6 tips for product managers to optimize the execution of Sprints
The objective of a Sprint (a period of work corresponding to an iteration in an Agile work context) is a value maximization. Finding the best way to optimize resources to deliver a product increment that is potentially deliverable to the customer is an issue that occupies most product managers. Regardless of the work context or type of product, the rules some agile frameworks establish to guarantee a work and communication cadence do not seem specific enough. As a result, product managers are often lost when it comes to finding a posture to optimize the work of their teams during the Sprint. Here are 6 tips to get the best out of your team before, during, and after the Sprint:
1. The Sprint Planning meeting is not for detailed Roadmap Planning
Focus on the Sprint goal! It is important to emphasize the importance of reviewing the Objectives Key Result (OKRs) and to show where the team is in the Roadmap. However, to optimize your Sprint Planning, it is recommended to only share some relevant information that will help the team have the right context and make the best decisions regarding the Sprint Goal (short term). Therefore, avoid going into details with the strategic planning. To address the topic, we advise you to find another time when you can focus the team’s attention on the vision, and what you want to accomplish in the long term.
2. Prepare your Product Backlog: refine it before the Sprint Planning meeting
Do not come to your Sprint Planning meeting without having worked on it beforehand with your team! Their time is precious and a lack of preparation often makes this meeting inefficient. Our advice: take the time to work on this point to improve yourself! If possible, try to work on it with your team one week before the end of the Sprint to add some estimates to the backlog, or to establish two or three priorities for the next Sprint. This information will serve as a starting point for discussions at the Sprint Planning meeting. This practice will foster the development of a more engaged and involved team when planning and setting Sprint goals. Additionally, this activity will standardize the management of complexity within your initiative, which will increase the skills of your team.
3. Get the team to focus on the Sprint goals before assigning the workload
Do not fall into this trap! We say the devil is in the details. Do not invite him into your schedule because he will sabotage your team’s precious time. When your team gets hung up on a task or a subject of expertise, they often assign the work to themselves, without discussing the final objective. In other words, we work on the why, before we work on the how. The risk is that we lose the vision of the Sprint, and we commit to the “To Dos”. Thus, celebrate your team’s initiative, but remind them of the upcoming Sprint’s goal, as well as the relationship to your roadmap and your goals. This practice encourages sharing, learning opportunities, and applying hard-to-understand concepts–such as quality criteria or “good enough”–to deliver value through product increment.
4. Avoid pushing “more work”
Scale your ambitions! It is well known that product managers have an “performance” nature and always want more! If you are in a team that is not mature or that has difficulty estimating its capabilities, it is possible that they accept when the product manager asks them to do more. However, you should be careful! Just because you add more tasks to your Sprint Backlog doesn’t mean you will achieve everything. Therefore, before adding more tasks, try to measure the speed/capacity of your team. To do this, we recommend you view capacity in terms of “effort” and not by “amount of hours”. Trust your team and be ready with a prioritized backlog in case your team finishes before. It will be easier to quickly negotiate with them and give them more tasks.
5. Do not plan to use 100% of your team’s capacity
Adjust to the reality of your context! We all know there are always unforeseen events (bugs, errors, etc.), bad estimates, or changes in priorities. Complexity is present in our daily lives, even if we try to control it. So why plan for 100% of your team’s capacity? It puts your team in a position of failure. Instead, we recommend you plan for 80% of your team’s capacity. If you have time left, it will be easy to take an item from the backlog, thanks to the tips mentioned in point 4.
6. Inspect your planning
Review and adapt your plan! How do you ensure your Sprint Goal is still relevant and that your estimates are right? How do you adapt to disruptive events during your Sprint? A good practice is to do a mid-Sprint meeting. Shorter than a Sprint Planning meeting, this meeting done halfway through the iteration allows you to make quick adjustments in priorities and capacity. You can still remove or add tasks to the Sprint backlog if it does not affect the established goal. It is up to you how you maximize your time, but the expression “better safe than sorry” reminds us that a mid-term inspection point could save you a lot of time.
As a final note, optimizing your Sprint execution process has a lot to do with what you plan and prepare in your product management, but also how you optimize the interactions with your team. Scrum allows eight hours of planning time for a four-week Sprint. This planning time may seem like a lot, but if we add up all the preparation, adjustment, and brainstorming time within team, you will see that eight hours go by very quickly. Thus, it is highly recommended that you prepare as much as possible before the start of the Sprint, and continue coaching your team throughout its development. As a product manager, your work is never completed. You should always look for ways to improve your Sprint execution process, by planning and preparing for the rest of your product management, but also by accommodating the unexpected.
What are your tips to optimize the execution of your Sprints?
This article was inspired by @bandanjot’s Tweet.
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