1. When I had big shoes to fill – my story of
replacing a star PO
Amoli Upadhye
Tata Consultancy Services

2. My story begins…
Project 1 Project 2
• Was short and smooth • Was chaotic
• Thought added value • Built a coffee pot
Coffee pot of Masochists
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

3. Why talk about my experience?
• Explore scope for PO’s to –
o Function in a structured
manner
o Improve infinitely

4. Baby steps…
• Project 3, under seasoned PO
• Structured releases, stories
• Felt confident each day
• Signature mark

5. Parting gift
• Tools help
• But are no substitute for
sound business judgment
• No classes teach that
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

6. What did I learn and found helpful?
Lesson 2
Lesson 1
Rock requirements
Be a great communicator
engineering
Lesson 4
Lesson 3 Watch your babies
Build water tight stories
while they play
www.agiletour.com

7. Lesson #1 – Be a great communicator
• User persona Right communication
strategies
• Storyboarding
• Structure your message
• Apply 80 – 20 rule
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

8. Lesson #2 – Rock requirement engineering
• Adopt timely paper • Add dimension to
prototyping product requirement
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

9. Lesson #3 – Build water tight stories
• Strategy
• Scope
• Structure Stories
• Skeleton
• Surface • Acceptance
criteria
• Sizing
• Testable Effective
release
planning
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

10. Lesson #4 – Watch your babies while they
play
• Support tickets • Analytics
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

11. My journey continues …
• Drive empirical decisions
• Lend structure
• Facilitate improvement in PO
areas
Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

12. Thank you
www.agiletour.com

13. Sample user persona
• Name – Mrs. Smith, age 30
• Goals –
o Is a homemaker, lives with a family of 5
o Stocks groceries, vegetables, fruits
on a weekly basis (Sunday’s)
o Shops at departmental stores (is loyal to D’Mart)
o Her checklist and offers running (eg. free gifts) at the stores fill her
shopping cart
o Doesn’t mind looking at new products on stands
www.agiletour.com Free image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

14. Paper prototyping
www.agiletour.com Image courtesy of agilemodeling.com

15. Paper prototyping cont…
Image courtesy of agilemodeling.com

16. Effective story boarding
Ant peacock brush air • Air , also, Ant
scene card doctor also • Brush, Bakery
goat keys greece king
lion monkey parrot more • Cake, Card
main tiger Tennis gold • Doctor, Donut
silver lawn bakery cake
donut
• Goat, Gold, greece
• Keys, King
• Lawn, Lion
• Main, Monkey, More
• Parrot, Peacock
• Scene, silver
• Tennis, tiger
www.agiletour.com