Being a Product Owner is tough. Having the accountability for maximising value can feel like a huge weight is on your shoulders and sometimes - it's hard to know where to begin. As a Scrum Master, you’re accountable for helping to establish empirical product planning – but how can you do that? Optilearn have created a visualisation to help.
The purpose of this canvas is to help the Product Owner improve the creation of a hypothesis that they can take to Sprint Planning – it’s the seed that will grow into a Sprint Goal with the help of the Scrum Team. Is it a simple canvas? Sure, but that doesn’t mean the steps should be ignored. It will structure a coaching session between the Scrum Master and Product Owner where you can discuss the Product Goal, what makes a ‘good’ Sprint Goal, and importantly, how you will measure the output and outcomes.
The Sprint Planning event is focused on answering three questions: the Why, the What and the How. This canvas focuses on the first of those three questions to ensure the Product Owner has taken time to consider the objective of the Sprint. By doing so, it is likely that the value and utility of the Product is improved during the upcoming Sprint.
The idea is based on the ‘5-minute lesson plan’ that has been used for years to help teachers craft purposeful and intentional learning activities for students.
The canvas is free to download here and doesn't require any registration.
If you'd like to hear an explanation of how to use the canvas, take a look at the video at the bottom of this page.
Ryan is the primary trainer at Optilearn. He is an experienced Scrum Master, Agile Coach and educator. He is a Professional Scrum Trainer with scrum.org and also holds Qualified Teacher Status in the UK. Ryan believes that the best teachers are the ones who practise what they teach, and so he maintains active consultancy to constantly put theory into practice.