Answering: “Should product funding be allocated all at once, during the annual budgeting cycle?”

Should product funding be allocated all at once, during the annual budgeting cycle?
(choose the best answer)
A. No, because it limits flexibility to address new opportunities as they arise.
B. Yes, because teams need to know what they will be working on for the year.
C. Yes, because customers need a solid product roadmap of the features that will be released, and when.
D. No, because it takes away a lever that managers have over teams.

Answering: “Should product funding be allocated all at once, during the annual budgeting cycle?” Read More »

Answering: “Your company’s largest revenue producing product has recently been losing customers to new competitors whose products have some very attractive features. A major stakeholder insists that their customers can be won back by implementing a set of new features that customers have long been asking for. Implementing all of these features will take more than a year and will postpone other planned improvements. What should you do?”

Your company’s largest revenue producing product has recently been losing customers to new competitors whose products have some very attractive features. A major stakeholder insists that their customers can be won back by implementing a set of new features that customers have long been asking for. Implementing all of these features will take more than a year and will postpone other planned improvements. What should you do?
(choose the best answer)
A. Implement all of the stakeholder’s suggested features in the next big release.
B. Survey customer on their needs and base decisions on the results.
C. Implement some of the stakeholder’s suggested features, and some from other stakeholders, in the next big release.
D. Shorten the release cycle to a month, implement one feature, and measure the result.

Answering: “Your company’s largest revenue producing product has recently been losing customers to new competitors whose products have some very attractive features. A major stakeholder insists that their customers can be won back by implementing a set of new features that customers have long been asking for. Implementing all of these features will take more than a year and will postpone other planned improvements. What should you do?” Read More »

Answering: “Your executive sponsor visits the executives of an important customer. During the visit, they communicate to her what they believe is an important feature for your next product release, and your sponsor promises it will be in the release. Your team builds and delivers the feature as promised. Over the next three months, your measures of the usage of the feature show that it has not been used. When you ask users from this important customer “why?”, they indicate that they did not need the feature and their executives do not really understand the needs of their users.”

Your executive sponsor visits the executives of an important customer. During the visit, they communicate to her what they believe is an important feature for your next product release, and your sponsor promises it will be in the release. Your team builds and delivers the feature as promised. Over the next three months, your measures of the usage of the feature show that it has not been used. When you ask users from this important customer “why?”, they indicate that they did not need the feature and their executives do not really understand the needs of their users.
How do you communicate this to your executive sponsor?
(choose the best answer)
A. You do not; the work has been done and it might make the sponsor look bad.
B. You indicate that the feature has not been used yet, but might be used in the future.
C. You share what you learned from the release with the sponsor to help them learn.
D. You look for other customers who need this feature so that the work is not wasted.

Answering: “Your executive sponsor visits the executives of an important customer. During the visit, they communicate to her what they believe is an important feature for your next product release, and your sponsor promises it will be in the release. Your team builds and delivers the feature as promised. Over the next three months, your measures of the usage of the feature show that it has not been used. When you ask users from this important customer “why?”, they indicate that they did not need the feature and their executives do not really understand the needs of their users.” Read More »

Answering: “You are the Director responsible for a significant new multi-team, multi-product initiative. How would you help the teams get started?”

You are the Director responsible for a significant new multi-team, multi-product initiative. How would you help the teams get started?
(choose the best answer)
A. Explain to each team the goal of the initiative and how success will be measured, and agree with them on how they will provide appropriate transparency.
B. Just start – the details will emerge over time; the teams are self-organizing.
C. Create a resourcing plan which specifies which team is going to work on specific features.
D. Meet with the teams and tell them what sort of reporting you need.

Answering: “You are the Director responsible for a significant new multi-team, multi-product initiative. How would you help the teams get started?” Read More »

You cannot copy content of this page