📣 Calling all Scrum Masters and Product People! 📣 (UX-ers, feel free to chime in too...) Was discussing the value of demos with the very talented Christopher Spencer , specifically the developer's relationship to demoing work. The goal is to use this as an entry-point for exploring the product development cycle and Agile / Scrum as concepts. In your expert opinions: - What's the value of a demo? - Should we go into an iteration on some unit of work without demoing the last iteration? - How can we demo when it isn't super clear who our stakeholders are? Kristy Swart Smith, MSIO, PSM I and II, CSSBB, CPM, KMP Todd Adams JP Garnier Olivia Girgis #scrum #agile #mentoring #mentor #productdevelopment
I often use demos to build excitement and solicit early feedback about a product my team is building. If you don’t know who you’re demoing for, just pretend it’s for your users!
Hey Will, Thanks for the tag, but I don't know that I'd consider myself having an expert opinion 🤔 However... - "What's the value of a demo?" Seems like a no-brainer to me, but I have also been in environments where a Sprint Review (if we're talking Scrum) was just someone showing a demo as basically a canned PowerPoint. Limited value doing that as there is little or no opportunity to get actual feedback from the end users on how the product actually works. The true value in a demo whether it's during a Sprint Review, or a demo of working product in any other framework, is the conversation and feedback we get from the end users/stakeholders that we can take to the next planning meeting. - "Should we go into an iteration on some unit of work without demoing the last iteration?" It depends. But seriously, why not? If there was a reason you couldn't demo the previous iteration, you should explain that during current demo. Transparency, right? - "How can we demo when it isn't super clear who our stakeholders are?" Interesting question. Whover is funding the product could be a stakeholder. Maybe come up with some personas as potential end users during development and try to find people that match that?
Product and Design
2moHeya Will! Adding my 2 cents here: demos are valuable for many reasons imo, some which you’ve already laid out. Perhaps what I find to be of enormous value lately is the following: a demo actaulizes the product across the functions who attend it. Why is this important? First, it allows the organization understanding of what is getting released. Imagine for sales this could mean that you can now activate an outbound campaign, or call a lead that’s on hold… Second, it forces a reconciliation of the product roadmap and objectives, with the scrum roadmap. Here is where the feedback from stakeholders comes in. For example if the demo does not meet the expectations of the org, then the roadmaps must reflect how the team intends to take action. That constant back and forth is the life force of our trade. Demos are awesome! - great post Will! I’m curious what others think 🤔