As we continue to work on improving our technology processes, there is much we can learn from the discipline of product management. I believe that by applying the techniques and approach of treating your infrastructure and service offerings as products, we can provide a more delightful experience and continuously improve. Using principles and concepts from people like Marty Kagan and other experts in the product space, I will demonstrate applicable examples of applying the concepts of feedback, planning, and iterative improvement to practices including software delivery process, service desk response, and infrastructure as code.

1. EVERYTHING'S A PRODUCT
How To Apply Product Management Practices
to Technology Services

3. let me tell you a story...
@mattstratton

4. By Daniel Schwen - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7429653

7. @mattstratton

8. @mattstratton

9. @mattstratton

10. your it services can be products
@mattstratton

11. you have customers, right?
@mattstratton

12. if you don't know who your customers are, go figure it out
@mattstratton

13. we'll wait
@mattstratton

14. some examples of things you can productize:
• service requests
• software delivery process
• infrastructure as code
@mattstratton

15. humor me, please
@mattstratton

16. emily's mom is
watching to make
sure you do
@mattstratton

17. at least half of our ideas are going
to fail
@mattstratton

21. this is why roadmaps are bad
and if you have one you should feel bad
@mattstratton

22. output vs outcome
@mattstratton

23. discovery
• it's always happening
• it's not just for your boss or for fancy-pants architects
• it's not saying "yo, what are your requirements?"
@mattstratton

24. establish compelling value
@mattstratton

25. user experience over engineering
@mattstratton

26. The most important thing is to know
what you can't know
— Mark Andreessen
@mattstratton

27. test feasiblity during discovery
@mattstratton

28. minimum viable prototype
@mattstratton

29. bad example of mvp
• We are going to create an MVP of our Chef implementation.
• We'll do this by installing the chef client on 10,000 nodes
• Then we will write an MVP cookbook that simply checks to see
if a file is there we are used to seeing
@mattstratton

30. know your business
@mattstratton

31. know your customer
• why do they do what they do?
• and what exactly do they do?
@mattstratton

32. keep gathering feedback
@mattstratton

33. always be doing discovery
@mattstratton

34. avoid analysis paralysis
@mattstratton

35. you're never going to be done
@mattstratton

36. and that's okay
@mattstratton

37. emily's mom will still love you
@mattstratton

38. she is rooting for you
@mattstratton

39. and so am i
@mattstratton

41. • twitter.com/mattstratton
• github.com/mattstratton
• arresteddevops.com
• mattstratton.com/speaking