be performed for each HMW and do not get bogged down in the phrasing of the question.
• It is essential to be optimistic and close to the needs of the user to come up with several good HMWs

Use the above ideas and thoughts in your next retrospective or product backlog refinement session, do share your experience and help us improve the approach and tool sets for continuous improvement approaches.

I propose this approach to be added to the concept of Liberating Structures