Professional Scrum Product Owner - Advanced

Mastering the Product Owner Stances 

This Professional Product Owner - Advanced (PSPO-A) course focuses on helping experienced practitioners expand their ability to establish a solid vision, validate their hypotheses, and ultimately deliver more value to their stakeholders. The PSPO-A course is intended for Product Owners who want to grow their knowledge and abilities.

The course goes beyond the topics explored in the Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) class by deepening the attendee's understanding of the role by exploring the many stances of a professional Product Owner. This course is an interactive, experiential workshop where attendees explore topics through a series of exercises and discussions. Students should have at least one year of Product Owner experience and practical knowledge of Scrum in order to participate in and benefit from these exercises.  Having previously taken the PSPO class is recommended but not required.

The course also includes a free attempt at the globally recognized Professional Scrum Product Owner II certification exam (PSPO II).

Course Description

The Product Owner’s role is multifaceted, requiring the practitioner to engage in behaviors and adopt mindsets beyond the core of Agility and the Scrum Framework. This course surfaces these behaviors by challenging the student to adopt several different Product Owner stances:

• Customer Representative - focused on understanding customer problems, challenges, and potential opportunities
• Visionary - communicating the vision, future state, and possibilities in ways that foster a common understanding
• Experimenter - focusing on innovation, hypothesis testing, and validating potential value to spark product innovation
• Influencer - communicating with and influencing stakeholders, customers, and the Scrum Team to act with a common purpose
• Collaborator - seeking input, ideas, and feedback from others
• Decision Maker - focusing on creating maximum impact by making clear choices and decisions

This course is an interactive, experiential workshop where attendees explore topics through a series of exercises and discussions. Students should have at least one year of Product Owner experience and practical knowledge of Scrum in order to participate in and benefit from these exercises.

Course Topics

• Understanding your products
• Who are your customers?
• Connecting product features to customer outcomes
• Communicating the product vision and strategy
• Value and pricing models
• Innovation and experimentation
• Stakeholders and stakeholder management
• Agile governance, budgeting, and contracting in relation to Scrum

Course Objectives

• Students are provided with a clear path to moving forward in their Product Owner journey by exploring the different stances a Product Owner takes. 
• Students learn about the various types of stakeholders that Product Owners represent and how to best work with them.
• Students will better understand how to use vision, value, and validation to create a competitive advantage for any product.
• Discussions, case studies, and exercises introduce students to modern complementary practices.

Who Should Attend

The Professional Product Owner-Advanced course is specifically designed for Product Owners and product managers with practical experience managing or owning a product.

It also benefits Scrum Masters and stakeholders who work with Product Owners. It is particularly beneficial for those with at least one year of building products with a Scrum Team.

Assessment Certification

All participants completing the Professional Scrum Product Owner - Advanced course receive a password from taking the PSPO II assessment and are entitled to a discount on the PSPO III assessment. The industry-recognized PSPO certifications require a minimum passing score on these rigorous assessments.

PMI PDU Credits

Students of Scrum.org courses are able to claim Project Management Institute (PMI) PDU credit: 14 PDUs after attending a two-day Professional Scrum Product Owner - Advanced (PSPO-A) workshop. Please note that PMI PDUs are earned for course attendance and not for passing a Scrum.org assessment. Students can claim PDUs under PMI's "Education courses provided by other third-party providers” category. You can claim your PDUs online at https://ccrs.pmi.org.

Are you ready?

Attendees of Professional Scrum Foundations (PSF), Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I), and Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) are expected to prepare themselves.

In fact, regardless of the workshop, basic, intermediate, or advanced, the advice to prepare is to watch the following:

• Product Owner, in a Nutshell - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=502ILHjX9EE 
• a video on common misperceptions of a Product Owner - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cr2rjaGmUzo
• Scrum Tapas videos at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=scrum+tapas+scrum.org, especially video recordings by Steve Porter, Ryan Ripley, and Don McGreal

and slowly & carefully read:

• the agile manifesto (values and principles pages, particularly the principles pages) - http://agilemanifesto.org/
• the scrum guide and read the history at https://www.scrumguides.org/scrum-guide.html
• Bonus points if you already read Liberating Structures for large group facilitation - http://www.liberatingstructures.com/ls/. Extra bonus points if you install and play with the Liberating Structures app; it's free.

Arriving at a workshop without slowly and carefully reading the Scrum Guide shows disrespect to other attendees. Respect is one of the five Scrum Values.

Pricing

Pricing excludes UK VAT. UK VAT only applies to orders from the UK; VAT does not apply outside the UK. To request a manual invoice, simply email info@orderlydisruption.com with the subject "manual invoice" -- payment would then be made via an electronic transfer, a Paypal transaction, or an over-the-phone card payment. Without exception, all seats for a booking must be prepaid to confirm that booking. Direct debit is also available on request; email info@orderlydisruption.com with the subject "direct debit."

VAT is added for UK customers only.

NON-UK CUSTOMERS, PLEASE NOTE: VAT is deducted once the address has been entered at checkout.

Profile of the trainer

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John Coleman is an active practitioner with 15+ years of experience in growing sustainable agility. Learn from John's breadth & depth of current case studies with the "old reliable", the latest trends and some leading & not yet well-known patterns. 

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Why John Coleman?

Every PST has his/her own strengths. John Coleman is one of the few LeSS-Friendly Scrum Trainers. He regularly interviews leading lights on his YouTube channel. John is a prolific blogger on advanced topics and leads on content creation for Scrum, Lean UX, measurement, Kanban, scaling, de-scaling, Executives, people & change. John teaches Marshall Goldsmith's techniques at all of his workshops in a #payitforward fashion. All of John's workshops feature Liberating Structures. John Coleman offers a number of practice tests where they are needed. John's client base consists mainly of non-native English speakers (English is the 3rd/4th language) in continental Europe. John's clients give rave reviews on Trustpilot, Google, and VocalReferences, and they get great results as long as they put in the effort.

John is Top 10 on Thinkers360 for Agility, frequently blogs on both medium and orderlydisruption and has two podcasts: Xagility and Agility Island. He founded Executive Agility (x-agility) to create authentic sustainable organizational agility. 

Review & Ratings for John Coleman of Orderly Disruption on Google, VocalReferences & Trustpilot

Reviews & Ratings for all of John Coleman's workshops are available on: 

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  Google  - http://bit.ly/GoogleJohnC
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  TrustPilot - https://www.trustpilot.com/review/www.ace.works
  
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  Vocal References - http://bit.ly/VocalRJohnC
  
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It's not just about Reviews & Ratings 

Reviews & ratings are limited by nature. John needs to understand if the learning made a real difference back in the office. So, John checks in up to 12-18 months later. He sees a pattern of improvement and regularly gets pleasant vibes from successful agility inspired by ideas on the workshops. For example, see this experience report.

Content writing

John Coleman is a Professional Scrum Trainer, a candidate LeSS trainer / LeSS Friendly Scrum Trainer, organizer of ELNA (Executive Leadership Network for Adaptiveness), co-author of Kanban Guide, and author of Kanban for Complexity™ aka Kanplexity™ with lots of attribution to Dave Snowden & Cognitive Edge for Cynefin and related theory. See https://kanbanguides.org. John made one of the most comprehensive comparisons/contrast of the scaling/descaling frameworks at https://valueglide.com/blog and https://orderlydisruption.com/blogs/grow-agility-for-your-why/mirror-mirror-on-the-wall-preamble-to-1-of-4  ("Mirror Mirror" series). John Coleman's blog posts on executives, Scrum, Kanban, Nexus Vs. LeSS are available at https://bit.ly/JohnColemanBlog. John blogs prolifically at orderlydisruption.com, valueglide.com, Medium, CIO Water Cooler, and The Digital Transformation People. 

Practicing what he preaches, except he doesn't preach -- he doesn't sell, huh?

John helps teams, managers, leaders, change agents, and execs. He can answer all sorts of up-to-date questions with ease. John coaches, teaches, and consults for sustainable growth of agility in non-software as well as software. He created Broad and Deep agility (BaDa) on top of the shoulders of existing theory & practice. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUen2CeyTDk. John himself is broad & deep from the points of view of agility, people & change.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

John is a systems thinker who happens to be a huge fan of Cynefin and sees the benefits of both, erring on the side of Cynefin where they clash. Most importantly, John takes an independent view. John is also a people & change thinker; he uses Spiral Dynamics Integral (certified to level 2) and other models; even if they are criticized in some quarters as pseudoscience, John finds aspects of Spiral Dynamics helpful in structuring better conversations with people. 

More proof he knows what he's talking about and has done what he talks about

John's Scrum+Kanban Nexus+ case studies can be found (international payments company, European bank) at https://www.valueglide.com/blog/nexus-nexus-and-scrum.org-certifications. 

John is grateful to be part of Marshall Goldsmith's #payitforward campaign and, in so doing, offers free coaching/mentoring/co-training to a selection of potential agility chefs. John is a member of the #MarshallGoldsmithLead60 group, a cohort from the 16,000+ #MarshallGoldsmith100CoachesApplicants. It was a privilege for John to be one of a lucky group of 60 people; Marshall Goldsmith himself taught that group in Salt Lake City in February 2018. All of John's workshops #payitforward Marshall Goldsmith content, including Marshall's advice to John himself.

Client list

John typically practiced with many of his clients for 18+ months. He is switching to shorter-term engagements. John's client list (directly or indirectly) includes Japanese Tobacco International, Shell, Barclaycard, Vocalink Mastercard, Centrica / British Gas, the Musgrave Group, RR Donnelley, DELL, Nordic Aviation Services, 84.51, Intralinks, PaySafe, Vodafone, and Ericsson.

Workshop Environment

Assessment preparation tends not to be covered in the workshop. The workshop focuses on attendees getting ready to apply new skills back at work immediately after the workshop. There is an expectation that attendees will attend free post-workshop Zoom calls and watch recordings of their group (or previous groups) doing tough practice tests, sometimes including John Coleman's own practice tests, which address the same learning outcomes, albeit from a different angle. John expects attendees to attend the calls, as assessment preparation does not scale on a 1:1 basis. Signing up for this workshop is effectively signing up to attend these calls.

Sometimes, John Coleman will have a co-trainer, someone who is already qualified or who is building up experience. Please let John Coleman know in advance if you need him to bring an assistant trainer who speaks your language via john@orderlydisruption.com; economics will hopefully be in our favor to allow that if there is enough demand.

Live Virtual

• Each segment is 60-75 mins long with 15-30 min breaks. Attendees can spread the workshop over several days if advertised or if other attendees are ok with that —no recording of the workshop to improve openness. The workshop size is limited to 20 attendees.
• Workshop attendees will use Zoom/Teams, Mural, Slack, StoriesOnBoard, Strategyzer, Kanbanize/SwiftKanban, and John's physical flipcharts.
• Learning online is almost as effective as face-to-face. The critical difference is working together online; it takes longer to do things. A "funnel" gets added to the Kanban Board for optional best efforts and additions to the official curriculum. Most questions will get answered to the satisfaction of the attendees, one way or the other. 

Rules to follow:

• cameras on
• mics on - let's avoid delayed interventions
• be on time for every segment
• no meetings/phone calls/emails during the active segments
• be self-aware and conscious of the needs of others to have their say
• no hijacking of the agenda; a free coach session is offered per attendee; use that instead.

A Scrum Reset is often needed in the workshop

If the class attendees demonstrate additional ability, bonus content may get covered. However, the class pace can get set to a slower pace by even one attendee who has not prepared for class, as per pre-class communications. While John Coleman's style is to assume zero knowledge, some attendees may have negative knowledge, and preconceived ideas that are incorrect, according to Scrum.org.

Negative knowledge creates drag for a training class; hence John Coleman sometimes performs pre-training-screening-calls. While there are no formal pre-requisites for Scrum.org classes, the trainer may request in pre-training phone calls that some attendees go to Professional Scrum Foundations/Scrum Master (by any Scrum.org trainer) to ensure a smooth learning experience, even if the booked class ticket needs to be postponed to another date, refunding if necessary less banking fees. Either way, at the beginning of each workshop, some kind of Scrum reset takes place to align attendees and reduce the potential for learning drag later.

Payment, fees & cancellation

• Payment in advance is required, with no exceptions. All documentation requirements for invoice payment by the training date must be declared at the outset. 
• VAT additional for UK clients only. 
• No responsibility is taken for costs resulting from cancellation/postponement.
• A minimum quorum is needed for this class to proceed.
• It's unusual for courses to get canceled. Some classes require a minimum number of attendees. No responsibility is taken for costs resulting from cancellation/postponement.
• You may cancel up to the specified online ticketing deadline, and if so, depending on the payment engine/approach, the refund could have deductions for bank transfer fees.
• You may postpone your ticket with a minimum of three business days' notice; thereafter, your lack of attendance at the booked date will be treated as a cancellation with zero refund (due to planning & venue costs for class numbers). Best efforts would be made to fit you into a later workshop.
• Electronic manuals and Scrum.org assessment fees are included. Physical manuals are not provided.

GDPR etc.

Subject to GDPR or other regulations:

• Attendees may be asked to optionally consent to receive communications, e.g., follow-up email newsletters.
• A booking is not a guarantee of attendance. The trainer may need to contact attendees to assess their readiness for the training class. It is possible the trainer will recommend additional training/reading before you can be accepted into the booked class.
• In order to get an assessment, the trainer must submit your name and email address to Scrum.org; Scrum.org may, in turn, send you regular newsletters. 
• Attendees will be invited to a slack channel for the class to enable communications before, during, and after the class.
• Photographs and/or video permission will be requested in class for follow-up marketing purposes.
• Reviews & Testimonials will be requested in class; you can add the same review and star rating to each of VocalReferences, TrustPilot, and Google, to be performed optionally in class. Attendees may also be asked to provide feedback to Scrum.org. For these requests, regardless of the response, additional bonus learning content will be delivered.
• A limited number of free of charge post-training Zoom/alternative calls are offered. To book, attendees can arrange to meet me via  https://calendly.com/johncolemanagile 
• Attendees may be asked to join compatible communities, e.g., the LeSS community.
• See the privacy statement at orderlydisruption.com.