case study for product owner

Hacking the Case Interview

Have an upcoming product manager case study interview and don’t know how to prepare or answer these challenging case study questions?

In this comprehensive article, we’ll show you an intuitive, robust way to crush your product manager case study interviews even if you have no prior business or product experience.   We’ll also share with you the exact resources to learn product manager case study interviews the fastest way possible.

If you find this article helpful, you’ll love our product manager interview book . It’ll teach you how to answer 98% of every possible type of product manager interview question you could get asked in just a few hours of reading.

What is a Product Manager Case Study Interview?

A product manager case study interview is a 15 to 45-minute interview in which you are placed in a hypothetical business situation and asked to strategize, design, improve, or grow a particular product. It is a special type of interview question used to evaluate candidates in all product roles.

A product manager case study interview begins with the interviewer giving you a broad, ambiguous business or product question. Examples of questions you may see include:

• How would you design a product that does a particular function or serve a particular purpose?
• How would you improve a particular product?
• How would you improve sales for a particular product?
• How should we respond to the actions of a competitor?
• Is there a company we should consider acquiring?
• Should we enter a new market?

Typically, companies will ask these questions for a particular product that the company sells. However, companies may use other, more well-known products instead if their products are too technical, complicated, or obscure.

What are the Different Types of Product Manager Case Study Interviews?

There are four major types of product manager case study interview questions: product design, product improvement, product growth, and product strategy questions.

Product Design Case Study Interview

Product design case study interviews ask how you would design a particular product or service. Examples of product design case study questions include:

How would you design an alarm clock for the blind?

• How would you design a smart refrigerator that helps users reduce food waste?
• How would you design a mobile application for children to learn a new language?
• How would you design a user-friendly interface for a voice-controlled virtual assistant device?
• How would you design an interactive museum exhibit to engage visitors in learning about ancient civilizations?

Product Improvement Case Study Interview

Product improvement case study interviews ask how you would improve an existing product or service. Examples of product improvement case study questions include:

• How would you improve the iPhone?
• How would you improve Google Maps?
• How would you improve Spotify?
• How would you improve the microwave?
• How would you improve the check-in process at a hotel?

Product Growth Case Study Interview

Product growth case study interviews ask how you would grow sales for an existing product or service. Examples of product growth case study questions include:

• How would you increase the number of Netflix subscribers?
• How would you increase the number of daily active users on Instagram?
• How would you increase customer engagement on Tik Tok?
• How would you increase revenue for LinkedIn?
• How would you increase profit for Amazon?

Product Strategy Case Study Interview

Product strategy case study interviews ask how you would make strategic business decisions regarding a product, service, or for the company overall. Examples of important strategic decisions include:

• Deciding how to respond to a competitor
• Deciding how to price a product
• Deciding whether to acquire another company
• Deciding whether to enter a new market
• Deciding whether to launch a new product

Why Do Companies Use Product Manager Case Study Interviews?

Companies use product manager case study interviews to simulate problems that product managers face daily, evaluate how candidates think, and predict on-the-job success.

1. Simulate challenges that product managers face daily

Product manager case studies closely simulate the problems that product managers face in their role. By presenting candidates with real world scenarios, companies gain valuable insight into how candidates react when faced with a challenging, ambiguous, or broad problem.

These simulations provide a glimpse into how the candidate may actually perform as a product manager. Through product manager case study interviews, companies assess candidates' readiness to tackle the diverse array of challenges inherent in product management roles, ensuring they possess the necessary skills and mindset to excel.

2. Evaluate how candidates think

Conducting product manager case study interviews allows companies to evaluate not only what candidates know, but also how they think. By presenting candidates with hypothetical scenarios or problems to solve, companies gain insight into their thought processes, analytical abilities, and approach to decision making.

This assessment goes beyond assessing technical knowledge or specific skill sets, focusing instead on candidates' problem solving capabilities, creativity, and critical thinking skills.

3. Predict on the job success

Product manager case study interviews play a pivotal role in predicting candidates' on-the-job success by providing a glimpse into their ability to apply their knowledge and skills in practical contexts.

By evaluating candidates' performance in simulated scenarios relevant to the role, companies can gauge their potential to drive product success, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and deliver tangible outcomes.

Candidates that do well in product manager case study interviews signal a readiness to tackle the challenges of product management, minimizing hiring risks and increasing confidence in their ability to contribute meaningfully to the company’s objectives.

What Do Product Manager Case Study Interviews Assess?

Product manager case study interviews assess: problem solving skills, communication skills, product vision and strategy, creativity and innovation, and industry knowledge and expertise.

Problem solving skills

Product manager case study interviews quickly assess a candidate's problem solving skills. These case studies simulate real world challenges, allowing hiring managers to observe how candidates approach complex problems, break them down into manageable components, and develop viable solutions.

By evaluating a candidate's ability to think critically, creatively, and analytically, companies gain insight into their capacity to navigate the different challenges faced as a product manager.

Communication skills

Effective communication is a crucial skill for product managers who must interact with diverse stakeholders across an organization. Product manager case study interviews provide an opportunity to evaluate a candidate's ability to articulate their thoughts clearly, convey complex ideas succinctly, and engage stakeholders effectively.

Strong communicators can convey product vision compellingly, aligning stakeholders around a shared objective. They can build rapport and trust, facilitating seamless teamwork and driving successful product outcomes.

Product vision and strategy

Central to the role of a product manager is the ability to formulate a compelling product vision and strategy. Product manager case study interviews allow companies to assess a candidate's capacity to think strategically, envision the future trajectory of a product, and develop a product roadmap.

Through articulating a clear product vision, defining measurable objectives, and outlining a coherent strategy, candidates demonstrate their strategic acumen and ability to translate abstract concepts into actionable plans.

A strong understanding of market dynamics, customer needs, and competitive landscape informs a robust product strategy, enabling candidates to devise innovative solutions that resonate with target audiences and drive growth.

Creativity and innovation

In an increasingly competitive landscape, companies seek product managers who can infuse creativity and innovation into their product development process. Product manager case study interviews provide a way to evaluate a candidate's ability to think outside the box, challenge conventional wisdom, and generate novel ideas.

Candidates are tasked with solving hypothetical problems or brainstorming innovative features, offering insights into their creative problem solving skills and ability to push boundaries.

By encouraging candidates to explore unconventional solutions, companies identify individuals who can drive product differentiation and deliver transformative products that captivate users and outpace competitors.

Industry knowledge and expertise

A deep understanding of the industry landscape is essential to being a great product manager. Product manager case study interviews allow companies to assess a candidate's industry knowledge, domain expertise, and familiarity with relevant market trends and technologies.

Candidates are expected to demonstrate their understanding of industry dynamics, customer behaviors, regulatory considerations, and emerging technologies that may impact product development.

How to Solve Product Manager Case Study Interviews

For each type of product manager case study interview question, we’ve detailed the exact steps you should follow to deliver an outstanding answer and impress your interviewer.

How to Solve Product Design or Improvement Case Study Interviews

When asked how you would improve or design a product, resist the urge to list the first few ideas that come to your head. Instead, follow this systematic approach to demonstrate to the interviewer how you think about the product improvement and design process.

There are six main steps to solving product design or improvement case study interviews.

1. Define the goal

It is difficult to design or improve a product unless you have a specific and clear goal in mind. What are you trying to achieve?

The way you design or improve a product will change drastically depending on what you are trying to achieve. So, it is important that you confirm with the interviewer what the explicit goal is.

Are you trying to increase the number of monthly users? Are you trying to increase revenue per user? Is the goal to increase customer engagement? All of these different goals have drastically different solutions.

2. Identify a customer segment to target

The goal of this step is to focus and narrow down the scope of product improvement or design to one specific customer segment.

There are two reasons why you should do this.

One, customers can have a wide range of needs and preferences. Trying to improve or design a product that would benefit every single customer can be very challenging.

Two, by focusing on a specific customer segment, you can develop product improvements and designs that are more specific and tailored to the segment’s needs. You will avoid suggesting product ideas that are generic and not impactful.

Therefore, start by listing the different customer segments that come to mind. Select one segment and provide a reason why you are focusing on that segment.

You might choose a segment because they are the largest segment or you might pick a segment if their needs are underserved.

3. Select a pain point to focus on

Brainstorm a list of pain points for the selected customer segment. These can be unmet customer needs or features of the product that customers find frustrating, time-consuming, or difficult to use.

Select one pain point and provide a reason why you are focusing on it. You might select a pain point if it is the most common, the most severe, or the most practical to solve for.

4. Brainstorm product improvements or designs

Now that you have chosen a pain point to focus on, brainstorm a list of different ways to solve for that pain point.

Try to have at least 3 – 5 different ideas. Include a few ideas that are creative and unconventional. This demonstrates originality and out-of-the-box thinking.

If you are having difficulty generating enough ideas, you can use the SCAMPER framework to help you brainstorm ideas.

SCAMPER stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate, and reverse.

• Substitute : Replace an element or feature with something else
• Combine : Merge different elements or features to create something new
• Adapt : Alter an existing idea to better fit a new context or need
• Modify : Make changes to the attributes, such as size, shape, color, or other characteristics
• Put to another use : Find new applications for an existing idea
• Eliminate : Remove unnecessary components or features
• Reverse : Change the order or perspective of elements or features

5. Assess which idea is best

For this step, create a list of criteria to assess your different ideas. Common criteria include:

• Magnitude of impact
• User experience
• Ease of implementation

Select the most important criteria based on the nature of the product and the pain point. Afterward, assess each of your product ideas based on the list of criteria you have developed.

You can assess your ideas either quantitatively or qualitatively.

The most common way to quantitatively score ideas is to give them one, two, or three points for each criteria. The idea that has the highest total number of points will be chosen.

Some criteria may be significantly more important than others. In this case, you can consider weighting the point values differently. For example, if the magnitude of impact is by far the most essential criteria, you can double the point value. Each idea will be given two, four, or six points for this criteria.

In assessing your ideas qualitatively, talk through how each idea performs on the criteria you have selected. Choose the improvement or design that has the most positive assessment overall.

6. Explain how you would test this

After you have selected your best idea, suggest how you would test whether this product improvement or design works. Specify what metrics you would want to measure to determine this.

This step is not always necessary, but it demonstrates to the interviewer that you can think like a product manager. Product roles involve a lot of testing and iterating on features and improvements.

A/B testing is the most common way to test a new product feature or design. In A/B testing, you compare the performance of two variations of a product against one another.

Typically, you would run an experiment in which one group of customers is given the original or older product and another group of customers is given the new and improved product.

After defining the right metrics to measure performance, you can determine which version of the product performs better.

How to Solve Product Growth Case Study Interviews

They key to solving product growth case study interviews is to have a comprehensive growth framework where you can systematically list and talk through all of the major ways to grow.

A case study framework is a tool to structure and break down business problems into smaller components.

You can think about growth through two major categories, organic growth and inorganic growth. These two categories form the foundation of our growth strategy case framework.

Organic growth

The most common type of growth that companies pursue is organic growth, which is growth driven by expanding output or engaging in internal activities. In other words, the company is growing through its own capabilities and efforts.

Organic growth can be segmented into growth through existing revenue sources and growth through new revenue sources.

Growth through existing revenue sources is either driven by an increase in quantity of units sold or by an increase in average price per unit sold.

To increase the quantity of units sold, a company can:

• Improve their product
• Decrease prices
• Sell through new distribution channels
• Target new customer segments
• Expand into new geographies
• Invest more in marketing and sales
• To increase the average price per unit sold, the company can:
• Increase prices for their products
• Focus on selling higher priced products

Remember that changing prices will impact quantity of units sold, so it is important to look at the net effect price changes have on revenue.

To drive growth through new revenue sources, a company can:

• Launch new products
• Launch new services

 Inorganic growth

Inorganic growth, on the other hand, is growth driven by acquisitions, joint ventures, or partnerships.

The first way that a company can grow inorganically is by acquiring another company. This gives the acquiring company all of the revenue that the acquisition target generates. In addition, there may be revenue synergies that the acquiring company can realize.

Acquiring a company gives the acquiring company access to the acquisition target’s distribution channels, customers, and products. The acquiring company may be able to increase revenues by cross-selling products, up-selling products, or bundling products together.

In a joint venture, two or more companies enter a business arrangement in which they pool together resources and share risk in accomplishing a particular task. Each company in the joint venture is responsible for profits, losses, and costs associated with the project.

A partnership is an association between two or more companies that provides some kind of benefit to each partner. This is slightly different from a joint venture because in a partnership, companies do not necessarily have to combine resources or efforts. They just need to be associated with each other.

How to Solve Product Strategy Case Study Interviews

When answering a product strategy question, you should create a framework to structure your thoughts rather than saying the first few ideas that come to mind.

As a reminder, a framework is a tool to structure and break down business problems into smaller components. The answers to the questions in your framework will help you answer the overall product strategy question.

There are six steps to creating outstanding frameworks to answer product strategy case study interview questions.

1. Memorize eight robust business categories

There are eight broad business categories that are frequently looked at when making product strategy decisions.

By memorizing these eight categories, you’ll have an easier time creating an outstanding framework rather than having to create frameworks from scratch each time.

These eight business categories are:

• Market: market size, market growth rate, average profit margins in the market, market trends or changes (e.g., technology, regulation)
• Competition: number of competitors, market share of competitors, competitive advantage of competitors, trends or changes happening among competitors
• Company: products and services, strengths, competitive advantages, capability gaps, weaknesses, growth trajectory, synergies
• Product: product benefits, product drawbacks, product differentiation, product lifecycle stage
• Customer: number of customer segments, characteristics of each segment, attractiveness of each segment, customer needs and preferences, customer purchasing behaviors
• Profitability: revenue, costs, breakeven, return on investment, payback period
• Alternatives: alternative markets, alternative products, alternative partnerships or strategic alliances, alternative acquisition targets, alternative investments, alternative strategies
• Risks: major risks, likelihood of risks, severity of risks, mitigation of risks

For each of these broad business categories, we’ve included a few potential topics to give you a sense of what each category means or encompasses.

You will only need to memorize the eight broad business categories. You do not need to memorize all of the potential topics under each.

2. When asked a strategy question, ask for a few minutes to structure your thoughts

When given a product strategy case study interview question, ask for a few minutes to structure your thoughts. Almost every time, the interviewer will give you time to develop a framework.

3. Mentally run through the eight business categories and select the 3-4 most relevant ones

Next, mentally run through the eight business categories that you’ve memorized and select the 3-4 most relevant ones.

3-4 is the ideal number of categories for your framework. It is the right balance of comprehensiveness and simplicity.

Any fewer than 3-4 categories and your framework may not be comprehensive enough. You may be missing critical questions that are necessary to answer the strategy question.

Any more than 3-4 categories and your framework becomes too large and complicated. You also risk having redundancies in your framework.

4. If you are unable to select 3-4 relevant business categories, think of your own business categories to include

If you are unable to get 3-4 categories in your framework after running through the memorized list of business categories, then it is time to think of your own business categories to include.

This happens more commonly when given atypical or unusual product strategy case study interview questions.

Remember, the eight broad business categories you memorized work for the vast majority of strategy questions, but does not cover all of them.

5. Add specific questions under each business category you’ve selected

Once you have identified the 3-4 major categories in your framework, add sub-bullets or questions underneath each of them to add more detail.

6. Walk the interviewer through your framework and answer

When you’ve finished developing your framework, walk your interviewer through it.

At the end of each major category, give your opinion on which answer or recommendation it supports.

Once you’ve walked the interviewer through your entire framework, you should have an overall answer to the product strategy case study interview.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Examples

We’ve compiled a few product manager case study interview examples with complete answers below. These examples should give you a good sense of what outstanding answers sound like.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #1

How would you improve YouTube?

For this question, I’ll assume that the goal of the improvement is to increase user engagement on the platform, which can be measured as the amount of time a user spends on YouTube.

First, I’ll think through the different customer segments and pick one to focus on. Three customer segments immediately come to mind:

• Entertainment seekers are users that are bored who are looking for interesting videos to watch to pass the time
• Information seekers are users looking to learn a new skill or acquire information on a topic
• Music seekers are users looking for background music or sounds to play while they are doing something else

Out of these segments, I will focus on entertainment seekers because this segment probably makes up the most significant portion of YouTube’s user base.

Next, I’ll identify a pain point to focus on. Entertainment seekers have a few different pain points:

• The discovery process they go through to find entertaining videos takes time and effort
• Entertainment seekers find long videos dull and too slow to watch
• They get irritated when videos have clickbait titles that do not live up to expectations.

Among these pain points, I’m going to focus on the tedious video discovery process because it is probably the biggest pain point for these users.

Now, I will brainstorm a few ideas on how to make the video discovery process easier.

• YouTube could recommend videos based on videos that friends have seen. Since friends tend to have similar interests and tastes, these videos will likely be entertaining to entertainment seekers
• YouTube can have a continuous, curated video feed such that users do not have to search for the next video. Users can click on a skip button to immediately jump into the following video, which will be curated by an algorithm based on video history
• YouTube could send a curated playlist to the user each day. These videos would be selected by an algorithm based on video history

I will assess each of these ideas on their impact, user experience, and ease of implementation.

The first idea, recommending videos based on videos that friends have seen, would have minimal impact if the user does not have friends that use YouTube frequently.

Additionally, this idea does not change the user experience much because entertainment seekers would still need to decide whether to watch a recommended video. The upside of this idea is that it would not be difficult to implement.

The second idea, having a continuous, curated video feed, could have a tremendous impact. It removes the burden of decision-making from entertainment seekers because YouTube videos are automatically played.

The user experience is also an improvement because the user only needs to click a skip button when they are bored. The downside of this idea is that developing a good algorithm could require substantial investment.

The third idea, sending a curated playlist to the user each day, would have some impact on users. The decision making process is slightly simplified because the user receives a shorter list of videos to choose from. However, once the playlist is finished, the user would still need to look for more videos on their own. 

Additionally, the user experience is not ideal. Getting an email or notification every day can be annoying. The upside of this idea is that it is the most straightforward to implement.

 Based on my assessment, the continuous, curated video feed seems to be the most promising. 

To test this idea, I would develop a minimal viable product and use A/B testing to assess the performance of this feature.

One customer group would be given access to this feature while another customer group would not. I would measure the difference in minutes of video consumption between the two groups for one month to determine if user engagement has increased.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #2

For this task, let’s assume that the goal is to design an alarm clock that works reliably in waking up the user and is as easy to use as possible. 

Additional alarm clock functionalities, such as checking the weather or listening to the radio, will not be considered.

The customer segment has already been defined, the blind.

There are four use cases that we need to design for:

• Setting an alarm
• Checking to see if the alarm has been set
• Waking up the user
• Checking the time

For each of these use cases, we can brainstorm a few potential ideas and evaluate the pros and cons for each to decide which design is optimal for our goals.

To set an alarm:

• Design a voice assistant (e.g., similar to Siri or Alexa): This is quicker than a touchpad and can easily set an exact alarm time to the second. Additionally, the voice assistant can repeat the time set out loud so that the user knows the correct time has been set. However, there could be dictation issues for people with accents and this can only be done when the environment is relatively quiet.
• Design a braille touchpad: This would complicate the alarm clock by adding additional buttons. It would also take a longer time to set an alarm. The user would also need to take an additional step to check that the alarm has been set correctly once entered.

To check if the alarm has been set:

• Design a voice assistant that can answer the question of whether the alarm has been set: The user would not need to walk to the alarm clock to check if the alarm has been set. However, this needs to be done in a relatively quiet environment.
• Design a button that when pressed will play the time, the alarm set time, and whether the alarm is on/off: This provides all the information the user needs, but time-consuming as the user will need to hear all of the information each time. The user also needs to walk to the alarm clock to use this.
• Design a button that when pressed, vibrates if the alarm has been set: This communicates the information more quickly, but the user still needs to walk to the alarm clock to use this.

To wake up the user:

• Use visuals: If the user is blind, they likely won’t be able to see anything, especially if they are asleep.
• Use sound: This is what almost all alarm clocks use.
• Use touch: The alarm clock can vibrate to wake the user. However, it is unclear if this would reliably wake up the user.
• Use smell or taste: This is a very unconventional approach to designing an alarm clock. Users probably don’t want to be forced to smell or taste something. It is unclear whether the taste or smell would be strong enough to reliably wake up the user.

To check the time:

• Design mechanical braille buttons that change by the minute: This seems complicated to design and would likely increase the cost of the alarm clock. 
• Design a button that says the time out loud when pressed: This is less complex than designing mechanical braille buttons that change by the minute. However, the user still needs to walk to the alarm clock to check the time.
• Design a voice assistant to say the time out loud when asked: The user would not need to walk to the alarm clock to check the time. However, this can only be done in a relatively quiet environment.

Based on this, it seems that a voice assistant alarm clock that wakes up users with sound would be most suitable for our user.

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #3

Our company operates in the e-commerce space, primarily focusing on fashion and apparel. We're considering building a virtual fitting room feature that allows customers to virtually try on clothing items before making a purchase. How would you approach the decision of whether to invest in and build this new virtual fitting room feature?

There are four major factors to consider when deciding whether to build this new product feature:

1. Customer needs and preferences: Does this product feature resonate with customers?

• Do customers have a need for a virtual fitting room?
• Will customers actually use this feature?

2. Company capabilities: Does our company have the capabilities to develop this product feature?

• Do we have the expertise or technological capabilities to develop this feature?
• Do we have sufficient resources to develop this feature? (e.g., people, time, capital) 

3. Competition: Will developing this product feature help distinguish ourselves from competitors?

• Do competitors have a virtual fitting room product feature?
• How good are competitors’ virtual fitting rooms? (e.g., user experience, value provided to customers)

4. Profitability: Will building this new product feature be profitable?

• What are the expected costs of developing this product feature?
• What is the expected increase in revenue? (e.g., how much will conversion rate increase, how much will refunds decrease)

Product Manager Case Study Interview Example #4

Our company manufactures smart home security systems and we’ve recently launched a new model with advanced AI-powered features. How do we increase our market share and customer base?

There are four major ways to increase our market share and customer base for this smart home security system product:

1. Develop targeted marketing

• Identify specific customer segments that are most likely to benefit from the product
• Develop tailored marketing campaigns to highlight the unique advantages of our new model

2. Form strategic partnerships

• Form partnerships with prominent players in the smart home ecosystem
• Integrate the security system seamlessly into broader home automation solutions

3. Enhance customer experience and advocacy

• Prioritize exceptional customer support and post-purchase experience
• Implement a referral program to encourage existing customers to refer friends and family

4. Engage with the community

• Actively participate in online communities, forums, and social media groups focused on smart home technology and security
• Provide valuable insights and thought leadership at major smart home conferences or conventions

Product Manager Case Study Interview Frameworks

There are several product manager case study frameworks that candidates may find helpful to be familiar with. These include the: 4P’s framework, design thinking framework, growth framework, product development lifecycle framework, and SWOT analysis framework.

4P’s Framework

The 4P’s framework is a fundamental marketing framework used to analyze and develop marketing strategies for products or services. It consists of four elements, each representing a different aspect of marketing strategy:

• Product : Analyze the product itself, including its features, functionality, design, and user experience. Consider how well the product meets user needs and differentiates itself from competitors
• Price : Assess the pricing strategy, including pricing models, pricing tiers, discounts, and promotions. Consider factors such as value proposition, cost structure, and willingness to pay
• Place : Evaluate the distribution channels and placement strategy for the product, including online platforms, retail stores, and partnerships. Consider how to reach target customers effectively and efficiently
• Promotion : Examine the marketing and promotional tactics used to raise awareness and drive sales of the product. Consider advertising, public relations, social media, and other promotional channels

Design Thinking Framework

The design thinking framework is a human-centered approach to problem solving and innovation that is used to address a wide range of challenges and opportunities involved with product or service design.

It involves a structured process that encourages empathy, creativity, and collaboration to develop solutions that are user-centered, feasible, and viable. Here's how the design thinking framework is typically used:

• Empathize : Empathize with users to understand their needs, motivations, and pain points. Conduct user interviews, surveys, or observations to gain insights
• Define : Define the problem space, synthesizing research findings into clear problem statements or user personas. Articulate the specific challenges or opportunities
• Ideate : Brainstorm and generate creative solutions to the defined problem, encouraging divergent thinking and exploring a wide range of possibilities
• Prototype : Develop low-fidelity prototypes or mockups to visualize and communicate ideas, soliciting feedback from stakeholders and users
• Test : Gather feedback on prototypes through user testing or validation experiments, iterating based on user insights and refining solutions

Growth Framework

The growth framework, also known as the AARRR framework, is a framework used to analyze and optimize the various stages of the customer lifecycle. It is commonly applied in growth marketing and product management to drive user acquisition, activation, retention, revenue, and referral.

Here's a breakdown of the growth framework:

• Acquisition : Identify strategies for attracting new users or customers to the product, such as advertising, content marketing, SEO, or partnerships
• Activation : Focus on strategies to convert new users into active and engaged users, such as onboarding processes, personalized messaging, or product tours
• Retention : Explore tactics to keep users coming back to the product and increase their lifetime value, such as email marketing, loyalty programs, or product improvements
• Revenue : Analyze opportunities to monetize the product, including pricing strategies, upselling, cross-selling, or subscription models
• Referral : Consider ways to encourage existing users to refer new users to the product through word-of-mouth, referral programs, or social sharing

Product Development Lifecycle Framework

The product development lifecycle framework is used to guide the stages through which a product evolves from conceptualization to retirement. It outlines the key phases and activities involved in bringing a product to market and managing it throughout its lifespan.

Here's an overview of the product development lifecycle framework:

• Ideation : Generate and evaluate ideas for new products or features, considering user needs, market trends, and business goals
• Research : Conduct market research, user research, and competitive analysis to validate ideas and gather insights for product development
• Design : Define product requirements, create wireframes or prototypes, and design the user experience and interface
• Development : Oversee the development process, working with engineers and designers to build and test the product
• Launch : Plan and execute the product launch, including marketing campaigns, communication strategies, and rollout plans
• Post-launch Iteration : Monitor product performance, gather feedback from users, and iterate on the product based on insights and data

SWOT Analysis Framework

The SWOT analysis framework is a strategic planning tool used to identify and analyze the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities and threats facing a business, product, or project.

SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Here's how each component of the SWOT analysis framework is used:

• Strengths : Identify internal factors that contribute to the success of the product or business, such as unique features, strong brand reputation, or talented team members
• Weaknesses : Identify internal factors that hinder the success of the product or business, such as limited resources, technical constraints, or competitive disadvantages
• Opportunities : Identify external factors or market trends that present opportunities for growth or innovation, such as emerging technologies, new market segments, or changing consumer behaviors
• Threats : Identify external factors or challenges that pose risks to the product or business, such as competitive threats, market saturation, regulatory changes, or economic downturns

Product Manager Case Study Interview Tips

Below are our best ten tips for nailing your product manager case study interview:

1. Understand the Problem

Take the time to thoroughly understand the problem presented in the product manager case study interview. Break it down into its component parts, clarify any ambiguities, and identify the key objectives and constraints.

2. Ask Clarifying Questions

Don't hesitate to ask   clarifying questions during your case study interview if anything is unclear or if you need more information to solve the case effectively. This demonstrates your ability to gather relevant information and ensure you're addressing the right issues.

3. Define Your Approach

Before diving into the solution, outline your approach to solving the problem. Walk the interviewer through the different steps you plan on taking. Describe the framework or methodology you'll use.

4. Think Creatively

Be creative and think outside the box when brainstorming solutions. Don't limit yourself to conventional approaches. Consider innovative ideas that could differentiate the product and provide unique value to users.

5. Prioritize Solutions

Not all solutions are created equal. Prioritize your ideas based on their potential impact, feasibility, and alignment with the objectives of the product manager case study interview. Focus on high impact solutions that address the most critical aspects of the problem.

6. Consider Trade-offs

Recognize that there may be trade-offs involved in any solution. Consider the pros and cons of each option, and be prepared to justify your decisions based on the trade-offs you've made.

7. Communicate Clearly

Articulate your ideas and solutions clearly and concisely. Use structured frameworks, visual aids, and data to support your arguments and make your reasoning transparent to the interviewer.

8. Collaborate Effectively

Product management is a collaborative role, so demonstrate your ability to work effectively with others. Solicit feedback from the interviewer, incorporate their opinions and perspectives, and communicate openly throughout the product manager case study interview.

9. Showcase Your Analytical Skills

Use data and metrics to support your decisions, solutions, or hypotheses. Analyze any data provided, draw meaningful insights, and use them to inform your decisions.

10. Practice product manager case study interviews

Like any skill, product manager case study interviews require practice in order to excel in them. Therefore, practice doing product manager case studies with a partner under timed conditions. Seek feedback from others to identify areas for improvement. Familiarize yourself with the products and services of the company that you are interviewing for.

How to Prepare for Product Manager Case Study Interviews

There are six steps to preparing for product manager case study interviews: understand what a product manager case study interview is, learn the right strategies, practice a few cases by yourself, practice with a partner, practice with a current or former PM, and work on your improvement areas.

1. Understand what a product manager case study interview is

The first step to preparing for product manager case study interviews is to understand exactly what case study interviews are.

After you are familiar with what product manager case study interviews are, it is important to know what a great case study interview performance looks like. This will help you learn product manager case study interview strategies more quickly in the next step.

Before continuing onto the next step, you should be familiar with:

• The object of a product manager case study interview
• The types of questions you could get asked
• What a great product manager case study interview performance looks like

2. Learn the right strategies

Now that you have all the background information needed to succeed in product manager case study interviews, the next step is to learn the right strategies to build good interview habits.

It is much more efficient to learn the right product manager case study interview strategies the first time than to learn poor strategies and try to correct them later.

The quickest, most efficient way to learn these strategies is to read through our comprehensive product manager interview book . This book provides strategies on exactly what to do and say for over 10+ types of product manager interview questions, such as product design, marketing, estimation, strategy, execution, behavioral, and technical questions.

Before moving onto the next step, you should at least have strategies for the following types of product manager case study questions:

• Product design case study interview questions
• Product improvement case study interview questions
• Product growth case study interview questions
• Product strategy case study interview questions

3. Practice a few product manager case study interviews by yourself

Once you have learned the right strategies, the next step is to practice doing a few product manager case study interviews by yourself.

When practicing product manager case study interviews, it is typically better to practice with a partner than to practice by yourself. Practicing with a partner better simulates the actual product manager interview experience.

However, when you are just starting out, it is better to do the first few cases by yourself because it’ll help you become familiar with the structure and format of product manager case study interviews much more quickly.

 You also won’t have to waste time finding a partner and waiting for a time when they will be available to give you a mock interview.

4. Practice product manager case study interviews with a partner

The next step in preparing for product manager case study interviews is to practice doing cases with a partner. There are many aspects of case study interviews that you won’t be able to improve on unless you practice live with a partner.

When practicing product manager case study interviews with a partner, make sure that you are spending enough time after the mock interview to deliver feedback. Most of your learning and improvement will come from these valuable feedback sessions.

Do not move onto the next step until you have done at least 5 to 10 cases and are beginning to feel more comfortable with product manager case study interviews.

5. Practice with a former or current product manager

At this point, I strongly recommend asking former or current product managers to give you a mock interview. This will significantly help improve your performance on product manager case study interviews.

Doing a practice interview with a former or current product manager is highly beneficial because they know exactly what great answers sound like and can give you high-quality feedback to help improve the quality of your answers.

You can find former or current product managers among your friends, classmates, colleagues, and your broader LinkedIn network.

6. Work on your improvement areas

The last step in preparing for product manager case study interviews is to work on strengthening your improvement areas. Examples of common improvement areas or deficiencies include:

• Developing a comprehensive and structured framework or approach
• Generating creative and innovative ideas
• Using appropriate logic to make decisions
• Considering trade-offs and alternatives
• Communicating clearly and concisely

Try to work on improving one thing at a time. This will be much more effective than trying to improve on all of your weaknesses at once.

Recommended Product Manager Case Study Interview Resources

To prepare for product manager case study interviews, we highly recommend checking out our comprehensive product manager interview book, Hacking the PM Interview , which is available on Amazon in both eBook and paperback formats.

In this book, we’ll teach you exactly how to ace your product manager interviews and secure offers from top companies such as Google, Meta, Microsoft, Amazon, and Apple.

Whether your interview is months away or even tomorrow, this book will teach you the most effective, robust PM interview strategies in the least amount of time.

We’ve eliminated all filler material found in other books and provide you with everything you need to know in a clear and direct way.

With this shortcut guide, you will:

• Learn how to answer 10+ types of product manager interview questions, such as product design, marketing, estimation, strategy, execution, behavioral, and technical
• Uncover how to differentiate yourself from the thousands of other candidates competing against you
• Improve your PM interview skills quickly with the included practice problems and solutions
• Save yourself hundreds of hours of interview prep time

Dominate your PM interview

Learn to answer 98% of PM interview questions. Save yourself hundreds of hours

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20 Product Management Case Studies [Detailed Analysis][2024]

In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive business environment, effective product management has never been more crucial. It is a strategic catalyst that drives innovation and shapes how companies respond to evolving market demands and consumer preferences. This article delves into product management by examining 20 diverse global case studies, each showcasing the profound impact and key learnings derived from some of the world’s most influential companies. From Apple’s groundbreaking entry into the smartphone market to Spotify’s transformation of music consumption, and Toyota’s efficiency-driven Lean Production Model, these case studies offer a panoramic view of how strategic product management can lead to revolutionary changes in various industries. The article aims to provide valuable insights into the challenges faced, solutions implemented, and the overarching effects of these strategies, revealing how companies like Airbnb, Tesla, Zoom, Slack, Samsung, Netflix, and Patagonia have not only achieved market success but also set new benchmarks and trends in their respective domains. Through this exploration, we aim to equip current and aspiring product managers and business leaders with practical knowledge and inspiration to navigate the complex landscape of product management, driving innovation and success in their ventures.

Related: How to Build a Career in Product Management?

1. Apple Inc. – Reinventing the Smartphone

Task/Conflict:

Apple’s entry into the already crowded mobile phone market was a bold move, particularly with the objective of introducing a product that wasn’t just another addition but a complete redefinition of what a mobile phone could be. The challenge was to innovate in a way that would not only capture the market’s attention but also set a new standard for user interaction, functionality, and design in the smartphone industry.

The solution lay in the development of the iPhone, a device that combined a phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator. This integration, coupled with a pioneering touchscreen interface and a focus on user experience, positioned the iPhone not just as a product but as an ecosystem. Apple’s emphasis on design, functionality, and user interface created a product that stood out from its competitors.

Overall Impact:

• Revolutionized the smartphone industry.
• Set new standards for technology and user experience.

Key Learnings:

• Innovation can disrupt established markets.
• User-centric design is crucial in technology products.

2. Spotify – Transforming Music Consumption

In an era dominated by music piracy and declining physical album sales, Spotify faced the daunting task of reshaping how people accessed and paid for music. The challenge was not only technological but also cultural, requiring a shift in consumer habits and a rethinking of the existing music industry’s business model.

Spotify’s approach was to introduce a user-friendly music streaming service, offering a vast library of tracks with both a free, ad-supported model and a premium subscription option. This strategy addressed the issues of accessibility and affordability while respecting the rights of artists and producers, thus presenting an attractive alternative to illegal downloads.

• Influenced the revenue model of the entire music industry.
• Became a leader in music streaming.
• Innovative business models can redefine industries.
• Addressing consumer pain points is key to success.

3. Toyota – The Lean Production Model

Toyota was confronted with the challenge of enhancing efficiency and reducing waste in their production processes. The automotive industry, characterized by intense competition and high operational costs, demanded a strategy that not only improved production efficiency but also maintained high quality.

Toyota implemented the Lean Production Model, a revolutionary approach focusing on ‘Kaizen’ or continuous improvement. This methodology involved streamlining the manufacturing process, reducing waste, and empowering workers to contribute to ongoing improvements. The Lean Model emphasized efficiency, flexibility, and a relentless pursuit of quality in production.

• Enhanced operational efficiency and profitability.
• Established as a benchmark for manufacturing excellence.
• Efficiency and quality are pillars of manufacturing success.
• Continuous improvement drives operational excellence.

4. Airbnb – Revolutionizing Hospitality

Airbnb aimed to carve out a new niche in the hospitality industry, which was traditionally dominated by hotels. The challenge was multifaceted, involving regulatory hurdles, building trust among users, and creating a reliable and scalable platform that connected homeowners with travelers seeking unique lodging experiences.

The solution was the creation of a user-friendly online platform that enabled homeowners to list their properties for short-term rental. This platform not only provided an alternative to traditional hotels but also fostered a sense of community and unique travel experiences. Airbnb focused on building a robust review system and transparent policies to overcome trust and safety concerns.

• Disrupted the traditional hotel industry.
• Became a leading figure in the sharing economy.
• Innovative platforms can create new market segments.
• Trust and transparency are crucial in community-driven businesses.

Related: History & Origin of Product Management

5. Tesla – Electrifying the Auto Industry

Tesla embarked on the ambitious goal of popularizing electric vehicles (EVs) as a sustainable and viable alternative to gasoline-powered cars. This task involved overcoming preconceptions about the performance, range, and practicality of EVs, as well as establishing the necessary infrastructure for their adoption.

Tesla’s approach was to develop high-performance, luxury electric vehicles that combined environmental friendliness with cutting-edge technology and stylish design. This strategy helped to change the perception of EVs from being seen as inferior alternatives to gasoline cars to desirable, high-tech vehicles. Tesla also invested in building a network of charging stations, further facilitating the practicality of EV ownership.

• Led the transition towards electric vehicle adoption.
• Influenced the auto industry’s direction towards sustainability.
• Sustainable technology can be aligned with luxury and performance.
• Changing consumer perceptions is key to introducing new technology.

6. Zoom – Simplifying Remote Communication

In a market crowded with various communication tools, Zoom faced the challenge of differentiating itself and proving its value. The goal was to provide a solution that was not only reliable and easy to use but also superior in terms of video and audio quality compared to existing offerings.

Zoom focused on creating a user-friendly platform that offered high-definition video and clear audio, even in low-bandwidth situations. This commitment to quality and reliability, combined with features like screen sharing, virtual backgrounds, and easy integration with other tools, made Zoom a preferred choice for businesses and individuals alike, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Became a staple tool for remote communication.
• Highlighted during the global shift to remote work due to the pandemic.
• Reliability and user experience are critical in technology solutions.
• Agility in adapting to market changes is vital.

7. Slack – Redefining Workplace Collaboration

Slack was developed with the vision of transforming the cluttered and inefficient landscape of workplace communication, dominated by email. The challenge was to create a platform that not only streamlined communication but also integrated various work tools to enhance productivity and collaboration.

The solution was an intuitive, chat-based platform that allowed for real-time messaging, file sharing, and integration with a wide range of work tools and applications. Slack’s focus on reducing the reliance on emails and consolidating communication into a single, searchable platform revolutionized team collaboration and internal communication in businesses.

• Changed the dynamics of team communication and collaboration.
• Became a central tool in many organizations for internal communication.
• Streamlining common practices can create significant market opportunities.
• Integration and user-friendliness are key in collaborative tools.

8. Samsung – Innovation in Electronics

Samsung’s challenge was to establish itself as a leader in the highly competitive and rapidly evolving consumer electronics market. This required keeping up with technological advancements and differentiating its products in terms of quality, innovation, and user experience.

Samsung’s strategy involved substantial investment in research and development, focusing on bringing innovative and high-quality products to the market. Their innovation commitment spanned various product categories, including smartphones, televisions, and home appliances. This focus on quality and technological advancement helped Samsung achieve a leading position in the global electronics market.

• Achieved a leading position in the consumer electronics market.
• Known for innovation and quality in product offerings.
• Innovation is crucial in technology sectors.
• Quality and continuous improvement attract consumer loyalty.

Related: Top Product Management Tools

9. Netflix – Pioneering Streaming Services

Netflix’s journey began with the goal of transforming the traditional movie rental business. The challenge was to transition from a DVD rental service to an online streaming platform, requiring a technological shift and a change in consumer viewing habits and content distribution models.

The solution was a gradual but determined shift to an online streaming model, offering customers an extensive and ever-growing library of movies and TV shows. Netflix’s investment in original content and exclusive deals with production studios further enhanced their appeal. This strategic pivot catered to the growing demand for on-demand entertainment, free from physical media and broadcast schedules constraints.

• Redefined media consumption habits.
• Led the rise of online streaming services.
• Adaptability to technology and market trends is critical.
• Investing in original content can differentiate streaming services.

10. Patagonia – Ethical Product Management

In a clothing industry often criticized for environmental and ethical issues, Patagonia aimed to differentiate itself by committing to sustainability and ethical practices. The challenge was not only to maintain profitability but also to influence consumer behavior and industry standards towards more responsible practices.

Patagonia’s approach included using sustainable materials, ensuring transparency in their supply chain, and advocating for environmental causes. Their commitment extended to initiatives like repairing products to extend their lifespan and encouraging responsible consumption. This strategy appealed to environmentally conscious consumers and set a new standard for corporate responsibility in the clothing industry.

• Became a model for sustainability in the clothing industry.
• Influenced both consumer and industry practices towards eco-friendliness.
• Sustainability can be a unique selling proposition.
• Ethical practices enhance brand loyalty and reputation.

11. Microsoft – Shifting to Cloud Computing

Microsoft faced significant challenges in adapting to the rapidly evolving technology landscape. The traditional software model of boxed products had grown increasingly obsolete due to a surge in cloud computing. Emerging competitors like Amazon Web Services and Google’s cloud platform gained momentum, providing flexible, scalable solutions that shifted the market’s preference away from on-premise software to on-demand, subscription-based models. Microsoft needed to transform its business approach and product portfolio to align with these market trends

Under CEO Satya Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft shifted focus to cloud computing, developing Azure as an end-to-end platform providing comprehensive infrastructure and software services. The company also transitioned its flagship Office suite to a cloud-based subscription model with Office 365. They emphasized flexibility, scalability, and security while ensuring seamless integration with existing Microsoft products. Investments in data centers globally and new pricing models enabled Microsoft to compete directly with other leading cloud providers.

• Transformed Microsoft into a leader in cloud computing.
• Significantly increased recurring revenue through subscription-based services.
• Implementation of emerging technologies is vital for staying ahead of market trends.
• Subscription models can create predictable and sustainable revenue streams.

12. Lego – Rebuilding a Toy Empire

Lego was at a crossroads in the early 2000s. The company had overextended its product lines, ventured into unrelated business areas, and faced fierce competition from digital entertainment sources like video games. The result was a decline in sales and profitability, jeopardizing the company’s future and threatening the iconic brand with irrelevance.

To rebuild its brand, Lego implemented a back-to-basics approach, refocusing on its core product, the Lego brick. It also streamlined its product lines and improved internal operations. Partnering with entertainment franchises such as Star Wars and Harry Potter, they launched themed Lego sets that resonated with younger generations. Lego expanded its reach into digital media with video games and movies like The Lego Movie, engaging customers through multiple channels and breathing new life into the brand.

• Restored profitability and renewed consumer interest in Lego products.
• Expanded their presence into digital media and entertainment.
• Diversification and partnerships can revitalize traditional products.
• Engaging customers across multiple channels strengthens brand loyalty.

Related: Inspirational Product Management Quotes

13. Dropbox – User-Friendly Cloud Storage

Dropbox faced the challenge of competing with tech giants including Google and Microsoft in the nascent cloud storage market. While these companies offered vast storage solutions integrated with their productivity suites, Dropbox needed to carve out a niche by appealing to users with an easy-to-use, reliable platform. They aimed to provide seamless file synchronization, security, and accessibility across devices.

Dropbox placed simplicity at the forefront, developing a cross-platform application that allowed users to sync files effortlessly across multiple devices. The system’s seamless synchronization and ease of use differentiated it from other cloud storage providers. They employed a freemium model that offered free storage with the option to upgrade for more capacity and features, attracting millions of users globally and enabling them to monetize their growing user base.

• Became a trusted name in cloud storage, with millions of users worldwide.
• Pioneered the freemium model, offering free and paid plans.
• User experience is a differentiator in competitive tech markets.
• Freemium models can attract users and convert them to paid subscriptions.

14. Nike – Personalizing Athletic Wear

Nike, already a leader in sports apparel, faced stiff competition from rivals like Adidas and Under Armour. The company needed a unique strategy to differentiate its products and capture the loyalty of a diverse, increasingly demanding customer base. Customers wanted personalized experiences, and Nike aimed to address this by providing a solution that matched their specific preferences in athletic wear.

Nike launched the NikeID program, which allowed customers to personalize their athletic gear online, choosing colors, patterns, and custom text. This innovation expanded the company’s appeal to athletes and fashion-conscious consumers alike, helping them express their individuality while boosting engagement. By streamlining the customization process and leveraging digital technology, NikeID created an experience that could be replicated globally, resulting in increased brand loyalty and revenues.

• Elevated customer engagement through personalized experiences.
• Expanded customization to a broad range of products, increasing brand loyalty.
• Personalization can differentiate brands in competitive markets.
• Engaging customers in the design process enhances brand value.

15. Procter & Gamble – Open Innovation with Connect + Develop

Procter & Gamble (P&G), known for a vast portfolio of consumer goods, recognized that the traditional R&D process was becoming slower and costlier, hampering the company’s ability to innovate. With the proliferation of specialized knowledge worldwide, P&G realized that internal expertise alone wouldn’t suffice fulfill the increasing demand for new products across its various brands. They needed to find a way to tap into external innovation to stay ahead of the competition.

P&G launched the Connect + Develop platform, an open innovation initiative that invited inventors, academics, and other companies to submit ideas and collaborate on new products. This platform enabled P&G to access global expertise and accelerate the product development process by integrating external solutions with their own internal capabilities. The platform generated new partnerships that broadened P&G’s R&D reach and enhanced the product pipelines for various brands, significantly improving efficiency and innovation.

• Increased innovation by sourcing solutions from a global network.
• Enhanced product pipelines across multiple categories.
• Open innovation can tap into global expertise for improved R&D.
• Collaborating beyond company boundaries accelerates product development.

16. Adobe – Transforming into a Subscription Model

Adobe faced challenges with its traditional perpetual software licensing model, which was becoming outdated due to issues like piracy and inconsistent revenue streams. As competitors moved towards more dynamic, subscription-based models, Adobe needed to reinvent its business strategy to stay competitive and relevant in the digital content creation industry.

With the introduction of Adobe Creative Cloud, Adobe shifted from selling boxed software to a subscription-based model. This move provided customers with constant updates, cloud storage, and access to a suite of creative tools for a monthly fee. The transition addressed piracy issues and allowed Adobe to offer a scalable and continually improving product experience, leading to a more predictable and stable revenue stream.

• Stabilized Adobe’s revenue with a predictable subscription-based income.
• Increased customer retention and satisfaction due to continuous updates and enhancements.
• Fostered a broader adoption of Adobe’s software suite among freelancers and small businesses due to more accessible pricing.
• Transitioning to a subscription model can provide stable revenue and reduce piracy.
• Offering continual improvements and added value can enhance customer loyalty.

Related: Reasons to Study Product Management

17. GoPro – Innovating in a Niche Market

GoPro aimed to dominate the action camera market but faced the challenge of distinguishing itself from larger electronics manufacturers with broader product lines. The company needed to innovate continuously while fostering a strong brand identity that resonated with extreme sports enthusiasts and casual users alike.

GoPro focused on developing durable, high-quality cameras with unique features such as waterproofing and compact design tailored to capture extreme sports and adventure. They also built a robust community by leveraging user-generated content and social media, turning their customers into brand ambassadors. This strategy solidified their market position and expanded their customer base.

• Established GoPro as the leading brand in action cameras with a significant market share.
• Expanded the brand’s appeal beyond extreme sports to general consumers.
• Fostered a new market for accessory and lifestyle products related to action cameras.
• Leveraging user-generated content can effectively enhance community engagement and marketing.
• Creating an ecosystem around a product can extend its market reach and usability.

18. IBM – Pioneering Artificial Intelligence with Watson

IBM recognized the potential of artificial intelligence early on but faced the dual challenge of developing cutting-edge technology and finding practical applications for AI in business. They needed to create a platform that could demonstrate AI’s capabilities and be applicable and beneficial across various industries.

IBM developed Watson, an AI system capable of understanding natural language and generating data-based hypotheses. Watson was first introduced to the public by participating in the quiz show Jeopardy!, where it challenged humans. Following this, IBM expanded Watson’s capabilities to serve industries like healthcare, finance, and customer service, showcasing its versatility and practical utility.

• Expanded Watson’s applications into healthcare, finance, and beyond, proving AI’s versatility in solving complex problems.
• Strengthened IBM’s brand as an innovator and thought leader in the technological space.
• Demonstrating technology through high-visibility challenges (like Jeopardy!) can effectively capture public and commercial interest.
• Strategic partnerships in diverse industries can enhance the practical applications and market acceptance of new technologies.

19. Unilever – Sustainability as a Business Strategy

Facing increasing consumer awareness and demand for sustainable and ethical products, Unilever needed to integrate sustainability deeply into its business model without compromising on profitability and market competitiveness.

Unilever launched the Sustainable Living Plan, committing to halve its environmental footprint, improve health and well-being for more than a billion people, and sustainably sourcing 100% of its agricultural raw materials. This comprehensive strategy helped Unilever strengthen its brand loyalty among conscious consumers and drove long-term growth by reducing costs and innovating in product development.

• Achieved cost reductions and efficiency improvements through sustainable practices.
• Set industry standards for sustainability, influencing other companies to adopt similar practices.
• Sustainability can drive business growth and consumer loyalty when integrated into core business strategies.
• Ethical practices can be a competitive advantage, attracting both consumers and investors.
• Transparency in sustainability efforts can enhance corporate reputation and build stronger relationships with stakeholders.

20. Zara – Revolutionizing Fashion with Fast Fashion

Zara, part of the Inditex group, needed to maintain its edge in the highly competitive and fast-paced fashion industry. The challenge was to continually offer the latest fashion trends faster than traditional retailers, addressing the consumers’ desire for immediate gratification.

Zara implemented a unique business model, fast fashion, which involves rapid prototyping, small batch production, and an extremely efficient supply chain that can bring designs from the runway to store shelves in weeks. This approach kept inventory costs low and ensured that Zara’s offerings were always fresh, appealing, and aligned with current trends.

• Enabled Zara to become a global leader in the fashion industry, significantly outpacing competitors in responsiveness to fashion trends.
• Reduced unsold inventory and increased profitability through efficient supply chain management.
• Catalyzed shifts in consumer buying behavior, with more frequent purchases and higher expectations for rapid trend availability.
• Speed and agility in product development and supply chain can significantly enhance market responsiveness.
• Continuous market research and rapid response to consumer trends are crucial for maintaining competitive advantage in fast-paced industries.

Related: Product Management Failure Examples

Closing Thoughts

In conclusion, these case studies exemplify the transformative power of effective product management. They highlight the importance of understanding market needs, embracing innovation, focusing on user experience, and the value of ethical practices. Aspiring business leaders can draw valuable lessons from these examples to navigate challenges and drive success in their endeavors.

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Case Study: The Role of a Product Owner in Your IT Project

From the point of view of the outsourcing company’s client, the role of a Product Owner is both crucial and difficult. Why?

The Product Owner shapes the vision of the product. On the other hand, they try to maximize its value and use technical resources in such a way as to create a product satisfying the customer’s needs.

I would say that the Product Owner is an ambassador among the developers. They represent you or the specialist working for a software company who may represent the needs of all stakeholders in the Product Backlog. I will discuss here a Case Study of a project in which a client decided to outsource their Product Owner.

Scrum Guide describes main Product Owner’s responsibilities , such as:

• Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal.
• Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items.
• Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible, and understandable.
• Ordering Product Backlog items.

What does it mean?

Let’s see what it looks like behind the scenes when you decide to entrust the role of the Product Owner to someone from the software house.

1. Defining Project Vision

This obligation requires close cooperation between the customer and the Product Owner.

Product Owner should manage product development from a strategic perspective. This means that they should know what their purpose and goals are, without necessarily having to know the way to it from the very beginning.

To know the purpose of your project, the Product Owner needs to communicate with all the stakeholders, sometimes including your customers, your employees, and your business managers, so everyone involved in product development can present their perspective on the product.

Thanks to this, the Product Owner can confirm whether the objective of the project expressed by the stakeholders is consistent with the business objectives of the company. In the nutshell, the purpose of the product is defined in the product vision and all the knowledge gathered is presented in the form of road maps.

Next, another Product Owner’s responsibility is to communicate the goals to the rest of the Team.

2. Product Backlog Management

This obligation requires regular cooperation.

The Product Backlog is a list of tasks to do. To make the work effective, the Product Owner is responsible for maintaining it. So, they must create stories and tasks for the Team, updating them when it’s necessary.

To create an effective product backlog, they must:

• Describe features of an application using user stories.
• Plan the most efficient sequence of development.
• Create tasks with the Development Team.
• Create test cases with Testers.

The product backlog can’t be immutable, because it’s not just a suggestion, it’s a signpost. If it is NOT properly maintained and optimised, it will cause inconsistency of work, delays, and confusion. If it happens to you, that means you don’t have a real Product Owner.

Let’s move on to the next responsibility of the Product Owner.

3. Ensuring Backlog’s Transparency

This obligation does not require your effort.

Product Owner must make the backlog accessible to all parties involved in the product development. It means that both the developer and the client should understand it. This is the duty that takes up the most time and requires preparing clear descriptions of intended effects, understandable tasks for developers, and flow characteristics for testers.

And one more responsibility described in the Scrum Guide.

Read more: How to Choose a Tech Stack for Your Next Project?

4. Prioritising the Needs

Product Owner is responsible for prioritising needs according to the scope, time, and your budget, keeping in mind your main objectives. This is quite a difficult task because priorities can change, which is why Product Owner:

• Prioritises the user stories by relative importance for each iteration.
• Defines any constraints.
• Locates and proposes tasks with fewer constraints.
• Determines what feature can be deliverable at which time.

Overall, Product Owner must deliver the maximum outcome to achieve goals and missions.

What other responsibilities does the outsourced Product Owner hold?

5. Evaluating Product Progress

Once the priorities are set, a Product Owner should oversee the product throughout the development cycle. So, they are a key player in product development, process refinement, and product review. Their responsibilities are:

• Working with the Development Team and stakeholders to identify requirements for next iterations.
• Refining the development process.
• Inspecting product’s increment to make sure that the Team delivers the expected outcomes.
• Identifying improvements.
• Supporting the Team in design, development, and tests to be able to answer or guide the Development Team.

Product Owner can inspect and adapt product participating in Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning Meetings, Sprint Reviews, and Retrospectives . Thereby, Product Owner is updated, informed about priorities, and understands the perspective of any impediments.

6. Liaison Between the Teams and the Stakeholders

Outsourced Product Owner role consists of acting as a primary liaison between the Team and the stakeholders to work on:

• The information flow, which must be quick and clear with no misunderstandings.
• Setting goals which should be correctly aligned with the work items on the Product Backlog.
• Determining whether user stories meet their expectations.
• Precising any doubts arising during the project implementation.

All relationships should be based on trust between the Product Owner and the stakeholder (client). In my humble opinion, the trust is built on frequent relations, clear messages about the developments, precise communication of needs, demonstrating commitment, suggesting solutions and taking care of the client’s interest.

Establish a Fruitful Cooperation Thanks to the Role of a Product Owner

For cooperation between Stakeholders and outsourced Product Owners to succeed, both parties should respect their decisions and trust each other. The decisions of the Product Owner influence the content, the Product Backlog and Increment at the Sprint Review, whereas Stakeholders’ decisions are necessary when setting the goals. If they manage to find common ground, there’s no stopping them.

Explore All of the Benefits of IT Project Outsourcing

I believe that anything I do, I do for the end-user. I maximise value by:

- setting a path to the product's goal, helping developers do what they need to do

- frequently inspecting the result of their work to confront assumptions with reality

- adapting to the changing needs of Stakeholders based on feedback and measurable data.

I manage IT products agilely and know how to make your vision a reality. Would you like to work with me?

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What Are Product Management Case Study Interviews?

Carlos González De Villaumbrosia

Updated: May 6, 2024 - 10 min read

What is a product management case study interview?

A case study interview, also known as a case interview, is a tool used by many companies to assess a candidate’s analytical, creative, and problem-solving skills. Similar to coding interviews for engineers, they allow the interviewers to simulate a situation that allows your skills to be put into practice.

Quite simply, you’ll be given a situation, and asked to make suggestions or come up with a hypothetical solution or improvement.

In product management, this can be about any number of things. The realm of product managers is vast, and covers many different aspects of product development. As product managers sit at the intersection of business, technology, and design, you could be asked case questions under these umbrellas.

This means that you could be given a case question based on product design, monetization, market research, user segmentation, trends, data, technical development, go-to-market , prioritization…pretty much anything product managers are into!

Example case study interview questions

What’s your favorite product? How would you improve its design?

Which company do you think we should acquire next?

How would you go about launching our product in an emerging market, say, India?

What new feature would you build for Instagram?

How to ace a case study interview

The product design case interview

No, the interview isn't going to hand you a Wacom tablet and ask you to mock up an entire product on the spot! Instead, you’ll be asked to think through some solutions to pretty common design problems. Things like:

How would you improve our in-app messenger?

If we tasked you with making our user interface more inclusive of those with disabilities, how would you approach that?

How would you redesign our homepage to make it more appealing for X demographic?

We’re finding that X number of users don’t make it through the entire onboarding process. What would you do/design to fix that?

The key when being asked a question about how you’d improve the company’s product is not to insult it too heavily. Remember, the people who built it are in the room with you, so if you come in hot with “well, for starters, your homescreen is absolutely hideous and needs a complete do-over”, you’re not going to endear yourself to them. A product manager is a diplomat, so be as diplomatic as possible.

Instead of focusing on how you’d fix what you see as glaring problems, try to come up with something that adds to the product. “I think a chatbot in your user onboarding process would help people to navigate through the process. Here’s where I’d implement it…”

How to ace it

Give your hypothesis: Because everything in product starts with why .

Lay out your approach : Briefly summarize what your approach would be, given your hypothesis. Include things like the research you would need to do, and the preparation the team would need to make.

Identify the user: Companies want user-driven product managers, so definitely make sure you know which user you’re building for.

Describe the solution : How would you actually build the solution? No need to get too technical if that’s not where your skills lie. If that’s the case, talk about how you’d lead the engineering teams to build the solution.

Suggest testing: If you’ve got 2 ideas and you’re not sure which one is better, describe both and talk about the test you’d run to discover which one to roll with.

Prioritize features : Show off your prioritization skills if you’re suggesting more than one feature.

Suggest features for an MVP and plans for a V1 launch:

Finish off by helping the interviewers to visualize what the finished MVP would be like, as well as the plans you’d have for a full release later down the line.

The business-thinking case interview

Business thinking is vital for product managers, as you’re the person that ties what’s being built to the needs of the business. This is why you may be presented with a business problem, so that the interviewer can assess your thought process, and how you approach product strategy.

Business case questions may include things like:

Management wants to build X because a competitor has launched something similar. How would you respond?

If we wanted to move more into the B2B market by launching X, what would you do first?

How would you increase customer adoption for the feature we released last month?

We want to become more product-led in our growth strategy. What recommendations would you make in terms of pricing structure/increasing customer adoption?

Establish market characteristics : This is especially important if your case question is a go-to-market question. If you’re not sure what the market characteristics are, talk about what you would find out before starting the work.

Layout your approach: Briefly summarize what your approach would be.

Prioritize your actions: If you’ve been asked for a step-by-step approach, talk about why you’re doing things in that order.

Provide analysis : Business decisions require a heavy amount of analysis, so be sure to include some competitor/customer/market analysis.

Make recommendations: Talk about the end result in a business sense. Instead of getting into the weeds of feature building etc, give a step-by-step approach of how you’d take a new feature to market, or make business-oriented improvements to a product.

Remember that a business-thinking case question requires an answer that would make C-suite happy. Try to think through your answer for the eyes of management. Think about what brings most business value, and tailor your answer around that.

The technical interview

Here, by technical interview, we don’t necessarily mean the tech interviews that engineers can expect to go through. It’s very rare for product managers to be asked technical questions in an interview, unless they’re specifically applying for a technical product manager role. You’ll usually get some warning in advance that your technical prowess will be tested, either by the recruiter or a hiring manager.

The chances of being given an in-depth technical case interview (aka, a coding interview) are rare, so you’re more likely to be asked a few general questions to gauge your technical ability.

Things like:

What’s your experience with X or Y technology?

Do you feel comfortable managing a team of engineers?

Can you explain the most technical project you’ve worked on?

These are questions that you should be able to answer in the room, because they’re based on your direct experience. So you don’t need to put any special level of preparation into their answers.

You may also be asked some technical questions that allow you to show off your technical knowledge, but are open-ended enough that you can still answer even if you’re not very techy. The goal is to gauge how much technical know-how you already have, not to embarrass you and put you on the spot for not having a computer science degree.

These questions might include:

What feature do you think we should build next? How should we approach building it?

Would you build X solution in-house, or would you outsource development elsewhere?

What partners do you think we should integrate with next? (eg. Slack, Trello)

These are questions that you can approach in your own way, from a technical perspective if you come from that background, or from a people-management/design/business perspective if you don’t.

Product managers and tech skills…what’s the deal?

It’s highly unlikely that you’ll be asked to go through a technical interview, as product managers aren’t the ones who physically build the product. They provide the direction and the insights, and the engineers provide the solutions and the finished product. So what’s gained by seeing how well you can code?

Well, some roles are more technical than others, so obviously in these roles you’d need either a computer science degree or a proven record of technical work, like an engineering background.

But for a regular product manager, you’re less likely to be given a technical case interview, and more likely to just be asked a few very general questions to gauge your knowledge.

1. Give yourself time to think

The worst thing you can do is panic, and rush in with an answer. It’s OK to give yourself time to think. An interview is not a first date, and silences don’t have to be awkward! So pause, and give yourself time to consider your answer before you start.

That’s much better than giving a sub-standard answer that you can’t take back. The interviewer will expect you to need a moment to gather your thoughts, so don’t stress.

2. Hack: The McKinsey case study

Now, you’re bound to go off and do plenty more research on case study interviews, wanting to find out everything you can. So let us give you this secret hack: check out materials for McKinsey case interviews .

“But I want to work at Facebook/Google/Amazon!” we hear you say. “Why would I prep for McKinsey?”

McKinsey is one of the most difficult interviewers out there. Reviews by some previous interviewees makes it seem like the process was designed to help choose the next ruler of Westeros. Their standards are incredibly high, and their case interviews are something that people prep weeks, even months in advance for.

This has a double result for you. One, there are swathes of resources out there specifically to prep for this behemoth of a case interview. Two, if you can give a McKinsey-standard answer to a case interview, you’ll outshine the competition easily!

3. Practice ahead of time

While you can’t be totally sure what you’ll be asked in a case interview, you can still prepare.

The smart thing to do is to practice case interview questions ahead of time. The way to do this is to pick apart the job posting you’re interviewing for, and identify what the main responsibilities are.

Case interview preparation is absolutely essential for acing product manager interviews, as you’re bound to be asked a hypothetical question sooner or later in the interview process.

4. Don’t feel pressured to give a perfect answer

Companies know how much time, research, and information goes into making informed product decisions. So if they’ve asked you to propose a new feature for their product as part of your interview, they’re not looking for something they can actually implement from you. They just want to see how you think, and what your analytical and problem-solving skills are. It’s also a test of your communication skills, seeing how you present yourself and your ideas.

So don’t pressure yourself into giving an answer that’s on par with the work their existing product managers do. That’s like beating yourself up for not running as fast a Usain Bolt when you do your first ever 5K.

Prepping for product manager interviews?

We’ve got you covered! Check out these great resources:

Master The Product Manager Interview Playlist : We’ve collected together our best talks on acing the Product Management interview, from a look behind the scenes of recruitment, to how to break into the industry. Check out the entire playlist here , or enjoy this sample from Google’s Product Manager…

The Ultimate List of Product Manager Interview Questions: Prepare yourself for every kind of question you could ever hope to be asked in a product manager interview!

Product School resources: If you really want to deep-dive into the best interview techniques, and become the master of any interview you walk into, you should check out the resources we have in our community. We’ve got cheat sheets, templates, and more!

Hired — How to Get a Great Product Job: Tailored guide-to-go for product manager positions in top tech companies. As this book will show you,  some of the most successful product transitions originated from people in music production or finance, with full-time jobs or with no prior experience. The collection of stories of Product Management transition will show you how it’s done.

Updated: May 6, 2024

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Unlocking Success: 5 Product Management Case Study Examples to Learn From

Product Management is a demanding yet rewarding career that calls for a blend of market expertise, user empathy, and strategic thinking. Examining actual case studies is a useful strategy for improving your product management abilities . We will examine five illuminating case studies in product management in this post, each of which highlights a distinct facet of the field. Let's look at these instances in order to learn important lessons and find inspiration.

1. Apple's Launch of the iPhone

Apple's launch of the iPhone in 2007 revolutionized the smartphone industry. This case study highlights the importance of innovation, user experience design, and strategic marketing in creating a successful product. By understanding Apple's product development process, market research tactics, and branding strategies, product managers can learn how to create products that resonate with consumers and stand out in a competitive market.

2. Netflix's Personalization Algorithms

Netflix is known for its highly effective personalization algorithms that recommend content tailored to each user's preferences. This case study demonstrates the power of data analytics, machine learning, and user segmentation in driving user engagement and retention. By studying Netflix's approach to product personalization, product managers can learn how to leverage data to deliver personalized user experiences and enhance customer satisfaction.

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3. Amazon's Dash Button

Amazon's Dash Button is a prime example of how product managers can simplify the shopping experience for customers. This case study showcases the importance of customer convenience, IoT integration, and continuous iteration in product development. By analyzing Amazon's Dash Button case, product managers can gain insights into designing intuitive products, optimizing user interfaces, and iterating based on user feedback to meet evolving customer needs.

4. Tesla's Autopilot Feature

Tesla's Autopilot feature is a groundbreaking innovation in the automotive industry that showcases the potential of autonomous driving technology. This case study illustrates the significance of technology integration, safety considerations, and regulatory compliance in developing cutting-edge products. By examining Tesla's Autopilot case, product managers can learn how to navigate complex technological landscapes, prioritize user safety, and comply with industry regulations while driving innovation.

5. Slack's Collaboration Platform

Slack's collaboration platform has transformed how teams communicate and collaborate in the workplace. This case study emphasizes the importance of user research, seamless integration with existing tools, and continuous improvement in product evolution. By studying Slack's product journey, product managers can understand the value of user-centric design, platform scalability, and proactive feature development in creating indispensable products that enhance productivity and team collaboration.

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Studying product management case studies provides valuable insights into the strategies, challenges, and successes of leading companies in the industry. By analyzing and learning from these examples, product managers can enhance their skills, expand their knowledge, and drive innovation in their own product development initiatives . Remember, every case study is a lesson waiting to be learned and applied in your product management journey.

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Product Owner Case Studies

• April 17, 2023

Anil Jaising

• No Comments

Product Manager or Product Owners have to wear different hats at different times. Here are some mindsets that connect well with the work they do.

Collaborative

Works 1/3rd time each working alone, 1/3rd time with stakeholders and 1/3rd time with developers.

LinkedIn Collaborative best practices

Problem:  When teams rapidly grow (over 50 people), communication and collaboration between them fail.

• The Product Leader, Sachin Rekhi observed multiple teams’ practices and found that Growth team’s A/B Tests (a form of split comparison testing) were not being adequately shared with the other Product Teams.
• He decided to share these findings through all-hands and community meetings, so all teams would be able to adopt the most efficient practices.

Reference:  https://miro.com/blog/features/sachin-rekhi-collaboration-product-leaders/

Competitive

Conducts detailed competitive analysis and employs strategies to   envision a premier product

Apple’s competitive hold on product strategy.

Problem : Competing in an overcrowded market.

• a proprietary operating system (iOS) vs. an open source operating system (Android).
• proprietary app store vs a 3rd party app store.
• There are many brands that make Android phones and software, therefore it is difficult for Samsung to differentiate their Android phones from the competitors’.
• Apple sells fewer smartphones and has less market share than Samsung; But Apple makes 90% of the profits in the market.

Reference :

https://www.thrv.com/blog/how-apples-product-strategy-satisfies-needs-better-than-samsungs

Business Focused

Focuses on market segementation and techniques to measure economic outcomes

Maggi Noodles relaunch business strategy

Problem :  Rebranding after negative backlash.

• After the banning of Maggi Noodles in India, the relaunch was aggressive with “ #missyoumaggi ” and “ #healthyisenjoyable ” awareness campaigns across multiple marketing channels.
• The packaging strategy highlighted  safe  and  healthy  on each pack.
• The pricing strategy focused on reducing the inventory while maintaining the price level.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/regain-lost-trust-maggis-comeback-story-saurabh-pal/

https://iide.co/case-studies/marketing-strategy-of-maggi/

Shift perspective to customer’s pains to capture needs

Facebook’s Empathy Lab

Problem : Solving for accessibility.

• A Product Leader led the strategy efforts to build an empathy lab in which the designers could understand the users’ experience.
• More diverse and accessible solutions. The empathy driven approach helped increase the user base exponentially while setting great examples for more accessible and diverse solutions.

https://www.wired.com/2015/02/meet-team-makes-possible-blind-use-facebook/

Multi-level

Leads ideation, prototyping, customer validation at multiple levels to make effective decisions

Airbnb, Etsy, and Uber two sided platforms.

Problem :  Acquiring their first thousand customers meant addressing challenges at multiple levels.

• Airbnb’s site is aesthetic and very accessible.
• Airbnb’s integration with Craigslist gave them access to consumers who did not want hotel experience.
• Etsy’s team would single out influential artists, crafters, and vintage collectors in art and craft shows all across the US and Canada, and use their notoriety to draw customers to Etsy.
• Uber’s Word of Mouth Marketing helped Uber grow.
• Uber also made the taxi ride experience easier and more pleasant.

https://startupnation.com/books/acquiring-first-thousand-customers/

Integrates aspects and constraints of market needs, technical feasibility and customer demands

Calloway Golf’s adaptive marketing strategy to woo their audience.

Problem : A drop in sales growth after great success.

• Calloway achieved product differentiation by continuously updating their technology.
• Calloway’s marketing focused on helping consumers understand the game better.
• Calloway revamped the way retail sales people deliver effective sales pitches.
• To reach their target audience, Calloway used golf magazines, trade publications, content marketing, word of mouth, and pro tour endorsements.

https://conceptsandbeyond.com/how-callaway-golf-used-content-marketing-to-grow-their-business-from-1-billion-to-17-billion-in-2-years/

Excellent at: big picture thinking, inventing what’s next and predicting direction

Fledgling Nike shoots into the stratosphere with their vision.

Problem : Nike was known for their running shoes and apparel, but lacked the athletic prestige or cool factor of companies like Converse and Adidas.

Solution :  Rather than signing many players, they put all their resources towards signing Michael Jordan, banking on him becoming an NBA star. 

https://time.com/6268621/air-true-story-behind-movie/

Prioritizer

Manages, refines and prioritizes the product backlog based on value and size

Oral B and Smalt prioritization woes.

Problem : Oral B and Smalt odd feature selection.

• Oral B perfect 16 degree angle toothbrush, Pro Expert was a clear case of listening to customers for solutions instead of needs and solving the wrong problems. Most reviews were complaints from users about replacing the battery.
• Smalt – Listening to music with the meal, color changing mood lights are all good.  The internet of things for dispensing salt is not a problem most customers have.

https://www.mindtheproduct.com/20-years-product-management-25-minutes-dave-wascha/

Entrepreneur

Mom’s bakery in bandung, indonesia..

Problem : Entrepreneurship in a crowded market.

• The bakery wanted to launch healthy bread products in a crowded market, which was a risk.
•  Leadership believed that establishing a healthy line of bread products would set the bakery’s sales apart for customers interested in their health.
• This made Mom’s Bakery to be the only culinary business that fulfilled consumer needs for healthy living.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303013681_THE_INFLUENCE_OF_ENTREPRENEURIAL_MINDSET_TOWARDS_PRODUCT_INNOVATION_CASE_STUDY_ON_MOM%27S_BAKERY_IN_BANDUNG

Facilitator

Facilitate to amplify the team’s capacity to solve hard problems and have a safe place for stakeholders to have healthy debates..

Problem : Sanctuary Computer builds web applications for early stage startups. They had too many open ended requests flowing in from freelancers.

• Sanctuary hired a product strategist to facilitate those open ended requests into a concrete product backlog that could be prioritized and worked on in a seamless manner.

https://theoverlap.substack.com/p/product-manager-as-facilitator

https://www.mindtheproduct.com/how-to-cultivate-adaptive-product-leadership-by-jenn-kim-sabin-sadeh/

Chase Sapphire – Delighting millennials.

Problem : American Express had all the affluent customers while Chase cards had credit cards with relationships like Marriott, Amazon, etc.  Chase was losing market share.

• Millennials take an Uber to a hole in the wall restaurant in Chinatown, then take the subway to karaoke, then take a taxi home. As a reward, Chase offers accelerated travel points.
• Chase created a dark blue plastic card with a metal piece inside. An Amex card says you’re rich, but a chase sapphire card says you’re interesting.

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/04/16/amex-challenged-by-chase-is-losing-the-snob-war.html

Leaders taking the role of a coach.

Problem : Product owner prioritizing for velocity goals.

•  Sabin (product leader at Potato)  realized that the product owner was prioritizing lower priority items to help meet the team’s sprint deliverable and velocity goals so that the team’s performance is not questioned.
• He took on the role of a coach, helping them realize it’s ok to slow down the sprint velocity and deliver higher product values.

How to Cultivate Adaptive Product Leadership, by Jenn Kim & Sabin Sadeh

Additional resources:

Distributed Scrum Project for Dutch Railways How Agile helped Unilever deliver hand sanitizers faster during Covid-19 How Microprocessor giant, Intel used Scrum in their engineering development? How Scrum and Kanban Helped Formula Student Team Design a Race Car?

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Top 10 Product Management Case Studies from Leading Global Companies

• August 25, 2023
• product management

Product management, a dynamic blend of creativity and strategy, shapes groundbreaking innovations from abstract ideas. There’s no better way to comprehend this intricate dance than by diving into real-world case studies. In this blog, we emba rk on a journey through ten illuminating case studies, dissecting each phase and challenge that architects product management triumphs. From monumental missteps to resounding victories, each case study forms a mosaic of insights, demonstrating the path from ideation to market supremacy. These insights are further enriched as we link them to frameworks rooted in product management, product marketing , and strategic innovation.

These case studies illuminate the intricate art and strategic science of product management. Each story narrates a journey through innovation, iteration, user-centricity, and strategic adaptability, underpinned by frameworks integral to product management, product marketing, and strategic innovation. From empathetic design to responsive data-driven decisions , these studies form a compendium of strategies that drive product success . Whether in the realm of technology, travel, or consumer goods, the essence of product management resonates across diverse landscapes. As we navigate through these case studies in simple steps, we glean insights that guide both budding enthusiasts and seasoned professionals through the labyrinthine corridors of innovation, igniting the spark for the next wave of transformative products.

Key Takeaways:

• Understanding customer needs drives innovation, evident in Apple’s iPhone and Airbnb’s personalized experiences.
• Strategic frameworks like Lean Startup (Tesla’s Model 3) and Blue Ocean Strategy (Airbnb) guide successful evolution.
• User feedback refines products, seen in Facebook’s News Feed redesign and Uber’s pricing strategy.
• Balancing innovation with familiarity propels mass adoption, exemplified by Tesla’s Model 3.
• Data shapes effective strategies, illustrated by Google’s algorithms, Netflix’s personalization, and Uber’s pricing approaches.

Case Study 1: Apple's iPhone - Orchestrating Innovation

Step 1:  Market Gap Analysis and Opportunity Identification (Problem-Solution Fit)

Apple’s iPhone journey began by identifying a yawning market gap: consumers desired an all-in-one device. This echoes the Problem-Solution Fit framework, encapsulating the essence of understanding customer pain points and providing tailor-made solutions.

Step 2:  Design Thinking and Iterative Prototyping (Design and Development)

Apple’s iterative approach to iPhone design embodies Design Thinking. By empathizing with user needs, ideating features, and rapidly prototyping, they ensured a product that resonated with real-world usage.

Step 3:  Agile Development and Rapid Testing (Agile Methodology)

Agile development was pivotal in iPhone’s realization. Frequent feedback loops, incremental development, and rapid testing aligned with Agile’s core principles, allowing Apple to pivot based on real-time insights.

Step 4:  Branding and Storytelling (Product Marketing)

Apple’s iconic iPhone launch wasn’t just about a product; it was a masterclass in storytelling. Their branding prowess and emotive narratives exemplify Product Marketing’s essence – conveying a product’s value through relatable stories.

Step 5:  Continuous Enhancement and User-Centric Iteration (Lean Startup)

Post-launch, Apple’s commitment to user-centricity mirrored the Lean Startup approach. Regular updates, user feedback incorporation, and iterative refinements transformed the iPhone into a product that evolved in tandem with user needs.

Case Study 2: Netflix's Content Personalization - Algorithms in Action

Step 1:  Data-Driven Insights and Customer Segmentation (Market Segmentation)

Netflix’s content personalization was sparked by data-driven insights, forming the foundation of effective market segmentation. The case study aligns with the principle of understanding diverse user segments and tailoring experiences accordingly.

Step 2:  Machine Learning and AI Integration (AI and Machine Learning)

Netflix’s predictive algorithms personify the integration of AI and Machine Learning. These algorithms, fueled by user data, offer personalized content recommendations at scale, showcasing the power of AI-driven personalization.

Step 3:  User-Centric Interface and Gamification (User Experience Design)

By designing a user-centric interface and incorporating gamification elements, Netflix amplified the User Experience Design philosophy. Their approach resonates with making interactions intuitive, engaging, and aligned with user preferences.

Step 4:  Feedback Loops and Agile Improvement (Agile Framework)

Netflix’s iterative enhancement process is an embodiment of the Agile framework. By encouraging user feedback, promptly adapting based on insights, and iteratively enhancing the platform, they embraced Agile’s ethos of flexibility.

Case Study 3: Tesla's Model 3 - From Vision to Mass Market

Step 1:  Disruptive Innovation and Blue Ocean Strategy (Disruptive Innovation)

Tesla’s Model 3 journey echoes the Disruptive Innovation framework. By creating an affordable electric vehicle for the mass market, they disrupted the automotive industry and ventured into a blue ocean of opportunity.

Step 2:  Lean Production and Minimum Viable Product (Lean Production)

Tesla’s lean production tactics mirror the Lean Production framework. By emphasizing efficiency, minimizing waste, and focusing on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP), they streamlined their manufacturing process.

Step 3:  Scalability and Operations Excellence (Operational Excellence)

Tesla’s emphasis on scalability and operational excellence aligns with the Operational Excellence framework. By refining processes, optimizing supply chains, and maintaining stringent quality control, they ensured seamless growth.

Step 4:  Innovation Ecosystem and Open Innovation (Open Innovation)

Tesla’s approach to autopilot features exemplifies Open Innovation. By tapping into external expertise and welcoming user inputs, they expanded their innovation ecosystem beyond internal boundaries.

Step 5:  Sustainable Growth and Value Chain Analysis (Value Chain Analysis)

Tesla’s journey from disruption to sustainable growth aligns with Value Chain Analysis. By optimizing each value-adding activity, they established a competitive edge while sustaining long-term growth.

Case Study 4: Airbnb's Platform Evolution - Cultivating Experiences

Step 1:  Customer Journey Mapping and Pain Point Identification (Customer Journey Mapping)

Airbnb’s evolution stemmed from mapping customer journeys and pinpointing pain points. By understanding user frustrations with traditional accommodations, they crafted a solution that resonated.

Step 2:  Rapid Prototyping and MVP Development (Minimum Viable Product)

Airbnb’s iterative evolution echoes the Minimum Viable Product approach. Rapid prototyping, embracing feedback, and building on the MVP allowed them to evolve the platform effectively.

Step 3:  Trust Building and Reputation Management (Reputation Management)

Airbnb’s focus on building trust among users aligns with Reputation Management principles. By nurturing a positive brand perception and managing user reviews, they established credibility and loyalty.

Step 4:  Global Expansion and Market Entry Strategy (Market Entry Strategy)

Airbnb’s global expansion reflects a well-executed Market Entry Strategy. Adapting to local cultures while preserving core offerings exemplifies the importance of understanding diverse markets.

Step 5:  Community Building and Network Effects (Network Effects)

Airbnb’s success thrived on harnessing Network Effects. Their initiatives for fostering community engagement created a positive feedback loop, amplifying user engagement and the platform’s value.

Case Study 5: Google's Search Engine - Algorithmic Prowess

Step 1:  Competitive Analysis and Market Positioning (Competitive Analysis)

Google’s journey commenced with competitive analysis, establishing a unique market  positioning . This strategic move underscores the importance of differentiating oneself in a crowded landscape.

Step 2:  Algorithmic Design and Innovation Framework (Innovation Framework)

Google’s introduction of the PageRank algorithm epitomizes  innovation frameworks . By introducing a groundbreaking approach to ranking web pages, they reshaped the landscape through innovative thinking.

Step 3:  Continuous Improvement and Kaizen Philosophy (Kaizen Philosophy)

Google’s iterative evolution embodies the Kaizen philosophy. By focusing on continuous improvement, incremental changes, and user-centricity, they sustained a competitive edge.

Step 4:  Monetization Strategies and Business Model Canvas (Business Model Canvas)

Google’s monetization through AdWords aligns with the Business Model Canvas. Identifying partners, customer segments, and revenue streams exemplifies crafting a holistic monetization strategy.

Case Study 6: Amazon's Prime Membership - Enriching Ecosystems

Step 1:  Customer Persona Development and Empathy Mapping (Empathy Mapping)

Amazon’s Prime journey initiated with crafting customer personas and empathy mapping. Stepping into users’ shoes, they devised an offering that catered to their desires and expectations.

Step 2:  Ecosystem Expansion and Blue Ocean Strategy (Blue Ocean Strategy)

Amazon’s expansion of Prime reflects Blue Ocean Strategy. By tapping into uncharted territories like streaming and e-books, they enriched their ecosystem, creating unprecedented value.

Step 3:  Data-Driven Decision-Making and KPI Measurement (KPI Measurement)

Amazon’s data-driven approach aligns with KPI measurement. Tracking key performance indicators , analyzing user behavior, and adapting offerings underscored the power of  data-driven decision-making .

Step 4:  Innovation and Disruptive Business Models (Disruptive Business Models)

Amazon’s introduction of Prime Day and Whole Foods discounts mirrors disruptive business models. By redefining industry norms, they sustained innovation and customer engagement.

Case Study 7: Coca-Cola's "New Coke" Fiasco - A Lesson in Perception Management

Step 1:  Market Research and Customer Surveys (Customer Surveys)

Coca-Cola’s reformulation of “New Coke” stemmed from extensive market research and surveys. This phase underscores the significance of gathering  consumer insights  and sentiments.

Step 2:  Change Management and Stakeholder Alignment (Change Management)

The response to “New Coke” highlighted the importance of change management. Ensuring alignment among internal stakeholders and managing transitions smoothly was pivotal.

Step 3:  Crisis Management and Reputation Recovery (Crisis Management)

Coca-Cola’s swift reversion to the original formula showcases effective crisis management. Acknowledging mistakes and reverting to a familiar product salvaged their brand reputation.

Case Study 8: Facebook's News Feed Redesign - Sculpting User-Centric Experiences

Step 1:  User Persona Development and User-Centered Design (User-Centered Design)

Facebook’s redesign journey commenced with user persona development and user-centered design. Focusing on user needs and preferences resulted in an interface aligned with user expectations.

Step 2:  Iterative Prototyping and Rapid Testing (Iterative Prototyping)

Facebook’s iterative approach mirrors the iterative prototyping framework. Creating prototypes, incorporating feedback, and refining designs ensured a seamless and user-friendly interface.

Step 3:  Ethical Design and Human-Centered AI (Ethical Design)

As concerns about user well-being grew, Facebook’s ethical design approach emerged. This phase highlights the importance of crafting technology that respects human well-being.

Step 4:  Storytelling and Emotional Branding (Emotional Branding)

Facebook’s storytelling approach echoes emotional branding. By weaving narratives that evoke emotions, they deepened their connection with users and fostered engagement.

Case Study 9: Microsoft's Windows 8 - Balancing Innovation and Familiarity

Step 1:  Ideation and Blue Sky Thinking (Blue Sky Thinking)

Microsoft’s Windows 8 journey began with blue sky thinking – embracing innovative ideas. This phase underscores the significance of bold thinking to reshape industries.

Step 2:  User Testing and Usability Iteration (Usability Iteration)

User testing and usability iteration exemplify Microsoft’s approach. Incorporating user feedback and iterating based on insights ensured a product that met user expectations.

Step 3:  Change Management and Internal Buy-In (Internal Buy-In)

The Windows 8 case highlights the importance of internal buy-in during change management. Gaining stakeholder support and managing transitions are vital for successful innovation.

Step 4:  Learning from Failure and Agile Mindset (Agile Mindset)

Microsoft’s response to user feedback reflects an agile mindset. Embracing failures as learning opportunities and adapting swiftly aligns with the principles of agility.

Case Study 10: Uber's Surge Pricing Strategy - Navigating Economics and User Perception

Step 1:  Demand-Supply Analysis and Pricing Optimization (Pricing Optimization)

Uber’s surge pricing strategy began with analyzing demand and supply dynamics. This phase emphasizes the importance of pricing optimization to balance economic viability and user sentiment.

Step 2:  Communication Strategy and Transparent Messaging (Communication Strategy)

Uber’s enhancement of their communication strategy was prompted by user confusion. Transparent messaging is vital for managing user expectations and preventing negative perceptions.

Step 3:  Ethical Pricing and Value Proposition (Ethical Pricing)

Uber’s approach to balancing profitability and ethics aligns with the Ethical Pricing framework. Maintaining a compelling value proposition even during surge pricing showcases a customer-first mindset.

Step 4:  Data-Driven Decision-Making and Continuous Improvement (Data-Driven Decision-Making)

Uber’s responsiveness to user behavior and feedback reflects data-driven decision-making. Analyzing user patterns and continuously adapting pricing strategies aligns with data-centric approaches.

Frequently Asked Questions

2024 estimate: Considering the current trajectory and projected growth, we can speculate that the average product manager salary in India for 2024 could be somewhere between ₹15 lakhs and ₹35 lakhs per year.

Product Manager salaries tend to increase with higher seniority levels. For instance, an Assistant Product Manager might earn ₹12.9 Lakhs, while a Chief Product Officer can command a salary of ₹1.2 Crores.

Some of the leading tech companies in India, such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, offer competitive Product Manager salaries, with figures exceeding ₹50 Lakhs per annum.

Location plays a significant role in determining Product Manager salaries. Cities with a thriving tech ecosystem like Bangalore and Hyderabad tend to offer higher salaries.

Specialized skills, such as Agile Software Development, Product Strategy, and Go-to-Market Strategy, are highly rewarded in the field of Product Management.

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Product Discovery Process – A Practical Case Study for Product Owners

What is the Product Discovery process? How does it look in practice? Read this article, to learn the answers.

Katarzyna Owcarz Scrum Master

Table of contents

When using Uber, Tinder, or Wallet, have you ever thought about the trigger point for releasing them on the market? What was this spark that ignited their development?

In the search for ways to manage your product, you might have come across the idea of Product Discovery and its two pillars:

• identifying a problem
• and devising a solution.

You can read in our previous article on What is Product Discovery in Mobile App Development? that Product Discovery enables teams to target users and decide on the features that are crucial to implement; all in order to launch an attractive product.

However, in this article, I will walk you through a case study of creating a mobile app for teens and show you some practical step-by-step usage of Product Discovery techniques for a mobile application .

What is Product Discovery in mobile app development?

Before we move to a case study, let’s take a quick look back at what Product Discovery is.

In a nutshell, Product Discovery in custom mobile app development is the initial stage of the development journey , when you want to make sure that you know your target audience and that your app fills the gap in the market .

The foundation of Product Discovery is a constant testing of solutions and ideas, as well as learning how to adapt them to the user’s needs. This process should also ensure you that, not only are you aware of the end-users’ needs, but your dedicated team is able to deliver your ideas.

Read also: The Ultimate Guide to Mobile App Development Process in 2021

In the next part of this practical case study for Product Owners we’ll go through the following phases and techniques:

• Targeting potential users and their problems: Personas
• Defining an initial profile of your product: Product Canvas
• Ideating solutions: Event storming
• Prototyping: User Journey Mapping
• Narrowing down the solutions: Wireframes
• Prioritization and planning: MVP (Minimum Viable Product)
• Testing and collecting feedback: Interviews

Let’s jump into practice!

To explain how Product Discovery can help your business, I would like to share with you a case study where we will see how to crystalize and test the vision of a product .

Product Discovery Process: Hustly case study

“Money doesn’t grow on trees!”. I’m sure you remember your old folks’ repeating similar excuses when you asked them for some pocket money. Earning your first money in your first side hustle is usually a nostalgic memory from teenage times. Let’s refer to that story in our case study.

Please meet Tom, a 42-year-old real estate businessman (Product Owner), and Amy, his 16-year-old daughter, a high school student (User).

What’s the matter? Amy is fed up with asking her dad to top up her account every time she goes out with friends. She decides to look for a side hustle to free Tom from weekly pocket money. Working part-time in the cinema or dog-walking didn’t hurt any kid, Tom thinks.

He recommends Amy finds some posts on the job portals he used to visit: indeed.com or reed.com. Amy flicks through the lengthy, generic offers with no interest, yawning when browsing unfriendly applications with attachments and dozens of questions. It’s definitely an overkill for a teenage girl to stretch herself in finding a $7 per hour job in the same way her mother is looking for an accountant post.

It’s a great niche in the market, Tom thinks. Why not solve his daughter’s and her peers’ problem on the way?

Tom wants to do some research and test the waters. Where should he start? How can he share these ideas with others? Tom has experience with real estate but not IT. Will investing capital in a mobile app bring him more profits than flipping another property?

It’s time for the prep before the journey!

So, let’s try to help Tom define the problem areas and go through the Product Discovery phase in order to find the best solution.

1. Target potential users and their problems: Persona

Firstly, as Tom spotted a niche, he needs to properly describe the target:

• Who is the user?
• What kind of problems do they have?
• How can we help them?

A persona is a simple tool to identify who our target users are. By answering the questions within their profile, we dig into their perspective and mindset. Empathy is the key to understanding their current journey and their feelings behind it.

It is not necessarily true that the more profiles of potential users you define the better. Try to focus on the median: what is the average user like?

Tom knows his daughter pretty well, so he could easily fill out her profile

• Job/Role: High school student

Personal background: familiar with mobile apps, active on social media, loves the online experience of products that are simple and intuitive for users.

Goals: She wants to be independent from her parents and find a side job to replace her pocket money. She does not want to fill up long applications and would prefer to find the job on the spot, just as she does it with a good cafe.

Current journey: She needs to scroll through dull formal job portals and send lengthy CVs and cover letters.

Feelings: She is frustrated, bored, and impatient to find a good match.

Tom did a couple of more interviews with his daughter’s peers and collected some more observations.

Get a Printable User Persona Template

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2. Define the profile of your product: Product Canvas

As Tom knows who the target user is and what their needs are, it’s time to define the initial picture of the product to help others understand what’s on Tom’s mind. The Product Canvas is a simple tool to collect basic information about your product. As a starting point, it helps you to review and validate your approach. Here’s an example of such a brief:

Let your audience know your product vision by providing the following information: name, business goal, purpose, metrics, target group, and a big picture description of the product.

Tom meets up with his business partner Mark and shares the vision of a mobile application that will be targeted at searching for a teen job.

He portrays the idea of an app that he wants to call Hustly (a reference to side hustles ). It could connect American teens looking for some side hustles with companies looking for part-time, underqualified workers.

The target group? Teens and company owners.

How are they going to earn money? Ads and fees for promoting the posts.

After brainstorming and checking pockets, his friends turn on the green light and start the project. Mark recommends Tom contact and consult a chosen software house regarding the next steps.

Get a Printable Product Canvas Template

3. Ideate solutions: Event storming

Having spare capital, time, and effort to invest, this is the point you should confront your initial idea with the next steps of Product Discovery. One of the tools that can help you out with ideating a solution is Event Storming.

It is a flexible workshop format where everyone can participate, while a facilitator keeps the group focused and engaged.

The group is guided to progress toward a complete model of the business domain. For this purpose, we may only need a board and sticky notes or a Miro board (online collaborative platform).

Participants start with domain events, which means collecting anything that can happen in the application.

So, after brainstorming and finalizing the Personas and Product Canvas, Tom decides to confront his ideas with mobile app experts. He goes to a befriended software house to conduct a Product Discovery workshop . It’s time to engage domain experts, namely Developers, Designers, Business Analysts, and Testers, all of which will help Tom with reviewing the business idea behind Hustly .

The whole team uses sticky notes to write down all the possible scenarios from the user’s perspective that they could think of. From logging in and entering personal data, to adding reviews, subscribing, and receiving alerts, everything can be considered. The team walks through the model forwards and backwards to ensure that everything is covered.

At this phase, there are no stupid ideas, as all options should be considered. Participants add the commands, or triggers, that cause the events, and analyze users, external systems, and the order of events. The facilitator helps to identify bounded contexts and create a context map.

The technical and business domain experts are there to share experience and provide you with scenarios you might not have thought of. It’s time to explore the unlimited possibilities and define the bounded contexts that contribute to the features of your application.

4. Prototype and review ideas: User Journey Mapping

The model created in the Event Storming is a starting point for the next exercise to visualize the product. In order to prototype the app that is on your mind, Designers will use another tool: User Journey Mapping. This is one of the best tools to develop human-centric designs. User Journey Mapping visualizes how a user interacts with a product and allows you to see the product from their perspective. Ultimately, it leads to a better user experience.

Tom leaves the board with sticky notes and moves on to explore the application from the next angle. Designers pick markers and start drafting the first screens of Hustly .

With the support of the whole team, customer journey scenarios appear on the board. By filling up simple templates, the application slowly materializes. Tom can slowly see how his app could look and behave.

5. Narrow down the ideas: Wireframes

A more detailed approach and a common follow-up to User Journey Mapping, is creating wireframes.

The same screen can be built in a lot of different ways, but only a few of them will get your message across correctly and result in a positive user experience. Devising a good interface structure is possibly the most important part of designing software. Creating wireframes before any code is written and before the visual design is finalized will save you lots of time and painful adjustment work later.

This part is also a test for your pocket.

Usually, after workshops, Product Owners are provided with estimated costs of developing each feature. It might turn out to be impossible to implement all the features that you thought about due to your budget limitations.

After collecting positive feedback on Hustly , Tom decides to follow up with more detailed prototyping.

The chosen software development company offers 100 hours of their UX/UI Designers’ time to prepare wireframes. For around two months, Tom works closely with Designers to implement the best solutions for the functional and visual part of the application.

However, while 100 hours of a designer’s time is not enough to have the final designs, it is sufficient to end up with a prototype that could be presented to the target users. So Tom sends up a clickable prototype to all the teen and college relatives he has in order to collect feedback and adapt improvements on the spot.

His fellow users are enthusiastic about the idea of Hustly , so he ultimately decides to move on and reach out to the Software House he’s been working with so far.

6. Prioritize and plan: MVP

We are slowly reaching the final part of Product Discovery, where it is highly recommended to start the prioritization and planning of the first version.

One of the most essential concepts of building a successful mobile application is the crystallization of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) .

It is a version of a product with just enough features to be usable by early users who can provide feedback for future upgrades of the application. The sky’s the limit in your roadmap but taking the first step on the market as soon as possible is crucial.

Tom decides that the first version of Hustly will hold only the basic features related to posting and responding to a job offer. Logging in will only be possible via email, using a very generic user profile. He also decides to reduce the audience to iOS users.

Teen customers will need to wait for social media integration and notifications in the next releases. The MVP will allow Tom to get to know the market better.

• The Art of Decision Making: Top 7 Agile Prioritization Techniques for Product Owners
• MVP, Core Path, MMP – Product Versions in App Development

7. Test and collect feedback: Interviews

Having an MVP on the market is a great opportunity to test your target users, collect feedback and adapt your roadmap to their needs. At this point, another customer experience tool might come in handy: Empathy interviews. This is an approach to finding out as much as possible about a person’s experience as a “user”. We want to understand the choices that people make and why they make them.

Properly tailored interviews are a massive business tool and provide valuable insights to product development.

Hustly has been downloaded in the first week by around one thousand high school and college students. The First ratings and reviews have appeared on AppStore.

However, Tom asked his daughter to collect more detailed feedback on the user experience, which apparently became his daughter’s first hustle job.

Product Discovery process – wrap-up

The Product Discovery process and tools that I introduced you to in this article are just a suggestion. There are plenty of alternative approaches on the market. However, whichever method you choose, the key deliverables of Product Discovery should be:

• a clear profile of your users, the problems they’re facing, and their expectations,
• and a clear idea of how your product will overcome those challenges.

The more information and feedback you have, the better for you. If you understand it and use it to your benefit, the chances of success for your product are higher.

I hope that, after reading this guide, you know WHY it’s important to run a Product Discovery, WHEN it should happen and HOW you ought to implement it.

Side note: Hustly is a made-up story, but I hope there are many Toms out there willing to discover some successful apps.

References: infoq.com , railsware.com , uxplanet.org , herbig.co .

Related posts

• Mobile App Testing – Introduction for Product Owners
• Product Discovery Service
• MVP, Core Path, MMP – Product Versions in App Development

About the author

Katarzyna owcarz.

Scrum Master

Katarzyna Owcarz is a certified Scrum Master (PSM I), with 5 years of experience. Previously, she was a Product Manager using the Waterfall framework, but then she met Agile and fell in love. Totally. In her job, Kasia most enjoys supporting the team in delivering value. One of her superpowers is the ability to shorten the distance between people, so they feel as one team (both a development team and a PO). A great fan of Sprint Retrospectives and Liberating structures. Squash player and a passionate traveler.

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Table of contents, how to solve a product manager case study in 4 simple steps.

• August 12, 2020

Richard Chen

We cannot emphasize the importance of Product Manager case studies in interviews enough. Companies rely heavily on this step to assess your critical thinking and problem-solving skills as it closely mirrors the day-to-day activities. However, you don’t have to be a Product Manager with years of experience to come up with impressive case studies that will get you hired. Like the job itself, a Product Manager case study should be situational and contextual—getting it right is about tailoring your answer to the company you are interviewing for and the context behind the question. 

So, how do you make sure you hit the nail on the head? There are four steps to solving the Product Manager case study. Our case study instructors recommend the following: 

• Evaluate the need 
• Validate the need 
• Set a goal for the feature
• Decision making

From startup case studies to whiteboarding questions, this guide will take you through everything you need to know about tackling the notorious product management case study using these simple steps. Practice this approach with the various examples we provide and you should be ready to ace your next Product Manager case study interview .

How to Approach the Product Manager Case Study 

Let’s say that an e-commerce furniture company wants to implement a feature: free returns. Take a minute to think about this case study question . How would you go about implementing this? What is your first step?

If there’s one thing we know from working with thousands of aspiring Product Managers, it’s that more than 90% of the candidates fail the product manager case study interview one way or another. And not because the candidates lacked the required skills! Like we mentioned above, a successful case study is tailored to the situation and context. 

Before we dive in, here are some pointers you should remember to get you into the right frame of mind as you tackle the case study assignment you are given. 

Ask Questions 

This is where to start: Always approach a case study assignment with the assumption that you know nothing. Never dive into solving the problem with little to no information on it. Don’t be afraid to ask your interviewer everything you need to: 

• Determine the user of the product 
• Narrow down and identify which problem to solve 
• Find out the specifics of the question to establish your edge cases 

Making assumptions could lead you down the wrong path, but on the other hand, remember that being a Product Manager involves solving ambiguous real-life issues. Keep calm and creatively and strategically acquire more information for clarity of the situation. You’ll be one step ahead of fellow candidates.

Prepare for Anything 

Many novice candidates believe that the case study round always involves a take-home assignment, which would allow them to do extensive research on the question at hand. But while take-home assignments do come up often enough, unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Prepare for your case study interview to involve on-the-go questions. You should also expect to whiteboard and solve problems on the fly during the interview. When that’s the case you’ll have only seconds — or minutes if you’re lucky — instead of days to tackle the problem.

There Is More Than One Correct Answer

The Product Manager case study interview is a way for companies to evaluate your problem-solving skills. They want to see how you identify product users, measure product performance, navigate technical aspects, and so on. You can demonstrate these competencies with a variety of answers.

Don’t Spend More Time Than You Need To

The take-home Product Manager case study can be especially time-consuming and you might spend all your time working on these assignments if you don’t have support . Remember that job hunting is a numbers game and allocate your time and effort accordingly.

Need more time to prepare for your next case study interview? Take your prep to the next level with this video by Product Gym co-founder Cody Chang:

How to Solve Any Product Manager Case Study in 4 Simple Steps

Without further ado, here are the four steps you need to follow to solve your Product Manager case study:

Step 1: Evaluate the Need

To understand the need in the Product Manager case study, you need to ask a series of questions. Here are a few of them to get you started:

• How did the company come up with this feature?
• Was it suggested by executives, or by customers?
• Is the goal of this feature to drive revenue or increase loyalty?
• Are we assuming that leadership has already signed on board to this feature?
• Or are we assuming that this is just a small product that we have been given to test?

Essentially, you need to figure out the bounds and constraints of this question.

You may not be an industry expert on the business that your interviewer is in, or you may lack that domain knowledge. So in order to create an informed answer, you have to know what your answer is not .

Step 2: Validate the Need

You have to start on the pre-question. Let’s take the example of a furniture e-commerce company.

Some of the questions you would ask yourself are: 

• What are your assumptions, knowns and unknowns, and where is the data? 
• Do we have data on this, and is the data right? 
• On free returns, do we know how many people already trying to return?
• Are there specific types of products that we know customers return? 
• Are there some parts of the world where customers expect free returns? Do we have data on that? (The company isn’t going to necessarily know that from the data because customers might not provide that feedback.)
• What do we not know? 

When you focus on these unknowns, what you’re really focusing on is time and resources. This gets into the business side of asking questions. If you are not a domain expert in furniture e-commerce or are not familiar with their business model to give a nuanced response, what are these Product Managers looking for in your answer?

The company you are interviewing with is likely operating in another domain that you are not familiar with. That’s okay. As long as you can lay out the roadmap for your product with sound reasoning, you’ll be good to go.

Step 3: Set a Goal for the Feature

In this specific example, you want to focus on time and resources, which is money. This means explicitly profitability . What are all the areas that might factor into profitability? Here are some questions to consider:

• How much is it going to cost, and how do you evaluate that cost?
• Will priorities in regards to other features change?
• Would we have to focus on other resources?
• Would we have to deal with interstate laws based on shipping?
• How about shipping internationally or shipping interstate? Will it be taxed?

Check out these guides to help you determine the essential metrics for your company’s business and the product you are developing:

• 16 Startup Metrics by Adresseen Horowitz
• Startup Metrics You Need to Monitor
• Facebook Metrics: Key Benchmarks for PM Interviews

Step 4: Decision-Making

Based on the business requirements, how do you want to evaluate these unknowns? The rabbit hole of questions can go on and on. You may need to spend these resources and push back the engineering deadline. Is the company okay with that?

It also depends on how you communicate “Yes” or “No” answers. If you say, “Yes, I want to prioritize this feature,” then know your reasons:

• The manager has signed off on the strategy .
• I know who the customers are.
• I have the data to back it up.
• I have the stakeholder consensus to do it.
• I have a timeline that I feel confident executing on.

Or, if you say “No,” have your reasons why to address the same areas:

• No, I don’t have a clear strategy from management.
• No, the manager wants me to validate this before we spend extra resources on it.
• No, we don’t have enough engineers or resources for this.
• No, we have to use the sales cycle for another feature — if we try to implement this now, we will lose the seasonal sales cycle.

These are all moving parts that you want to evaluate and then communicate to the PM interviewing you in the Product Manager case study. The best thing to do when you ask these questions is to get specific. Use examples of times when you had to make these decisions yourself based on these factors.

Remember to communicate competency on how you evaluate whether or not you implement a feature. Ask questions to create constraints and boundaries to the case study, and control its scope. Once you have this information, you will know how to best approach the questions based on the Product Management knowledge you possess.

BONUS Step: Get Your Case Study Presentation Reviewed by a Professional

You’ve worked through the case study and put your solution into a slide deck to present to a panel of interviewers: congratulations! But if you want to go above and beyond to impress the hiring team, take some time to get your case study solution reviewed by a professional.

A fresh set of eyes may catch typos and grammar errors, but will also be able to point out the areas where you can improve the solution overall. A Product Manager who’s gone through multiple case study interview rounds is going to be able to assess your solution from the perspective of the interviewer and use their experience to help you polish it.

At Product Gym, our interview coaches routinely check over members’ case study presentations, offering insight, constructive criticism, and tips on how to make their technical interview round a success. Solving case studies isn’t just a good practice for acing your interview — it’s also an excellent way to develop applicable Product Manager skills. That’s why we include classes on case studies in our program. Our case study curriculum was developed and continues to be taught by Senior Product Manager for Atlassian, Roman Kolosovskiy .

Because we’ve been working with Product Manager job hunters for the past five years, we’ve had ample opportunity to test and perfect the case study strategy we teach our members. We’ve even compiled a bank of case study prompts that aspiring Product Managers have received in their interviews so that members can exclusively access to hone their problem-solving and storytelling skills.

What to Expect from a Product Manager Case Study at a Startup 

The type of company you are interviewing for is a key consideration when determining the context for your case study. It’s highly likely that you will interview for a Product Manager position at a startup—there were 30.7 million startups in the US in 2019, and the numbers will only keep growing.

No doubt, the expectations, and responsibilities differ immensely in a startup role as compared to being an enterprise PM.

Here’s what you should keep in mind when interviewing for a PM position with a startup: 

• Product Managers are expected to wear multiple hats : Startups, especially early-stage ones, don’t have all the resources they need. Because of this, your responsibilities may include roles away from the standard PM job description. It’s also likely that you will be responsible for more than one product.
• Be ready for some confusion : Many of these companies don’t have a recruiting team or a full-fledged HR strategy, and therefore chances are they are also exploring interviewing as they go. 
• Prepare for niche markets : If the startup operates in a niche market, you might have little to no knowledge and resources for understanding the competitive landscape and creating a useful product. Our case study prep guide can help you sound like a seasoned expert no matter your background in such cases. 

So how do you show your interviewer that you are ready to take on the challenge?

1. Demonstrate Fast Execution

First and foremost, you should show that you are quick when making decisions and taking action. Unlike established companies, you will not have many tools or practices to help you make decisions and organize your and your team’s tasks. You should be comfortable with communicating decisions and last-minute action items with the rest of your team.

2. Be Ready to Take Risks

Executing decisions takes a sense of responsibility and ownership, which brings us to our second point. As a Product Manager, you should be a leader who isn’t afraid of taking risks. When needed, you should be ready to take the driver’s seat. There is no doubt that your responsibility will exceed a single product, and you will soon be expected to come up with ideas that will impact the whole company.

3. Prove You Can Multitask

Limited resources mean you may find yourself wearing different hats. For example, you might not have a UX designer and end up designing the wireframes yourself. Regardless of the situation, get ready to prove to them that you can multitask. How do you show this skill in your Product Manager case study? 

• By thinking about how this company can make money — or in Product Gym terms, by becoming a wartime Product Manager. Think about how the product in question will contribute to the company’s short-term and long-term goals. 
• Many startups are still in the funding stage, so any work you design should generate revenue with minimal costs. 
• Think about all the ways you can create a product that the market currently needs and lacks. 
• Include wireframes in your case study presentation to show them that you already thought about how the product should look. 
• In your documentation and presentation, describe the resources you will need and how you budget this product.

4. Learn About the Company

A case study assignment is a simulation of the real job, especially in startup interviews. Leverage it to learn as much about the company as possible. Assess how they treat you and try to figure out how the company culture is.

Are they ignoring your emails and acting like you don’t exist? Or are they making a genuine effort to make the interview work for you despite the lack of resources? Are you expected to solve a complex case study on the go during an interview?

Answering these questions can give you a good feel of your possible future employer.

5. Prioritize, Prioritize, and Prioritize

As we mentioned, startup companies operate with minimal resources and are under a lot of stress. So, remember to focus on the essential features needed to create a fully functional MVP ready for the market in the least amount of time.

Make some realistic estimations and come up with numbers to help your interviewers with the budget, resources, and time you need to create this product. Roadmap the steps required to get to the MVP and clearly define everybody’s responsibilities to build it.

How to Solve Whiteboarding Case Study Questions in 4 Steps

Along with the commonly assigned take-home assignment and the presentation that follows, the product management case study is notorious for its technical and whiteboarding interview questions. Here are four simple steps our instructors developed to help you master the dreaded whiteboarding interview questions in your case study round.

Step 1: Keep Calm and Embrace the Fact that You Know Nothing

Most aspiring PMs fail the Product Manager case study not because they do not have experience, but because they panic over a lack of information. 

In practice, Product Managers rarely have enough information about the problem they were asked to solve. Having seen many candidates interview, we can confirm that interviewees often disqualify themselves by showing the interviewer that they are not ready to tackle ambiguous real-life issues.

So, remember to keep calm and accept the fact that you have insufficient information about the problem that’s thrown at you.

Step 2: Try to Understand What the Question Wants You to Achieve

Companies ask whiteboarding interview questions to see if you can create or improve a product that can accomplish a specific goal. When you take on any product management case study question, start by taking a step back. Think about what the question wants you to accomplish.

In most cases, you should be able to divine the purpose of the question from how the interviewer forms it. Our case study instructors have identified four specific purposes: 

• Prioritization
• Product Design
• Target Market Identification
• Product Launch 

Determining the purpose behind vague questions and finding the right approach to address them requires a lot of focused practice with real case study questions.

Step 3: Nar row Down the Question as Much as Possible

You need to narrow down the case study questions as much as possible to come up with some real and data-driven conclusions. Given that you have little to no resources available to you, you have to make some realistic estimations. Accurate estimations are only possible if you get to the heart of the question.

Think it through and ask as many questions as you need.

Step 4: Keep the Conversation Alive

Communication is an essential part of the case study interview: you should keep your interviewer informed about every aspect of your thought process. After you identify the whiteboarding question’s purpose, clearly inform your interviewer what direction you want to take and your reasoning.

Check your reasoning with your interviewer by asking them if this is something on their mind or if this is something they would consider. In most cases, they would either have an answer key or a direction on their mind and would be able to help you.

Once you agree on the direction you take, ask more specific questions to extract as much information as possible and get a confidence vote from the interviewer that you are on the right track.

Last but not least, make your interviewer’s life easier by suggesting options and giving details while asking questions. See how we used these four steps to work through a Facebook Product Manager Case Study question: Should Facebook enter the dating market?

Product Manager Case Study Presentation Best Practices

You have worked hard and finally finished your Product Manager case study assignment, but that doesn’t mean you can sit back and relax—your case study presentation is as vital as solving the question.

Not only is it the time to demonstrate your excellent communication skills, but a good presentation shows your interviewers how you collaborate. Here’s a breakdown of how to give a winning presentation:

• Design and Brand Your Presentation Materials: The best way to prove that you are a big fan of the company and have the spirit to join the team is to use company colors, logos, and any media related to them. A good design always draws attention, and you want to grab as much attention as you can.
• Have the Right Amount of Content: Have just enough content to ensure that people know enough about your product to be convinced that it has potential. Include all the relevant details about the fundamental aspects of the product. But, leave them curious about the finer details. This will keep them engaged throughout the presentation.
• Include Visuals and Media to Spark Feedback from the Audience: Activating the brain’s visual cortex will keep your interviewers engaged throughout your presentation. The best way to ensure that everybody understands your product is to include wireframes and preliminary designs in your presentation.
• Make Sure Everyone Has a Positive Experience With Your Presentation: A good rule of thumb is to make sure you can explain your product to a five-year-old and a Ph.D. simultaneously. Start simple and allow the audience to ask questions as you progress. Allocate a considerable amount of time to go over your designs and ask the interviewer for feedback: Ask them questions, see what they think, and learn about the things they would have done differently. 
• Paint a Clear Picture of the Product With Your Wireframes: When you are sketching wireframes for your product management case study, be sure to include anything you can explain in terms of functionality. Given that many of the products are digital, it’s crucial to explain the transitions between one screen to another. For example, you should explain what happens when a user clicks on something and which screen comes next. If the next screen is an integral part of the feature, you should include it in your case study deliverables.

List of Product Manager Case Study Question Examples

Before we dive into the most common examples of Product Manager case study interview questions , let’s solve one together. Check out how our Case Study Instructor, Roman Kolosovski, tackles the popular FAANG case study question “How would you build a product for pet owners?”:

1. Product Design Case Study Questions

These are the most common types of questions. They range from designing a product from scratch to improving an existing product. Some questions will explicitly tell you to focus on a specific OKR, while others will leave everything ambiguous to challenge you to think more.

Product Design Question Examples

• Design a product to help users find doctors on Facebook . 
• How would you improve Google Maps? 
• You’re a part of the Google Search webspam team: How would you detect duplicate websites? 
• Name any product you love and any product you despise and explain your reasoning for both cases. ( Amazon )
• You’re the Product Manager of a team that focuses on financial products for our Uber drivers. You’re tasked with designing a financial product (or suite of products) that addresses our drivers’ needs in Brazil.

2. Product Strategy Questions 

Unlike product design questions, strategy questions require you to think about the bigger picture. You’ll either be asked to find ways to make a product better—and hence define success for the product, or to complete the overall organization more successfully. 

To solve these questions, you need to be well informed about the company and its products or services. Consider the company’s business model, competitors, and the recent developments in that industry. The essential skill you need to demonstrate here is analytical thinking.

Product Strategy Question Examples

• If you were Google’s CEO, would you be concerned about Microsoft? 
• How would you improve Google Maps? (Google)
• How would you set goals and measure success for Facebook notifications? 
• How would you monetize Facebook messenger? 
• How would you determine the right price and method to promote product XYZ, and why? (Amazon)

3. Estimation and Analysis Questions 

These are used by interviewers to measure how comfortable you are making decisions with limited data, so show them how you use data to derive the KPIs you need for your product. These questions are mostly asked during the interview. To solve them without internet access is only possible by learning the fundamental values of the company beforehand. This includes the revenue it makes or the approximate number of users it has. You should also be able to calculate their critical KPIs.

Estimation and Analysis Case Study Question Examples

• How many queries per second does Gmail get? 
• As the Product Manager for Google Glass ‘Enterprise Edition’, which metrics would you track? How do you know if the product is successful? 
• How much revenue does YouTube make per day?
• How would you go about estimating the number of gas stations in the USA? 
• How would you track user engagement in an app, and what KPIs would you use to improve it?

4. Scheduling/Operational Questions 

These types of case study interview questions are few and far between. Interviewers ask these questions to assess the candidates’ ability to turn ideas into deliverable tasks. Note that for most operational Product Manager case study questions, the interviewer will require you to write a detailed delivery schedule and write user stories and tasks.

Scheduling/Operational Case Study Question Examples

• Write the Jira ticket(s) for engineering for the idea you want to execute. (Upwork)
• Outline a brief (1-2 page) launch plan that would cover the activities and tasks needed to launch the feature successfully. Be sure to touch on both internal and external stakeholders, and include potential launch goals. (Stitch Data)

Product Manager Case Study FAQs

The short answer is yes. You should always have a couple of screen designs ready for your case study interview. Why? It’s probably the best way to spark any reaction from the interviewing committee. Plus, it’s also way more comfortable for your audience to understand what your product looks like with a solid prototype. 

Given that it’s not your job to develop the actual design, low fidelity seems more appropriate. That being said, the bar for low fidelity designs has been relatively high over the past couple of years. So, low fidelity designs are more than pen and paper sketches: they are expected to be digital.

Detail the solution you came up with a presentation that states:  Here is what the solution is. Here is what the solution looks like. Here is how a user would go through the process within this solution.

There are four common types of Product Manager case study questions:  Product design questions  Product strategy questions  Estimation and analysis questions Scheduling/operational questions

Unlike larger companies, startups do not have as many tools and resources at their disposal. This means that not many will have a recruiting team or a full-fledged HR strategy and are interviewing as they go. Many Product Gym members that have taken the startup route have noted how disorganized the Product Manager interview process can get at a startup, so prepare for some confusion. No matter the size of the company, be sure to assess how they treat you and try to figure out how the company culture is in the process.

Put Your Product Manager Case Study Skills to the Test

Put your case study skills to the test with our free online training course. Access to instructor-led whiteboarding sessions with real FAANG interview qu estions to take your prep to the next level.

Don’t forget to call us for free career coaching to learn more about how Product Gym can help you land the Product Manager job of your dreams!

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7 Superb SaaS Case Study Examples (and Why They’re So Effective)

It’s no secret that the SaaS space is crowded.

Heck, the average business is juggling hundreds of apps at any given time.

And so anything software companies can do to prove their value is a plus.

That’s why SaaS case studies are so important.

Fact: case studies are cited as the most effective type of content for influencing B2B buying decisions. Case studies are crucial for not only helping SaaS companies stand out from the crowd but also answer their potential customers’ most pressing questions.

Want to see what compelling customer stories look like in the wild? Check out the seven SaaS case study examples below.

“What does this case study do well?”

• Immediately highlights the client’s key challenge and how Gong’s product managed to solve it. The specific, positive outcomes (“more closed deals,” “increased sales productivity” and “more cross-department collaboration”) speak for themselves.
• The format is scannable and flows seamlessly, broken up by colorful visuals, client quotes and a product screenshot.
• The case study reads like an actual narrative, brimming with conversational copy and client quotes to keep the report from feeling too “matter of fact.”

Much like SaaS blog writing doesn’t have to be boring, case studies shouldn’t be a total snooze-fest. This report proves exactly that.

• Incorporates a brief video to summarize the study’s key points and provide real-world context to the client’s challenges. This is especially important for more “technical” or complicated SaaS products.
• It’s brief! In addition to the provided video, the tried-and-tested “Challenge, Solution, Results” format helps keep this study short and sweet.
• The study’s headline is compelling. From its title alone, the study highlights how a specific feature (Zylo’s SaaS renewal calendar) addressed a specific pain point (unwanted auto-renewals) and resulted in a major benefit ($50,000+ saved) for the client.

Clocking in at under 500 words, this is among the shortest of our SaaS study examples. That said, the study’s brevity is one of its key strengths.

• The study’s format gives you pretty much everything you need above-the-fold, including the client’s results and a well-produced video.
• Highlights impressive data points and outcomes immediately (“5xd conversion” and “90% retention rate”).
• Includes quotes from multiple employees to showcase how Heap’s service helps clients organization-wide (rather than just a single department).

• The case study’s title is striking, putting a massively positive client outcome (saving 40 hours per week) front-and-center.
• It feels human! The fact that the study comes from a back-and-forth client conversation not only humanizes Databox as a brand but also makes their product seem more tangible.
• The study’s unique format (a blog post that provides both a video and transcript) is fair game for prospects whether they prefer to consume content via viewing or reading. This likewise highlights how you might integrate case studies into your SaaS content strategy.

5. FunnelCake

• The study’s headline does double-duty of showcasing awesome results (1.5x conversion rates) and how quickly those results came (“Within a quarter of launching”).
• Provides multiple hard-hitting client quotes to drive home the product’s effectiveness (“finding value in the first week”).
• Couples its bold claims with specific data points (“100% adoption in the first 30 days”).

6. Chili Piper

• Major outcomes are highlighted throughout the case study (including a “5x increase in inbound meeting booked” and the “300% revenue increase” referenced in the title).
• The study uses the numbers above to hook the reader and then provide a brief breakdown of how those results came to be, moving us from Point A to Point B.
• Candid client video and quotes provide additional context and a personal touch to Chili Piper’s product.

7. Typeform

• The study is presented as a hybrid between a customer success story and a how-to blog post for new users and existing clients. Again, case studies are a valuable part of your SaaS content marketing strategy.
• Incorporates actual client screenshots and highlights the specific steps to replicate their positive results, making Typeform’s product seem super actionable.
• Integrates glowing quotes from the client to showcase benefits.

“What do the best SaaS case study examples have in common?”

As proven by the examples above, there is no “right” or singular way to put together a SaaS case study.

That said, there are a few common threads between the reports above that companies should strive to stick to.

If you’re trying to figure out how to write a SaaS case study yourself, keep the principles below in mind.

Grab readers’ attention with specific numbers, figures and data points

Sure, phrases like “increased revenue” or “saved time” are enticing.

But coupling those phrases with actual numbers can help your case study pack a much-needed punch.

For example, “increased revenue” versus “increased MRR by $10,000” or “saved time” versus “saved 15 hours per week.”

See how that works? Using actual client numbers does double duty of grabbing your target audience’s attention while also proving to prospects that your service produces meaningful results.

Integrate visuals to illustrate your points and keep readers engaged

Fact: recent visual content statistics note that both videos and graphics help push people toward making purchasing decisions.

It’s telling that five of our seven SaaS case study examples include video, right?

From stylized quotes to product screenshots and client headshots, it’s crucial that your reports are more than just walls of text. Written case studies can definitely be effective, granted you stick to the principle of “show, don’t tell.”

Let your clients do the talking

Again, most SaaS case studies are basically client stories.

So don’t be shy about letting your clients sing your praises. You’d be surprised at what gems of social proof they’ll say totally unprompted.

The correlation between customer testimonials and higher conversions is well-documented. Note that many of the SaaS case study examples below draw heavily on direct client quotes or interview segments.

If nothing else, making your case studies client-centric makes sense and likewise means less work on your part.

Make your case study shareable

Fact: the typical B2B buying process involves between six and ten people.

And so anything you can do to make your case study shareable to multiple stakeholders is a smart move.

This again speaks to why so many SaaS case studies incorporate video or are formatted as succinct, scroll-friendly PDFs.

Beyond that, conversational language and a summary of key points can also make a report more shareable. In short, your case study should be accessible even to people who don’t have a deep knowledge of your product.

Which SaaS case study examples stand out to you?

SaaS providers have a ton of freedom when it comes to how they put together their case studies.

Want to keep it brief? Looking to take a deep dive into your product and its specific features? Go for it.

Hopefully these examples and best practices provided some insight into what makes a “good” case study in the software space.

Got any other SaaS case study examples I should totally check out? Let me know on  Twitter , comment below or  shoot me an email .

This post was last updated on 1/5/2021.

January 6, 2021 at 8:26 am

Great piece for me as a marketing analyst who is looking to learn more about the SaaS industry

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Agile Unleashed at Scale

How john deere’s global it group implemented a holistic transformation powered by scrum@scale, scrum, devops, and a modernized technology stack, agile unleashed at scale: results at a glance, executive summary.

In 2019 John Deere’s Global IT group launched an Agile transformation with the simple but ambitious goal of improving speed to outcomes.

As with most Fortune 100 companies, Agile methodologies and practices were not new to John Deere’s Global IT group, but senior leadership wasn’t seeing the results they desired. “We had used other scaled frameworks in the past—which are perfectly strong Agile processes,” explains Josh Edgin,  Transformation Lead at John Deere, “But with PSI planning and two-month release cycles, I think you can get comfortable transforming into a mini-waterfall.” Edgin adds, “We needed to evolve.”

Senior leadership decided to launch a holistic transformation that would touch every aspect of the group’s work – from application development to core infrastructure; from customer and dealer-facing products to operations-oriented design, manufacturing and supply chain, and internal/back-end finance and human resource products.

Picking the right Agile framework is one of the most important decisions an organization can make. This is especially true when effective scaling is a core component of the overall strategy. “Leadership found the Scrum@Scale methodology to be the right fit to scale across IT and the rest of the business,” states Ganesh Jayaram, John Deere’s Vice President of Global IT. Therefore, the Scrum and Scrum@Scale frameworks, entwined with DevOps and technical upskilling became the core components of the group’s new Agile Operating Model (AOM).

Picking the right Agile consulting, training, and coaching support can be just as important as the choice of framework. Scrum Inc. is known for its expertise, deep experience, and long track record of success in both training and large and complex transformations. Additionally, Scrum Inc. offered industry-leading on-demand courses to accelerate the implementation, and a proven path to create self-sustaining Agile organizations able to successfully run their own Agile journey.

“I remember standing in front of our CEO and the Board of Directors to make this pitch,” says Jayaram, “because it was the single largest investment Global IT has made in terms of capital and expense.” But the payoff, he adds, would be significant. “We bet the farm so to speak. We promised we would do more, do it faster, and do it cheaper.”

John Deere’s CEO gave the transformation a green light.

Just two years into the effort it is a bet that has paid off.

Metrics and Results

Enterprise-level results include:

• Return on Investment: John Deere estimates its ROI from the Global IT group’s transformation to be greater than 100 percent .
• Output: Has increased by 165 percent , exceeding the initial goal of 125 percent.
• Time to Market: Has been reduced by 63 percent — leadership initially sought a 40 percent reduction.
• Engineering Ratio: When looking at the complete organizational structure of Scrum Masters, Product Owners, Agile Coaches, Engineering Managers, UX Professionals, and team members, leadership set a target of 75% with “fingers on keyboards” delivering value through engineering. This ratio now stands at 77.7 percent .
• Cost Efficiency: Leadership wanted to reduce the labor costs of the group by 20 percent . They have achieved this goal through insourcing and strategic hiring–even with the addition of Scrum and Agile roles.
• Employee NPS (eNPS): Employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, is a reflection of team health. The Global IT group began with a 42-point baseline. A score above 50 is considered excellent. The group now has a score of 65 , greater than the 20-point improvement targeted by leadership.

John Deere’s Global IT group has seen function/team level improvements that far exceed these results. Order Management, the pilot project for this implementation has seen team results which include:

• The number of Functions/Features Delivered per Sprint has increased by more than 10X
• The number of Deploys has improved by more than 15X

As Jayaram notes, “When you look at some of the metrics and you see a 1,000 percent improvement you can’t help but think they got the baseline wrong.”

But the baselines are right. The improvement is real.

John Deere’s Global IT group has also seen exponential results thanks to the implementation of the AOM. “We’ve delivered an order of magnitude more value and bottom-line impact to John Deere in the ERP space than in any previous year,” states Edgin. These results include:

• Time to Market: Reduced by 87 percent
• Deploys: Increased by 400 percent
• Features/Functions Delivered per Sprint: Has nearly tripled

Edgin adds that “every quality measure has improved measurably. We’re delivering things at speeds previously not thought possible. And we’re doing it with fewer people.”

Training at Scale and Creating a Self-Sufficient Agile Organization

The Wave/Phase approach has ensured both effective and efficient training across John Deere’s Global IT group. As of December 2021, roughly 24-months after its inception:

• 295 teams have successfully completed a full wave of training
• Approximately 2,500 individuals have successfully completed their training
• 50 teams were actively in wave training
• Approximately 150 teams were actively preparing to enter a wave

John Deere’s Global IT group is well on its way to becoming a self-sustaining Agile organization thanks to its work with Scrum Inc.

• Internal training capacity increased by 64 percent over a two-year span
• The number of classes led by internal trainers doubled (from 25 to 50) between 2020 and 2021

Click on the Section Titles Below to Read this I n-Depth  Case Study

1. introduction: the complex challenge to overcome.

This need can be unlocking innovation, overcoming a complex challenge, more efficient and effective prioritization, removing roadblocks, or the desire to delight customers through innovation and value delivery.

Ganesh Jayaram is John Deere’s Vice President of Global IT. He summarizes the overarching need behind this Agile transformation down to a simple but powerful four-word vision; improve speed to outcomes.

Note this is not going fast just for the sake of going fast – that can be a recipe for unhappy customers and decreased quality. Very much the opposite of Agile.

Dissect Jayaram’s vision, and you’ll find elements at the heart of Agile itself; rapid iteration, innovation, quality, value delivery, and most importantly, delighted customers. Had John Deere lost sight of these elements? Absolutely not.

As Jayaram explains, “we intended to significantly improve on delivering these outcomes.” To do this, Jayaram and his leadership team decomposed their vision of ‘improve speed to outcomes’ into three enterprise-level goals:

• Speed to Understanding: How would they know they are truly sensitive to what their customers – both internal and external – care about, want, and need?
• Speed to Decision Making: Decrease decision latency to improve the ability to capitalize on opportunities, respond to market changes, or pivot based on rapid feedback.
• Speed to Execution: Decrease time to market while maintaining or improving quality and value delivery.

Deere’s Global IT leadership knew achieving their vision and these goals would take more than incremental adjustments. Beneficial change at this level requires a holistic transformation that spans the IT group as well as the business partners.

They needed the right Agile transformation support, the ability to efficiently and effectively scale both training and operations and to build the in-house expertise to make the group’s Agile journey a self-sustaining one. As Josh Edgin, Global IT Transformation Lead at John Deere states, “We needed to evolve.”

2. Background: The Transformation's Ambitious Goals

Before this transformation, John Deere’s Global IT function operated like that of many large organizations. In broad terms, this meant that:

• The department had isolated pockets of Agile teams that implemented several different Agile frameworks in an ad hoc way
• Teams were often assigned to projects which were funded for a fixed period of time
• The exact work to be done on projects was dictated by extensive business analysis and similar plans
• Outsourcing of projects or components to third-party suppliers was commonplace
• The manager role was largely comprised of primarily directing and prioritizing work for their teams

At John Deere, process maturity was very high. Practices such as these were created in the Second Industrial Revolution and they can deliver value, especially if you have a defined, repeatable process. However, if you have a product or service that needs to evolve to meet changing market demands, these legacy leadership practices can quickly become liabilities.

• Pockets of Agile can deliver better results. But isolated Agile teams will inherently be dependent on non-Agile teams to deliver value. This limits the effectiveness and productivity gains of Agile teams specifically and the organization as a whole. The ad hoc use of different Agile frameworks, as Vice President Jayaram explains, compounds this problem by “not being something we could replicate and scale across the organization.”
• Project-oriented teams are often incentivized to deliver only what the project plan calls for – this inhibits a customer-centric mindset and the incorporation of feedback.
• Expecting teams to always stick to a predetermined plan limits their ability to innovate, creatively problem solve, or pivot to respond to changing requirements or market conditions.
• Outsourcing can create flexibility for organizations, but an over-reliance on outsourcing can slow speed to market and value delivery.
• Too many handoffs deliver little if any value. These can also significantly slow progress on any project or product which increases time to market.
• IT managers that are primarily delegators can become a form of overhead since they’re not actively producing value for customers. Their other skills can atrophy leaving them ill-equipped to help develop their team members, and overall team member engagement and talent retention can suffer.

2.1 The Transformation Goal

Improving speed to outcomes required greater employee engagement, decreased time to market, higher productivity, better prioritization, and alignment, and increase the engineering  ratio – the percentage of the organization with what Jayaram and Edgin call “fingers on keyboards” who create the products customers used.

Additionally, leadership wanted to increase the group’s in-house technical expertise, modernize its technology stack, unify around a single Agile framework that easily and efficiently scaled both across IT and the rest of the business, and reorganize its products and portfolios around Agile value streams. All while meeting or exceeding current quality standards.

Leadership wanted to go big. They wanted nothing less than a holistic Agile transformation that would improve every aspect of their business and all of the group’s 500 teams.

Next, senior leadership created the group-wide metrics they would use to measure success. These included:

• Output: Increase by 125 percent
• Time to Market: Reduce by 40 percent
• Engineering Ratio: Improve to 75 percent with “fingers on keyboards”
• Employee NPS (eNPS): 20-point improvement
• Cost Efficiency: They would reduce labor costs by 20 percent

At the time, these goals seemed ambitious to say the least. “I remember standing in front of our CEO and the Board of Directors to make this pitch,” says Jayaram, “because it was the single largest investment Global IT has made in terms of capital and expense.” But the payoff, he adds, would be significant. “We bet the farm so to speak. We promised we would do more, do it faster, and do it cheaper.”

John Deere’s CEO gave the transformation, called the Agile Operating Model (AOM), a green light.

3. Agile Operating Model: Why John Deere Chose Scrum And Scrum@Scale

Picking the right Agile framework is one of the most important decisions an organization can make. This is especially true when effective scaling is a core component of the overall strategy.

As Edgin explains, Agile was not new to John Deere’s Global IT group. “We had Agile practices. We had Agile teams. We were delivering value.”

But says Edgin, they weren’t satisfied with the results. So, a team began evaluating several different Agile methodologies. They examined what had been done at John Deere in the past and anticipated what the group’s future needs would be.

In the past, Edgin states, “We had used other scaled frameworks—which are perfectly strong Agile processes. But with PSI planning and two-month release cycles, I think you can get comfortable transforming into a mini-waterfall,” he says, “So we aligned on Scrum being the best fit for our culture and what we wanted to accomplish.”

Early on, leadership decided to implement a tight partnership where the IT delivery team(s) are closely coupled with the product organization that is the voice of the customer. When connecting multiple products together, “leadership found the Scrum@Scale methodology to be the best fit to scale across IT and the rest of the business,” says Jayaram.

The Scrum and Scrum@Scale frameworks, entwined with DevOps and technical upskilling, became integral Agile components of the group’s new AOM.

4. The Foundry: More Than A Training Facility

When it came time to name the final and arguably most important component of the AOM, the Foundry was a clear choice. It recognizes the company’s proud heritage while also symbolizing the change that would drive the Global IT group into the future.

Many organizations incorporate a “learning dojo model” when implementing an Agile transformation. These dojos and their teams are often home to Agile practices, conduct training sessions, and provide immersive coaching for newly launched Agile teams.

Training is, of course, a critical piece of any transformation. As is coaching. After all, switching from a traditional command and control approach to an Agile servant leader approach is a significant, sometimes disorienting change.

However, some corporate dojos work on what could be considered a “catch and release” strategy. They provide one or two weeks of baseline Agile training to individuals and teams, then say “get to it”. Coaching is limited and provided primarily by outside consultants.

The first problem with “catch and release” dojos is the cookie-cutter-like approach. A mass “baseline only” training strategy focus on volume — not understanding and usability.

The second problem is the over-reliance on outside consultants for team and organizational coaching. The cost-prohibited nature of outside consultants can limit the levels of coaching each team receives. This approach also equates to an organization outsourcing its Agile knowledge base and thought leadership — a critical competency in modern business.

The John Deere Foundry and Deere’s approach to embedding Agile Coaches and Scrum Masters across the organization represents the evolution of the dojo model by addressing these problems head-on.

4.1 A Relationship Built on Creating a Self-Sustaining Agile Organization

From the beginning, John Deere’s relationship with Scrum Inc. was built around creating a self-sustaining Agile organization. One where the Foundry’s own internal trainers and coaches would build all the capabilities they needed to ensure the Global IT group’s Agile transformation was a self-sustaining one.

This included not just materials needed to train new Agile teams. This relationship included sharing all the knowledge, skills, expertise, content, and tactics critical to training the coaches and trainers themselves.

The Foundry was launched by a dedicated team comprised of both John Deere’s internal trainers and coaches and their Scrum Inc. counterparts. They worked from a single backlog which prioritized knowledge sharing along with the “hands-on” work of training John Deere’s Global IT teams in Scrum.

Scrum Inc.’s consultants took leading roles during the first wave of training, while their John Deere counterparts observed and learned the content and techniques. By the third wave, John Deere’s internal trainers and coaches were taking the lead, with Scrum Inc.’s consultants there to advise and refine the program.

As time passed, a significant number of trainers and coaches inside the Foundry and across the organization showed the level of mastery needed to successfully pass Scrum Inc.’s intensive Registered Scrum Trainer and Registered Agile Coach courses. They could now credential their own students. More importantly, they demonstrated the ability to drive the Global IT group’s Agile transformation forward on their own.

This approach removes any reliance on outside contractors for key competencies.

4.2 Unified, Context-Specific Training

Implementing an Agile transformation is a complex challenge. Research continues to show that ineffective or insufficient levels of training and coaching are leading causes of failed implementations. So too are misalignment, misunderstandings, or outright misuse of the concepts and terminology important to any Agile framework.

In short, everyone needs to share a unified understanding of the new way of working for it to have any chance of working at all.

The best way to overcome the problem of a cookie-cutter approach is to ensure all training content is as context-specific as possible.

Here too the connection between the Foundry and Scrum Inc. was important.

The joint team of John Deere and Scrum Inc. staff swarmed to create Agile courses packed with customized, context-specific material that would resonate with the company’s Global IT group.

This content removed any feeling of a cookie-cutter approach and increased the usability of each lesson.

4.3 Results 

• Internal training capacity increased  by 64 percent over a two-year span
• John Deere trainers are now leading customized, context-specific courses including Scrum Master , Product Owner , Engineering Manager , Agile for Leaders , Scrum@Scale Practitioner , and Scrum@Scale Foundations

Perhaps the best measure of success is the waiting list of teams wanting to go through Agile training and coaching. Initially, hesitancy over implementing the Agile Operating Model and undergoing training was high. Initially, there wasn’t a high demand for the training, however as early adopters experienced success, demand for the training grew. Soon teams were actively seeking admission to the next planned cohort. Now, even with greatly expanded capacity, there is a waiting list.

The Foundry model has been so successful that John Deere’s Global IT group has expanded its footprint to include coaching in Mexico, Germany, and Brazil and launched a full-scale Foundry program at the company’s facility in India. In addition to the Foundry, embedded Agile coaches continuing to drive transformation locally are a key component to the model’s success.

5. How To Achieve Efficient and Effective Training at Scale

Enter the Wave/Phase training approach implemented by the Foundry with Scrum Inc.

In this model, each team includes IT engineers along with their Scrum Masters and business-focused Product Owners. A training cohort, usually comprised of 40 to 50 teams, constitutes a wave.

The waves themselves are comprised of three distinct phases:

• The Pre-Phase: Where teams and locally embedded agile coaches prepare for an immersive wave coaching experience
• The Preparation Phase: Focuses on product organization and customer journeys
• The Immersion Phase: Team launch, coaching, and full immersion into the AOM

All three phases are designed to run concurrently, which keeps the pipeline full, flowing, and ensures efficient training at scale. The transformation doesn’t end with the wave experience. Continuous improvement and ongoing transformation continue well beyond the Immersion Phase, led by embedded agile leaders in partnership with The Foundry.

The quality and context-specific nature of the training itself, along with the “left-seat-right-seat” nature of the coaching, ensures the learning is effective.

5.1 The Pre-Phase

Embedded Agile coaches are continuously transforming teams in their organizations even before they enter a wave. One goal of the Pre-Phase is to ensure readiness of teams looking to enter a wave. Acceptance criteria include:

• Proper organization design review to ensure teams are set up to succeed with the correct roles
• A draft plan for their product structure (explained in more detail in section 6 of this case study)
• The Scrum Roles of Product Owner, Engineering Manager, and Scrum Master are filled

Ryan Trotter is a principal Agile coach with more than 25 years of experience in various capacities at John Deere. Trotter says experience shows that not meeting one or more criteria “causes deeper conversations and could result in some mitigations or delaying until they’re ready.”

5.2 The Preparation Phase

The benefits of an Agile mindset and processes can be significantly limited by legacy structures.

Therefore, product organization is the primary focus of the preparation phase.

“We want to create a much stronger connection between the customer, and the Product Owner and team” explains Heidi Bernhardt who has been a senior leader of the Agile Operating Model since its inception. Bernhardt has been with John Deere for more than two decades now. She says individuals in the product and portfolio side of the house learn to “think in a different way.”

Participants in the preparation phase learn how to create customer journey maps and conduct real-world customer interviews to ensure their feedback loops are both informative and rapid — key drivers of success for any Scrum team and organization explains Bernhardt, “They’re talking with the customer every Sprint, asking what their needs are and what they anticipate in the future.”

They also learn how to manage and prioritize backlogs and how to do long-term planning in an Agile way.

Scrum Role training is a critical component of the preparation phase. Product Owners and Scrum Masters attend both Registered Scrum Master and Registered Product Owner courses.

Team members and others who interact regularly with the team take Scrum Startup for Teams , a digital, on-demand learning course offered by Scrum Inc. “Scrum Startup for Teams provides a really good base level of understanding,” says Ryan Trotter, “People can take it at their own pace and they can go back and review it whenever they want. It really hit a sweet spot for our software engineers.”

By the end of 2021 Scrum Startup for Teams had helped train roughly 2,500 people in the Global IT group and nearly the same number of individuals throughout the rest of John Deere — including those who aren’t on Scrum Teams but who work closely with them.

5.3 The Immersion Phase

The 10-week long immersion phase is where the Agile mindset and the AOM take flight. Where the Scrum and Scrum@Scale frameworks are fully implemented and the teams turn the concepts they’ve learned in the prior phases into their new way of working.

For John Deere’s Global IT group, immersion is not a theoretical exercise. It is not downtime. It is on-the-job training in a new way of working that meets each team at their current maturity level.

The first week of immersion is the only time teams aren’t dedicated to their usual duties.

During this time, says Trotter, coaches and trainers are reinforcing concepts, answering questions, and the teams are working through a team canvas. “This is where the team members identify their purpose, their product, and agree on how they’ll work together.”

Teams are fully focused on delivering value and their real-world product over the next nine weeks.

The Product Owner sets the team’s priorities, refines the backlog, and shares the customer feedback they’ve gathered. The Scrum Master helps the team continuously improve and remove or make impediments visible. Scrum Masters collaborates with an embedded Agile Coach that continues to champion transformation. Team members are delivering value. John Deere’s technical coach for the team is the Engineering Manager, a role that has transformed from the original team leader.

Those in the immersion phase receive intensive coaching, but they are also empowered to innovate or creatively problem solve on their own. The goal is for the coaches to help make agility and learning through experimentation a part of each team’s DNA.

The transition from students to practitioners becomes more apparent towards the end of immersion. Coaches take more of a back seat in the process explains Trotter. “We don’t want to create a false dependency. We want the teams to take ownership of their own Agile journey, to know the Foundry is here when needed but to be confident that they’ve got this and can run with it so they can continuously improve on their own.”

5.4 Measuring Wave Training Effectiveness

Measuring the effectiveness of any large-scale Agile training program requires more than just counting the number of completed courses or credentials received. The instructors and coaches must be able to see the Agile mindset has also taken hold and the implementation is making a positive impact on the organization. They also need the ability to see where problems are arising so they can provide additional coaching, training, and other resources where needed.

John Deere’s internal coaches created their Ten Immersion Principles (TIPS) as a way of measuring team health once they leave the immersion phase. Foundry coaches and trainers can then focus their efforts to create a continuous learning backlog that the team owns.

The TIPS are:

• Value Flows Through the System Super Fast: The team can deliver new products or features to customers very quickly. Any impediments or dependencies hindering delivery are quickly identified and addressed
• Amplify Feedback Loops: Rapid feedback from customers is a reality
• Continuous Learning Organization: The team is taking ownership of their learning paths and Agile journey
• Deliver Value in Small Increments: The team delivers value to customers in small pieces in order to gather feedback, test hypotheses, and pivot if needed
• Customer Centricity: The team is focused on those actually using the product and not just the stakeholders interested in the value the product should deliver
• Continuous Improvement: The team is always looking for ways to improve product and process
• Big and Visible: The team make progress, impediments, and all needed information transparent and easy to find
• Team is Predictable: The team tracks productivity metrics and estimates backlog items so that the anticipated date of delivery for products or features can be known
• Data-Driven Decisions: Feedback and real data, not the loudest voice or squeaky wheel — is used to make decisions
• Culture of Experimentation: The team is willing to take calculated risks and are able to learn from failure

5.5 Results

The positive business impact this training has had is outlined in section 8. Metrics and Results of this case study.

6. Agile Product and Portfolio Management: Why It's Important And How To Do It

Erin Wyffels keeps an old whiteboard in her office as a reminder of the moment she and her team solved a particularly complex problem.

Wyffels leads the product excellence area of the Foundry, supporting John Deere’s product leaders in product ownership and the dynamic portfolio process. She has a long history with traditional project management, inside and outside of IT. Over the past two years, she has grown her expertise in Agile product and portfolio management.

John Deere’s Global IT group manages a catalog of more than 400 digital products across 500 teams. These support every business capability in the broader company — from finance and marketing to manufacturing and infrastructure and operations.

Most large organizations are built on legacy systems. Left unchanged, these systems can limit the effectiveness of an Agile transformation. Wyffels says the prior structure of projects and portfolios within John Deere’s Global IT group was just such a system. “Our old taxonomy would in no way work with Agile.” So, she was picked to help change it for the better.

6.1 Why the Product and Portfolio Structure Needed to Change 

Before implementing the AOM, portfolio management was an annual affair. One that Wyffels says, “left everyone unhappy.”

Stakeholders and senior leadership would come with a list of desired projects. Financial analysts, IT department managers, and portfolio managers would then hash out funding for these projects. Teams would then be assigned to the resourced projects. All pretty standard stuff in the corporate world.

There are, however, several problems with this approach.

Take the focus on projects. Traditional project management is a very effective approach for defined processes. By definition, a project has a start date and an end date. A set amount of work is to be done at a predetermined cost.

The weakness in traditional project management becomes apparent when you have a product or service that will evolve and emerge over time. There are just too many unknowns for the traditional approach to work effectively.

Then there’s the time it takes to make decisions based on customer feedback. As Wyffels points out, the annual nature of the pre-AOM process meant, “The best information and data you could get would be a quarter old.” Agility requires far more rapid feedback loops.

Throw in a taxonomy built more around project type than the value delivered and employees who were moved to projects instead of allowed to own a product end-to-end, and John Deere’s Global IT group had a system that was optimized based on constraints but didn’t support where the company was headed next. They were ready for a system that promoted total product ownership including value, investment, and quality and move to the next level of product maturity.

6.2 Customer Perspective and Value Streams

The need to adopt Agile product and portfolio management processes became apparent early in the AOM’s implementation.

Amy Willard is a Group Engineering Manager currently leading the AOM Foundry. She says this also becomes apparent for individual teams taking part in the immersion phase of wave training. “We see changes in their product structure evolving. They have that aha moment and realize the structure we had before wasn’t quite right.”

The new, Agile structure focuses on three critical components — customer perspective, value streams, and a product mindset.

• Customer Perspective: Willard says the value delivered to customer personas is now used to more logically group products and product families. This Agile taxonomy helps to reduce time to market and boost innovation by fostering greater coordination and collaboration between teams.
• Value Streams: Dependencies, handoffs, and removing bottlenecks are also considered when creating product groups and portfolios. Willard notes, “We’ve had a lot of success with developing value stream maps across products,” also from a customer journey perspective.
• Product Mindset: Projects are defined by their scope, cost, and duration. Products are different, they evolve based on market feedback to continually deliver value to customers.  The difference may sound small, but Willard says it represents a “major shift” in mindset for the Global IT group.

The group has developed a curriculum for people in product roles in each transformation wave, with coaching support available to each person. The same content has been made available for all roles through a self-learning option, which is great for non-product roles or people that take a new position after their group’s wave is complete. Additionally, the communities being established for product roles and collaboration across people in the roles are the final building blocks to continued maturity after the transformation waves are done.

6.3 Highlighted Result: Better Value-Based Investments

The implementation of Agile product and portfolio management has yielded numerous positive results for John Deere’s Global IT group. These structural changes were critical drivers of the success noted in the Metrics and Results section of this case study.

This shift has also increased the ability of the group’s senior leadership to act like venture capitalists and invest resources into areas and products with the most potential value to both the organization and customers.

All products are now segmented into one of three categories based on actual value delivery and market feedback. These categories are:

• Grow: High-value products or opportunities worth a higher level of investment
• Sustain: Products we want to continue investing in, but not to differentiate
• Monitor: The capability is required to run a successful business, but the investment level may be reduced

There are some products that may have problems that need to be addressed immediately, or the investment levels are decreasing in certain areas of the product due to rationalization efforts.  Those products are flagged with Fix or Exit so the MetaScrum can have prioritization conversations more easily.

The heightened levels of business intelligence and customer feedback the AOM has fostered allow leadership to make better decisions about investments faster. It also reduces the cost of pivoting when market conditions change.

Strong products, as well as prioritization and alignment at every level of the organization are what will make the portfolio process most effective at John Deere.

7. Agile Culture Unleashed

In-Depth:  

John Deere has a long history of finding innovative solutions to common problems. Today, they’re still focused on driving customer efficiency, productivity, and value in sustainable ways.

As the company states , “We run so life can leap forward.”

That alone is enough to make the company iconic. For John Deere, that’s just the start.

People matter at John Deere. So too do concepts like purpose, autonomy, and mastery made famous by author Daniel Pink in his book Drive . “It’s no secret that there is a war for talent right now,” acknowledges Global IT Transformation Lead Josh Edgin, “and the market is only getting more competitive.” John Deere’s Global IT group is not immune to that competition. However, it has an advantage over other organizations — a thriving Agile culture.

Psychological safety, empowerment, risk-taking, are the foundations of the AOM.  At John Deere’s Global IT group,being Agile isn’t defined by holding Scrum events, it’s about implementing Scrum the way it was intended by Scrum co-creator Jeff Sutherland.

Work-life balance is important. The environment is one of collaboration and respect. The group also has a common sense based remote work policy and a number of hubs for when collocation is imperative.

All this doesn’t mean everything is perfect at John Deere’s Global IT group. Leadership is the first to tell you they can and will do even better. This itself is a powerful statement — this is a place where continuous improvement is everyone’s goal, not something management demands of delivery teams.

“We’re a company that is walking the talk,” says Global IT Vice President Ganesh Jayaram, “We’re making investments both in terms of our team members and technology.” Here are just three of the important ways John Deere’s Global IT group is indeed “walking the talk.”

7.1 Transformation Portal 

Big and visible. That is the goal of the group’s transformation portal. Everything relating to the AOM implementation can be found here.

Resources, wave schedules, thought leadership, and shared learnings are all available in this in-depth dashboard. Far more than you often see in other organizations. So too are metrics for individual teams and the group as a whole.

“People want purpose,” says Edgin, “they want to solve hard problems. They want to know the work they do matters.”  This portal allows individuals to better understand their roles and they work together.

7.2 Agile Career Paths

Log into John Deere’s AOM transformation portal and you’ll find a section with dedicated self-learning and career advancement paths. As Amy Willard explains, “We have a path for every persona and community led CoPs, supported by the Foundry.” This includes everything from User Experience Practitioner to Scrum Master and Product Owner.

Having clearly defined career paths and self-learning opportunities is an important step. It not only empowers continuous improvement, but it also shows professional agilists that they’re valued, their skills are important, and they have a bright future at the organization which does not dictate they must choose between agility and career advancement.

7.3 Prioritizing Team and Organizational eNPS Scores

Through the AOM John Deere was focused on creating a great place to work. Leadership believed that healthy teams would drive creativity, productivity, and sustainability.

John Deere’s Global IT group regularly measures this through both team and organizational Employee Net Promoter Scores, or eNPS. By asking employees if they would recommend their team to others, leaders can gain a better understanding of the health and engagement of the team.

Edgin explains the importance of these metrics this way, “When you create a culture where you have awesome employees with the right mindset and great technical skills you want them to stay here because this is where they want to be.”

The Global IT group began with a 42-point baseline. A score above 50 is considered excellent. The group now has a score of 65, greater than the 20-point improvement targeted by leadership.

Individual teams show similar results across the board.

8. Metrics and Results

Truly successful Agile transformations don’t have a finish line. That’s why they call it a journey of continuous improvement.

Still, just two years into this implementation, John Deere’s Global IT group is clearly well down that path. The results are as indisputable as they are impressive.

“When you look at a product area and you see a 1,000 percent improvement can’t help but think they got the baseline wrong,” says Global IT Vice President Ganesh Jayaram.

But, digging deeper, the improvement is real.

Take the productivity gains seen from the teams with Order Management. Jayaram says these teams were chosen for the AOM’s pilot project because it was “the most complicated, had the most dependencies, and had tentacles throughout the organization.” He believed that if Scrum, Scrum@Scale, and the AOM worked for Order Management, other teams couldn’t question if it would work for them.

Metrics show just how successful the pilot was.

Both results are exponentially greater than the 125 percent increase target set for the transformation. While the Order Management results are leading the way, results from other business capability areas inside the Global IT group are closely following.

Take the ERP-heavy environment of Manufacturing Operations. Here, Edgin notes, thanks to the Agile transformation and the modernization of the technology stack, “this year we’ve delivered an order of magnitude more value and bottom-line impact to John Deere in the ERP space than in any previous year.”

He adds that “Every quality measure has improved. We’re delivering things at speeds previously not thought possible. And we’re doing it with fewer people.” Other Manufacturing Operations results include:

• Deploys: increased by 400 percent
• Features/Functions Delivered per Sprint:  Has nearly tripled

8.1 Global IT Group Overall Results

Across the board, Deere’s Global IT Agile transformation has met or exceeded every initial goal set by senior leadership. Even when you combine results from both more mature teams and those that have just left the Foundry.

The targets that leadership set were to be reached within six months after completing immersion, but John Deere is seeing continued progress led by the business capability areas to achieve even higher results with the ongoing guidance of embedded change leaders such as Scrum Masters and business capability Agile coaches.

• Time to Market: Has been reduced by 63 percent — leadership initially sought a 40 percent reduction.
• Cost Efficiency: Leadership wanted to reduce the labor costs of the group by 20 percent . They have achieved this goal through insourcing and strategic hiring–even with the addition of Scrum and Agile roles.

8.2 Return on Investment and Impact on the Bottom Line

Agile transformations are an investment, in people, culture, productivity, innovation, and value delivery. Like any investment, transformations must deliver a positive return to be judged a success.

Deere’s ROI on the Global IT group’s transformation is estimated to be greater than 100 percent.

Successful Agile transformations also make a material impact on their company’s bottom line. Financially, 2021 was a banner year for John Deere. The company generated nearly $6 billion in annual net income — far more than its previous record.  So, it takes a lot to materially impact the company’s bottom line.

Both Global IT Transformation Lead Josh Edgin and Global IT Vice President Ganesh Jayaram believe the AOM has indeed helped move the financial needle at Deere.

“The metrics we track show very clearly the answer is yes,” says Jayaram.

Edgin states, “We’re helping the company achieve our smart industrial aspirations by improving how we serve our customers and boosting productivity.” He adds that the AOM allows the group to “innovate and deliver high quality, secure solutions at a much faster pace to meet and exceed our customer needs.”

9. Agile in Action: Supply Chain Solutions Amid Disruptions

A global leader with more than 25 brands,  John Deere  relies on a complex supply chain and efficient logistics to ensure production and delivery go as planned.

More than 10,000 parts are needed to assemble just one of John Deere’s  award-winning X9 combines  — twice the number of components needed to build a new car.

Modern combines, just like modern farming, also require far more technology than you likely think.

Sensors, antennas, and motherboards are now just as critical as tires, treads, and tines. Of course, John Deere makes far more than combines. Its iconic logo appears on everything from tillers and tractors to marine engines, motor graders, and the John Deere Gator utility vehicle. In all, the company manufactures more than 100 distinct lines of equipment.

Each product relies on efficient and effective supply chain management — from procurement and sourcing to cost control, shipping, customs, and final delivery.

Overall, John Deere depends on a complex network of thousands of suppliers from around the globe to build industry-leading John Deere products.

Coordinating and collaborating with that network through digital solutions largely falls to the company’s Supply Chain Solutions teams and Karen Powers, the Digital Product Manager for Supply Chain Management and Worldwide Logistics at John Deere.

“We have responsibility for every shipment around the world,” she explains, “ from any supplier to any factory, to any component operation in between, and for the end shipment of the completed good to the dealer.” To accomplish all of this, Powers’ team also works with aspects of the company’s global trade including imports, exports, customs, documentation, and duties.

It’s a mammoth undertaking even in the best of times. And 2020 and 2021 were hardly the best of times.

But John Deere’s Supply Chain Solutions teams were more than up to the task. They successfully used Scrum as a team framework to increase throughput and Scrum@Scale as an organizational framework to optimize alignment and value delivery. Together they helped Supply Chain Solutions navigate the challenges caused by a global pandemic and major supply chain disruptions.

John Deere didn’t just survive these complex times, the company thrived. At the end of November 2021, the company announced record profits.

Jay Strief, the Group Engineering Manager of Supply Chain Solutions, connects this success in part to managing through supply chain issues and puts it in personal terms. “The awesome story here is the change in the culture; innovation, risk-taking, and many clear examples of teams stepping out of their comfort zone to deliver new value.” All of this, he adds, “was made possible through our digital transformation.“

9.1 Why Supply Chain Solutions Went Agile

Powers has been a leader in the information technology space at John Deere for most of her two-decade career.

She helmed the company’s Business Process Integration organization and an ERP implementation for the company’s Construction & Forestry Division. Powers has also led John Deere’s global analytics organization and a variety of technical teams within finance and manufacturing. She is a master of the “classic” ways of working.

When asked if there’s anything Powers misses about those pre-Agile days she quickly answers “no,” before adding, “looking back at the challenges we had to overcome in the last 18 months, I can’t fathom trying to do that without being this Agile.”

Traditional supply chain management tactics had long served John Deere well. After all, it’s impossible to grow into a Fortune 100 company with a large global footprint without efficiently coordinating your network of suppliers and deliveries.

But, as a company, John Deere understands that good enough today may not work tomorrow. Powers and her teams believed the traditional approach wouldn’t be fast enough or flexible enough to keep up with the rate of innovation and business demands for digital solutions from the global supply chain organization.

Powers says procurement of digital solutions could take months to materialize – or longer. The needs of the business line making the request often changed during that time. What was delivered was what they originally asked for but not always what they now knew they needed. It was clear that John Deere needed to adapt to continue to support customers with growing technology needs and increasing expectations for efficiency.

Supply Chain Solutions needed to move faster and more efficiently to help John Deere continue to be an industry leader. So, they started to wonder, “How do we eliminate as many handoffs as possible? How do we streamline this process? How do we better interact with the customer or internal partners?” And Powers asked herself, “How do we ensure we have the right skills and the right talent to be able to respond faster?”

Innovation is one of John Deere’s core values and the company prides itself on creative problem solving. This is part of the DNA of the company and its culture. When Powers and her team learned about the Agile Operating Model (AOM) — a transformation strategy that had been introduced to modernize the John Deere Global IT group — and the collaboration with Scrum Inc. they pushed to be included in the second wave of the transformation.

In early 2020, while still in the immersion phase of their training, Supply Chain Solutions was called on to support the Global Supply Management organization dealing with the volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (V.U.C.A.) that has now become the norm for supply chains worldwide.   

9.2 Overcoming V.U.C.A.: COVID-19 and Supply Chain Disruptions

Designated as an essential business — John Deere has continued operating and building products that help build and maintain critical infrastructure and feed the planet — throughout the pandemic.

The challenge of keeping all of John Deere’s assembly lines running would be immense. But as Powers notes, “John Deere always rises to the challenge.”

At this point, John Deere’s Supply Chain Solution teams had effectively implemented both  Scrum  and  Scrum@Scale . Powers says both frameworks helped Supply Chain Solutions live up to its name.

No longer slowed by the overly burdensome and bureaucratic approach, the teams quickly pivoted from a primarily strategic focus to one that balanced both the tactical and strategic needs required during the pandemic.

Working in two-week Sprints allowed the teams to replan and reprioritize faster. They pivoted to overcome new pain points or the constantly changing conditions on the ground. John Deere’s Supply Chain Solutions teams have always had strong and reliable analytics and could see potential bottlenecks in their network. When paired with Scrum and Scrum@Scale, these teams now had the flexibility to act to counter the bottlenecks before they choked off critical parts.

Perhaps the most important change, however, came from the stronger alignment and team empowerment that both Scrum and Scrum@Scale helped build.

In the old ways of working, Supply Chain Solutions teams would often be told to undertake a predetermined solution by buyers and supply base managers, limiting the opportunity for Supply Chain Solution team members to share their expertise.

The Agile mindset Scrum and Scrum@Scale bring means those who do the work, and know it best, are free to figure out the most effective way to get it done. “To me, that was the big game-changer,” explains Powers, “because you have that collective brainpower, the folks who know the data and know the ins and outs that can provide things the business didn’t even dream of.”

Take the example of the shortage of materials brought on by the pandemic. Within their ferrous components commodity group, the supply chain analytics and sourcing teams took a new approach to manage cost and risk. John Deere leveraged its bill of materials to generate greater visibility into everything it purchased throughout its supply chain. John Deere used a tier taxonomy to indicate the difference between a completed component (Tier 1) and the pieces needed to make it (Tier 2). Heightened visibility into these different tiers allowed the company to creatively overcome bottlenecks before problems arose. Thus, better managing cost and risk.

“While the initial scope started as a single commodity, additional opportunities quickly came into view as the analytics group developed comprehensive views of our total spend by category,” says Powers. “The evolution of the tiered spend project was a great illustration of Agile in action. The iterative development and ongoing connection between category managers and analytics team members ensured that the end result was useful for a broad group of internal teams.”

The team’s solution to 2021’s worldwide microchip shortage was even more creative.

Normally, John Deere does not buy microchips directly. Instead, it buys completed boards that contain those chips from suppliers. Still, explains Powers, Supply Chain Solutions knew the shortage could detrimentally affect their businesses because “if the suppliers can’t get the chips, they can’t make the boards and we can’t put them into machines.”

So, Supply Chain Solutions asked their network how they could help suppliers secure the microchips directly. They assigned a few team members to create automation scripts that scoured the internet for microchips that would meet their specific needs and when they would be available. This new system helped supplement their suppliers.

All this, Powers explains, came with just one caveat for their suppliers, “all the chips John Deere helped secure would be sold back to us on a completed board.”

Again, John Deere’s lines kept running. That’s something other major manufacturers could not say. “Obviously we’re facing the same challenges other companies are,” explains Powers, “the difference is our ability to step out and do things we normally don’t do to help our suppliers. This, in turn, helps us secure what we need.”

Same team, new operating model and a new mindset, and the “ability to successfully operate in any situation.” That is what the Agile Operating Model, Scrum, and Scrum@Scale delivered for John Deere’s Global IT organization.

Strief puts it this way: “The digitalization of our supply chain business is not just about new technology, it is transformational in terms of new business value we are delivering. Along the way, we have delivered higher job satisfaction for our software engineers and continue to invest in developing cutting-edge skills in our people.”  

9.3 Structured to Deliver Strategic and Tactical Goals

As we know, 2020 and 2021 were some of the most challenging years supply chain professionals had faced in the modern era. Just delivering tactical goals could be a major accomplishment given the level of V.U.C.A. the function faced.

The ingenuity and dedication of John Deere’s Supply Chain Solutions team members, and their use of Scrum and Scrum@Scale, meant they could deliver both the tactical and strategic.

Along with their Scrum training, Supply Chain Solutions Agile journey began with two significant structural changes which helped the teams deliver beneficial outcomes.

As Powers explains, the first such change evolved how the unit was led. “We took what use to be a single management position and broke it out into two roles with different, more focused accountabilities.”

One role, the business digital product lead, focuses on the business problems the unit was helping to solve as well as examine ways technology can help drive those desired outcomes. This is Powers’ role.

The second role, held by Strief, focuses on ensuring teams have the right capabilities with digital skills, technical acumen, and depth of experience to innovate and deliver successfully and rapidly.

This new leadership structure ensures both Powers and Strief are laser-focused on their specific areas of expertise. They have clear accountabilities, know what each is responsible for, and allow for cleaner lines of communication and minimal bureaucratic hurdles. Powers believes that this split structure, “is what really makes this model work.”

The second significant structural change involved the teams themselves.

“In the past, teams were structured around an application or specific technology,” says Powers, “so a shift from a strategic project to a tactical need could slow that strategic project down significantly.”

Powers says, “We started really looking at our applications and processes,” in new ways. They identified what was obsolete as well as what could be streamlined or grouped together. Supply Chain Solutions then completely revamped their product taxonomy around these newly identified value streams and restructured their teams accordingly.

Besides being more efficient, Powers notes this new product structure also created, “a stronger sense of empowerment and ownership,” throughout the team — from the product owner to the team members. “That’s their baby and their pride and joy.”

So, they get to really take that to the next level and know they had a real hand in making a positive impact,” versus just checking off a list of requirements and requests.

The teams also changed how they worked.

In Scrum, teams break large work into smaller increments. This, says Powers, along with a well-prioritized backlog meant “the teams were able to move from the tactical to the strategic without losing momentum.” The net result of these changes in structure and process, combined with John Deere’s strong analytics, is clear; John Deere’s lines kept running — through the pandemic, supply bottlenecks, and shortages. At the same time, the Supply Chain Solutions teams were able to deliver multiple award-winning strategic initiatives that helped the company control or recoup costs and boost efficiency. These included:

• Modernizing the ‘Cost Central’ internal application that is a hub for material cost management throughout the company. The upgrades included increased its ease of use, visibility of data like expected cost, and an overall improvement in user experience and engagement.
• A strategic initiative that leveraged analytics and the increased visibility spurred by John Deere’s Agile transformation for digital products that  allowed the company to recoup some $20 million in duty drawbacks .
• A strategic initiative that combined machine learning and analytics to increase leverage buying power and cost control by creating visibility into parts with similar dimensions, components, performance, and material characteristics but different part numbers.

9.4 Additional Results and Metrics

John Deere’s leadership began their Agile transformation by setting ambitious goals. Each represents a level of targeted improvement any company would love to achieve.

Throw in the unprecedented level of complexity and V.U.C.A. that have been the hallmark of supply chains throughout 2020 and 2021 and you might expect that John Deere’s Supply Chain Solutions teams would, at best, come close to achieving them.

Instead, just six months after the end of the immersion phase of their training, Supply Chain Solutions has smashed through those ambitious goals and has achieved far more than anticipated. The data collected by John Deere on five specific areas tell the story best:

• Cycle Time:  Before John Deere’s Agile transformation, the time it took for Supply Chain Solutions to go from idea to delivery was 54 days. Now it takes just 11 days.  This represents a 79 percent improvement , far more than the 40 percent targeted by leadership.
• Time to Market:  Leadership wanted to decrease this by 40 percent.  Supply Chain Solutions has decreased it by 66 percent , from a baseline of 89 days to 30.
• Functions/Features Delivered per Sprint:  Supply Chain Solutions was delivering nine functions per sprint before their Agile transformation. Leadership wanted that number to increase by 125 percent. Six months after their immersion phase ended, Supply Chain Solutions is now delivering 49 functions per sprint,  an improvement of 448 percent .
• Deploys:  Here leadership targeted a 125 percent increase over the baseline of 10. Instead, Supply Chain Solutions has increased that to 67, a 567 percent improvement .
• Cost Efficiency:  Hiring the right people, with the right skills for the right roles allowed Supply Chain Solutions to eliminate ‘middlemen’ and costly handoffs. This allowed the teams to deliver the above results while  reducing overall costs by 20 percent .
• Team eNPS: Employee Net Promoter Score, or eNPS, is an effective way to measure team happiness and engagement. A score above 50 is considered excellent so leadership set a target score of 50+ for this metric.  Supply Chain Solutions’ current eNPS score is 60 .

To Powers, that last data point personifies their Agile transformation. “Having fun at work and getting things done are not mutually exclusive,” she says, “we went through this journey and people started having fun, and we’re seeing the difference in the results.”

9.5 Conclusion 

At the start of their Agile journey, many questioned if it would work in the structured and intertwined environment. “Lots of people doubted that Agile would work here. That you could do an Agile transformation in Supply Chain Solutions.”

Powers freely admits that she was one of those doubters.

Then, she had her “a-ha” moment.

“Suddenly I saw how it absolutely applies to everything you do,” no matter how complex or intertwined. She admits that “It may take a little blind faith to start your Agile journey,” before adding,” the pieces will make sense. The teams will deliver more, you’ll accomplish more, and everybody will love what they’re doing.” That, she says, is the game-changer. For Supply Chain Solutions, Agile allows them to adapt while the game itself keeps changing.

10. Future of Scrum, Scrum@Scale, and the Agile Operating Model at John Deere

The success of the AOM built on Scrum and Scrum@Scale as well as DevOps, Organization Design and a modernized technology stack is undeniable.

The group’s Scrum Teams are happier, more empowered, and more engaged. As Amy Willard notes, “We can deliver functionality that our customers love faster than ever before.” Rework is down. Quality is up.

“The verdict is in,” says Josh Edgin – The AOM was clearly “the right thing to do.”

Successful implementations are known to spread organically throughout an organization. Well beyond the group that launched the transformation. Edgin says this has already begun at John Deere.

“One of our Agile coaches was asked to go down to the factory floor and work with one of the factory teams. They had tremendous success.”

Global IT Vice President Ganesh Jayaram sees “The fact that Agile has made it into the vernacular of the broader company,” as one of his favorite signs of success.

Research and development, manufacturing, human resources, are all areas where he believes the AOM can help drive beneficial outcomes. “You can transform any function,” says Jayaram, “You have a backlog, you prioritize, you become customer-centric.” That, he says, would be the AOM’s biggest win.

As a company, John Deere’s higher purpose is clear: We run so life can leap forward. The Global IT group is positioned to help achieve that purpose for decades to come.

Update: On May 31st, 2022, Ganesh Jayaram was appointed the Chief Information Officer at John Deere. 

How John Deere’s Global IT Group Implemented a Holistic Transformation Powered by Scrum@Scale, Scrum, DevOps, and a Modernized Technology Stack

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From Fortune 100 companies to the newest start-ups, Scrum Inc. enables companies to transform into self-sustaining Agile enterprises.  How can we help you? Schedule a consultation by filling out the form below or call us at 617-225-4326.

• Making multiple Product Owners work in Scrum: A case study

By Nick Butler

Tags : Agile , Development

You know Scrum specifies having a single Product Owner but you’re considering having more. To help you decide, this case study shows why New Zealand’s National Library went for multiple Product Owners and how they make it work.

The case study is part of our Product Owner primer series. It follows on from our ‘ What is Scrum? ’ and ‘Successful Scrum Teams’ posts.

Make a bigger impact by mastering the Product Owner role in Scrum

We’ve expanded and revised our Product Owner Primer posts into one handy 100-page PDF. Boost’s Guide to being a Kickass Product Owner is your one-stop guide to Product Owner success.

Buy the Guide now

The National Library is tasked with helping Kiwis capitalise on the collective knowledge of the nation. Within National Library, DigitalNZ was set up to make New Zealand’s digital content easier to find, share and use.

Both National Library and DigitalNZ have their own websites providing access to catalogues, collections, services and other resources.

Boost are the National Library’s development partner. We provide their Scrum Masters and Development Teams. They currently have two Scrum Teams. Each of these Scrum Teams has one Scrum Master, three or four developers and, contrary to Scrum doctrine, at least three Product Owners.

Why Scrum dictates a single Product Owner

According to the Scrum Guide “the Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog”. The Guide is specific: “The Product Owner is one person, not a committee.”

That’s because having a committee reduces transparency and slows inspection and adaptation. The Backlog describes the priorities for the work but having multiple Product Owners can muddy priorities. With multiple Product Owners you have no single source of truth so it’s not always clear who to talk to. And a committee is less likely to give quick feedback, slowing work down.

“It’s very hard to listen to multiple voices,” says Rebecca Jones, Boost Scrum Master for our National Library work.

So if you’re going to have multiple Product Owners, you need to make sure you do it in a way that maintains transparency and aids inspection and adaptation.

The problem: Scaling up for large ongoing projects

National Library had more work than one Product Owner could manage and still spend time in the business. Spending that time gives Product Owners the crucial understanding of customer needs.

“If we had one Product Owner, they would spend all their time being a Product Owner, creating stories, sizing stories, doing refinement. Eventually, they’d become disconnected with the actual business that they were supposed to be the Product Owner for,” says James Robertson, DigitalNZ Systems Manager.

The context: Why multiple Product Owners might work

The National Library work had particular features that fed into their decision to use multiple Product Owners.

Continuous value stream for an established product

The DigitalNZ and National Library websites and tools already exist. In fact they are the product of literally hundreds of Sprints. The work now is more a continuous value stream than a discrete series of projects.

In a post on scaling the Product Owner, product ownership expert Roman Pichler says new products should have a single Product Owner but established products can need more. Young products need rapid decisions as you adapt to the large amounts you learn from getting them in front of customers. A single Product Owner is best-suited to this. Mature products grow and require more development than one person can stay on top of. At the same time, they tend to change less, and less often, reducing the potential drag caused by shared decision-making.

If you have a discrete pieces of work you’ll often want to split those off into separate projects. Indeed this is what the National Library did when they wanted to refresh their Any Questions website for example.

Because it’s an established project, the National Library have a team experienced in Scrum. When James started a few years ago the team had processes in place to make having multiple Product Owners work. But it would be much harder to set up these processes with a green team working on a greenfields project.

Clear split of responsibilities

For the National Library, the current state of play involves two Scrum Teams. One of these is for the National Library site and services, the other for DigitalNZ. Both Scrum Teams have multiple Product Owners, each responsible for a different stream of the work.

Take the DigitalNZ Scrum Team for example. Product ownership is effectively split between three Product Owners like this:

• Rowan: DigitalNZ website and service — the features, functionality and usability of the website itself
• Dan: Supplejack collection aggregation API — Supplejack harvests content for the DigitalNZ website
• James: Infrastructure — servers and core software that the applications sit on top of

“Having split Product Owners works because we have split the products clearly,” James says. “It’s quite clear to the team who’s responsible for which area, so there is never any question about who to talk to.”

Constrained budget

If you have this kind of clear split, one option is to have one Scrum Team for each stream. The downside is that each team needs a Scrum Master and ideally at least three developers. This can cost more money. If you can afford it, consider this approach. You will need to invest a bit of time in coordinating the different teams but this should be less work than the constant coordination required when you combine Scrum Product Owners within a single team.

Making multiple Product Owners work

Here’s how the National Library have made having multiple Product Owners work.

Set up a Super Product Owner

Initially the National Library had one “super Product Owner”, what Mike Cohn calls a Chief Product Owner .

“He had oversight over all the different streams of work and would ensure that everything had appropriate level of business value relative to cost, and that we were getting the right blend of work from the different streams,” says James.

“He’d look at the backlog for the next sprint before it came out, discuss it with the various Product Owners, perhaps tweak the priority order, or question whether a story should be done now, or done at all. It was a way of managing that natural tension between different people wanting to get their own way.”

Then organisational responsibilities changed and this was no longer possible.

Use budgets to share development effort

In order to continue giving each stream a fair share of the development effort, each Product Owner now has their own budget and they decide on the priorities for spending that budget.

Using budgets in this way is a bit of a blunt tool so the Product Owners have some flexibility to juggle the work.

Coordinate, communicate, collaborate

Making multiple Product Owners work needs an extra level of coordination, communication and collaboration.

The National Library Product Owners discuss and coordinate their work internally as well as with the team.

“The Product Owners support each other as a team and put effort into working well together,” Scrum Master Rebecca says. “Because they work very closely they understand each other’s priorities. They’ll talk about it as a group first and decide what the overarching business priorities are before they push their own work.”

“You have to be a bit adaptable,” James says, “you have to understand that you’re not the only king in the room.”

You do spend some time twiddling your thumbs in meetings while the other Product Owners discuss their work with the team.

“That’s a pretty minor downside,” he says, “and the advantage is that the Product Owners are aware of what other work is going on.”

James also says it’s best if you don’t weigh in too often on work for the other Product Owners.

“Learning to bite your tongue is reasonably important,” he says.

Like Boost, the National Library team are mainly in Wellington, but some of the Product Owners are also based in other cities.

“The extra communication’s made fairly easy by the online tools that we use, like Slack and appear.in .” James says.

Spend time with the team

A lot of this collaboration happens naturally as a result of all the Product Owners coming along to all the Scrum Events.

Along with Sprint Planning and Refinement, Retrospectives and Reviews, they all also join the Daily Scrum. For those in Wellington, this often means appearing in person. For those outside Welly, it’s via video conference.

Both Scrum Teams come together for a combined Review. This gives everyone insight into the all the work and offers additional perspectives for feedback. It’s also a chance for the whole crew to celebrate the impact the teams have had, the benefits delivered to the National Library and the people of New Zealand.

Knowing that face-to-face communication works best, the Product Owners are also looking to spend more time in person here at Boost.

Be available

Because the Product Owners also work in the business they’re not full time. That means they have to make a special effort to be available, to check stories that are up for acceptance and to respond to questions. It’s a bit of a juggling act.

Adapt the Backlog

For the National Library work we use Pivotal Tracker as our digital tool for managing the Backlog, along with a physical Scrum board. We have a single Backlog for all the work of each of the Scrum Teams, meaning each Backlog contains stories for multiple Product Owners.

Each story specifies which Product Owner was the Requester so the developers always know who to talk to about the story.

Tags on the stories identify which budget stream will be billed.

Deliver value

Spreading stories amongst three streams might make it harder to deliver a potentially shippable product.

For this work, most stories deliver value straight away. That’s because the Definition of Done means that each story is fully tested and integrated into the existing project, and because few of the stories are dependent on other work to be released.

When one stream has a chunk of work that can only deliver value if a number of large stories are completed in a Sprint, the Product Owners can juggle the amount of work for each stream to enable this.

Other benefits from having multiple Product Owners

The Product Owners get additional benefits beyond being able to spend time in the business:

• Specialisation — They get to become more of an expert in their stream than they could if their attention was spread across streams.
• Shared load — They don’t need to come up with a Sprint’s worth of stories on their own.
• Wider view of the business — Working on day-to-day basis with their fellow Product Owners gives them a broader view of the business context than they’d have if they were in a separate team.
• Some cover during absences — Because the team keep up with each other’s work they can sometime check stories or answer questions, though their specialisations limit this.

Other impacts from having multiple Product Owners

With extra Product Owners, everyone has to work extra hard to keep meetings within their timeboxes. Having multiple Product Owners can also affect different team members in different ways.

Impacts on the Development Team

While Product Owners can specialise, a cross-functional development team needs to be able to work on all the streams.

“Having three different streams getting fed through one team means there’s quite a lot of context-switching for people, which can be a challenge for efficiency. Some devs prefer to get in the headspace of just one type of work and stick to that for at least a Sprint,” James says. “Other devs have said the opposite, that they actually enjoy the variety.”

“Within the team, they have the opportunity to manage themselves. If one person feels like they’ll benefit from working exclusively on this stream of work, then as long as their teammates are happy with that, then we’re happy with that.”

Impacts on the Scrum Master

Rebecca has found very few issues as Scrum Master.

“It’s just a couple more relationships to build, a bit more admin, just making sure that everybody can attend the meetings,” she says. “It’s also harder sometimes when Product Owners are remote, making them feel engaged.”

“It feels like we’re one team,” she says. “That’s because I trust that they trust each other.”

Thinking of having multiple Product Owners?

You should probably think again.

Often organisations are tempted to have multiple Product Owners for reasons that don’t fit with the Scrum framework, such as giving stakeholders a say in the work.

“Ask yourself, ‘Do we absolutely need multiple Product Owners?’. I would say most of the time you don’t,” Rebecca says.

But if you can’t work without having multiple Product Owners, we hope this case study helps you do it in a way that gives the impact you’re looking for.

The Product Owner Primer

• What is Scrum?
• Six signs of a successful Scrum Team
• Working with stakeholders in Scrum
• Product discovery for Scrum Product Owners
• User stories in Scrum
• The Scrum Product Owner role summarised

Agile training

In New Zealand and keen to get to grips with Scrum and the Agile mindset? Check out our Agile training:

Agile Professional Foundation certification, Wellington, NZ  – two-day ICAgile course

Introduction to Agile methodology, Wellington, NZ  – free two-hour workshop

Agile Accelerator team assessment  – Agile review and action plan

Scaling the Product Owner role — Roman Pichler

The Chief Product Owner on Large Agile Projects — Mike Cohn

Product ownership is a team sport — Boost blog

The Product Owner’s guide to working with developers — Boost blog

From good to great product ownership — Boost blog

Here are some other posts you might enjoy

Six signs of a successful Scrum Team: The Product Owner primer

Find out what you can do as a Product Owner to build a successful Scrum Team, deliver maximum value and make a bigger impact.

Three digital technology tips to save not for profits money

A not for profit wants to maximise outcomes and minimise overheads. Learn three ways to get the most from your digital technology dollar.

Make a bigger impact tomorrow

Want to Make Better Products? Build Better Case Studies With This Method.

Case studies are one of the most useful items in the product management toolkit. To build effective ones, you need to follow a simple but vital set of guidelines.

Robert Cialdini’s book Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion , first released in 1984,  popularized the concept of social proof. This phenomenon consists of individuals copying the actions of others around them in order to acclimate to a system. People are subconsciously influenced by the behavior of other people within a given environment. Although this idea is simple, Cialdini’s book radically changed my mind with respect to how I interacted with the content that my product team and I produced.

Why was this theory so profound? Well, the book helped me understand why people were ignoring almost everything that we gave them. As it turned out, everything that we wrote was focused on ourselves and not on our customers. 

We weren’t influencing. Instead, we were just talking. 

Cialdini’s work gave a conceptual framework to something that the best marketers already subconsciously knew: Nothing sells better than reflecting the customer’s own actions back at them. 

For example, say you want to buy a shirt.  Which of these pitches is more likely to make you buy?

Option A: This shirt is made of polyester, washes well and makes you look professional.

Option B: This shirt is built for the product manager on the go. When you’re sweating the details and pacifying the battle between sales and engineering, you’ll want a shirt that stays tucked in as you rush from meeting to meeting. 

Option B draws on social proof to reflect actions that you’ve experienced back at you. 

Product management (PdM) is about helping the team improve decision fitness. That includes how we influence our customers to use our products, especially if we’re confident that our product is the right one for them. Social proof helps us accomplish this goal. 

Before we can use social proof, however, we need a way to get the information that we want to reflect back to the customer.  In other words, how do we come to see the world as our customers see it? How might we put ourselves in their headspace?

Sure, you can scan different websites, browse social media, or even look at your competitors to see what they’re doing. With any of these strategies, however, you’re only getting part of the picture. Like almost anything dealing with product development, talking to your customer directly is going to get the best results.  

So, for PdMs to get the data they need to gather social proof and understand how customers see the world, we can rely on case studies. Let’s talk about what exactly these are and how you can use them to help you influence your customers and help other teams, like product marketing and sales, make better decisions.

3 Key Steps To Building a Product Case Study

• Make an outline.
• Ask the right questions.
• Analyze carefully.

More Product Advice From Adam Thomas How To Improve Your Product Research

What Is a Case Study?

For our purposes, a case study is an in-depth conversation aimed at understanding how a customer uses our product. We want to get to know who they are, why they use our product, and the context in which they use it.

This technique is how you get inside of your customer’s head. When you have multiple, deep customer conversations over a period of time, you’ll get a better understanding of what drives them. You’ll also be able to target your marketing so that it makes sense to them.

How Do You Build Case Studies?

Building case studies is no different than doing any other interview .  When conducting a proactive conversion with customers, you need to understand what you want, use open-ended questions, and analyze everything carefully.

Make an Outline

You can go in a bunch of different directions when you talk to your customers. In fact, if you’re like most PdMs, this is an easy trap to fall into. Everything that the customer says may seem like gold, and it’s easy to follow any string in hopes of chasing down an insight. 

So, how do you avoid that trap? You’ll need to write an outline to keep yourself on track. A case study outline is simple and has three components. 

Hypothesis. You need a clear hypothesis whenever you talk to a customer. What question are you trying to answer by talking to the customer? Why are they important? Note this information upfront, and derive the questions from the hypothesis. Consider it your anchor.

Goal. What type of assets are you planning to create from this interview? Who wants this information? Having this in the form of an aligning statement, something that helps the team know what you are looking for and what you want to build, will help with analysis. Do it now so you won’t have to think about it later.

Questions. These are based on both the hypothesis and the goal. 

Those three components will help you avoid the trap of letting the interviews meander. Now, let’s talk a little bit more about those questions. 

Ask the Right Questions

Your question set should be short, with no more than five max.

You want to follow up on your initial questions to get as many stories as possible. If you have more than five, you risk letting the interview get rigid since you’ll feel pressured to get to as many questions as possible. Further, asking fewer questions will make sure you have some uniformity to the answers.

Even though you’re just asking a few questions, you’ll want to keep them open-ended.  An open-ended question like “Walk me through your shirt purchase. What drove this decision?” is better than “Did you like our service?” The latter could too easily elicit just a yes or no response while the former invites the customer to provide more detail.

You want to have a free-flowing conversation, which means focusing on the customer. Conversations are going to give you the information you need to build that social proof. Once you’ve acquired that information, you can analyze the material and create the case study. 

Analyze Carefully

Before conducting an analysis, make sure you sit with these conversations for a while. 

Take the time to find good quotations that are interesting and align with your values by transcribing the interviews. Check to see if the language in your marketing materials matches how your customers talk. The closer your work matches their worldview, the more they will trust the product.

This process may seem simple at first. As you start to put this plan into action, however, you’ll see how much data you can collect and how closely you can tailor your product to match the mental model of your customers.

You’ll eventually be able to see if the plan is working when you make changes and hear from the customer again. The next time you talk to them, you want to hear something along the lines of, “Your [page/feature/tool] described my issue exactly, and that’s why I bought the product.”

Build Artifacts To Put Case Studies to Work

When you have the data from the interviews, you’ll be able to build artifacts that match your customer’s mental model.

What are some artifacts that can come from doing a case study?

Testimonials. These are short-form statements, usually a paragraph or less, that come directly from the customer and attest to the value of your product or service. During the interview, the customer may offer a bite-sized anecdote that sums up a feature or your product in a helpful way. These statements are great to use on a sales or product page to give your work more credibility.

Articles. These interviews create the kernel of an article for your writers. If your team has a blog, use it to underscore the high points that customers report or spotlight a particularly well-liked feature. Writing an article based on the case study conversation can help customers see, in a more relaxed context, how your product will work for them.

White Papers. A white paper is a one-page selling document highlighting the technical side of a product. For more technical products, you must give potential custoemrs a look at how the product functions in a more structured, quasi-academic format. Your case studies will allow your team to write a white paper by giving you anchor points led by the customer. 

Customers want to tell their stories. When your product is great, rest assured they are doing it anyway. Most of the time, they are happy to spend time with you and your team and give you good feedback. More importantly, you’ll get the social proof you need to stand above the rest of the marketplace.

Recent Product Analytics Articles

What is a Product Owner?

The accountabilities of the product owner.

As described in the Scrum Guide , a Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team. How this is done may vary widely across organizations, Scrum Teams and individuals. 

As a member of the Scrum Team, the Product Owner provides clarity to the team about a product’s vision and goal. All work is derived and prioritized based on the Product Goal in order to deliver value to all stakeholders including those within their organization and all users both inside and out. Product Owners identify, measure and maximize value throughout the entire product's lifecycle.

What does a Product Owner do?

The Product Owner is accountable for effective Product Backlog management, which includes:

• Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal
• Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog Items
• Ordering Product Backlog Items
• Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood

The Product Owner may do this work or delegate the responsibility to others on the Scrum Team. Regardless of who does the work, the Product Owner remains accountable for it being accomplished and for the value delivered .

Far beyond Product Backlog management, it is critical for the Product Owner to earn the respect of the entire organization in order to get the support they need for the decisions they make. This is key to a Product Owner’s success. These decisions need to be transparent in the Product Backlog, and through the Increment of work shared at the Sprint Review .

Remember, the Product Owner is one person, not a committee. They also represent the needs of many stakeholders in the Product Backlog. If someone in the organization wants a change in the Product Backlog, they need to discuss this with the Product Owner and try to convince them. But at the end of the day, the Product Owner makes the decision . The Product Owner should also be getting feedback from customers on the product. 

Product Owner Stances

The Accountabilities of the Product Owner can often be interpreted incorrectly as well and there are several misunderstood stances that are patterns that have been seen within organizations, which include the Product Owner being viewed as the Story Writer, Project Manager, Subject Matter Expert, Clerk, Gatekeeper or Manager.

Learning Opportunities for Product Owners

There are many ways to learn as a Product Owner, from courses to certifications and also our Product Owner Learning Path for self study. Explore these opportunities:

Learning Path

Certifications

What did you think about this content?

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20 Product Owner Interview Questions and Answers

You should approach a product owner interview from several perspectives. The acceptance criteria should be based on the candidate’s decision-making and communication skills, prioritization abilities, technical experience, and more. The business value associated with a great product owner is massive as they are responsible for several deliverables that make successful products.

The value of the product depends on how well the product life cycle is planned and implemented. And that success depends on how well the product owner’s vision and  roadmap  are designed.

Therefore, it’s key to ask the right product owner interview questions. Conduct follow-up interviews if you’re not satisfied, but make sure you make the right decision.

Here are some of the common and most important questions you should ask  prospective product owners . We will divide the questions into segments:

Segment 1: Product Owner Role

These questions are meant to get a grasp of the candidate’s understanding of the job responsibilities.

1. What do you expect from this job as a product owner?

The question is supposed to be an opening question that lets the candidate provide an overview of their exposure. It would tell you how prepared the candidate is for the interview and how much of an expert they are in their field.

Each answer to this question will be different depending on the industry, company, and products. However, there are some commonalities you should look for. A few keywords you should be looking for include: sprint planning meetings, sprint retrospective, grooming, and sprint review. If the candidate mentions these activities, you know they have the relevant knowledge and experience.

2. Do you think it’s a good idea to have one person performing both the Scrum Product Owner role and the Scrum Master role?

It’s essential to get an idea of how well the candidate understands the entire  product development process . This question is the best way to figure out how well the candidate understands their role compared to other roles.

Unless the candidate has a really good explanation, the answer should be “no”.  Scrum masters and product owners  have different responsibilities, and mixing them will always hurt the development process. The Scrum Master acts as a mediator between the product owner and the development team. Therefore, if the same person plays both roles, a conflict of interest would arise.

3. Do you have experience working with a Scrum framework?

Every product owner needs to have a basic understanding of the Scrum framework. The answer to this question will give you an idea of how well the candidate understands the framework. Their knowledge of the framework can be a baseline for what you can expect from the product owner.

Answering the question would be different for every product owner, but a few elements should remain the same. For example, Scrum is an incremental way of providing value to the end-user promptly. The answer should revolve around this particular statement.

Furthermore, if the product owner describes the origin of the agile framework, that’s even better. The candidate should also mention the three fundamental roles that come along with it. To be more specific, they should understand the product owner, Scrum team, and the Scrum Master role.

4. What other product discovery frameworks have you worked with?

Scrum is the most widely used  Agile  software development framework, but that doesn’t mean it is the best model for every situation.

If the potential product owner has experience with Kanban or Waterfall, for example, that’s going to help them make a judgment of the best approach to take in each circumstance. If you’re interested in learning more about these frameworks, consider taking our Product Owner Certification Course.

Segment 2: Engagement with External Stakeholders

The following questions help the hiring managers understand the level of experience that candidates have in conducting interviews and getting feedback from users.

5. Who do you consider to be the most important product stakeholder?

One of the most important things to establish is whether the product owner understands whom they’re targeting. Their job requires them to understand the internal and external stakeholders and develop the product accordingly.

The agile product development process has various key stakeholders. Some of them are:

• Professionals
• Key decision-makers

The potential product owner must understand that each stakeholder plays a key role in the process and why each of those stakeholders is important to interact with. Furthermore, it’s a plus point if they can explain how each stakeholder contributes to the process.

6. How much time do you give to understanding customer needs and user research during product discovery?

A basic understanding of the product discovery phase is essential, however, it’s more important to find out the product owner’s process. Their way of doing things and their rationalization tells you how well they understand the entire process.

The answer to the question tends to be different depending on the company or product. Typically, if someone says they dedicate 50% of their time to conducting user research and understanding a user story, that’s a positive sign. However, if they say that they spend 20% or less time, they’re not doing enough. They might be ignoring customer feedback and market conditions.

Segment 3: Leveraging Internal Stakeholders

Working with different internal stakeholders is also a big piece of the product owner’s role. The following questions give recruiters an idea of the level of familiarity that candidates have in this aspect.

7. How do you deal with uncooperative stakeholders?

Understanding the product owner’s process includes determining how they deal with issues and roadblocks. Many times, product owners have to face uncooperative stakeholders, and that puts a bump in the discovery phase. While each person has a different way of dealing with these bumps, product owners always have to be diplomatic in the end.

The answer should involve a diplomatic solution where the product owner would continually engage with the stakeholders to win their confidence. The product owner should demonstrate the value of agile software development processes and continue discussions. If all else fails, they should seek help from the sponsors.

8. Do you have experience working in a Scrum Team?

A product owner should be able to distinguish different roles and teams involved in product and scrum development teams. Most product owners have experience working in a Scrum product team, but not all of them.

Scrum teams are generally composed of the product owner, Scrum Master, and developers. They work together on sprint measures, product requirements, and user stories. The development team’s work also includes coding, developing, and testing.

9. How do you explain your marketplace knowledge to the Scrum team?

While the product owner has the marketplace knowledge needed to develop a product vision, the rest of the team doesn’t. It’s the product owner’s job to communicate the appropriate marketplace knowledge to the Scrum team. The answer to this question determines the candidate’s ability to communicate that knowledge successfully.

Traditionally, marketplace knowledge is communicated through informal interactions. However, planning meetings and having formal discussions, such as standup, is also a great way of explaining current market trends to the entire Scrum team.

10. How do you go about updating the team on the product and market situation? Where do you source information?

One of the crucial parts of a product owner’s job is to make the team aware of any changing market demands and priorities. Since the product owner develops the vision, it’s their job to make sure everyone else understands it too. The question allows the candidate to not only explain the process but also what information is most important.

The answer should be more team-oriented and should exemplify the team’s importance. It should emphasize the importance of being on the same page so that the product is developed successfully. Furthermore, the answer should include what information you should relay to the teams. That can consist of changing market situations, backlog changes, changing priorities, and new product requirements.

Segment 4: Product Roadmap Planning

These questions will allow candidates to speak more in-depth about their skills in the field.

11. How would you redesign our product?

The first step in designing or redesigning a product is to build a strategic roadmap. Candidates should answer this question with a brief outline of the steps they would take.

This starts with understanding what exactly needs improvement on the product. That happens through internal and external communication — with customers, engineers, customer support team, and other stakeholders.

After the entire team is on the same page, technical product owners would work with the engineering team to develop unique features that add value to users. That usually happens through processes guided by a product owner or project manager.

12. Tell me about the last time you developed a product roadmap.

The product roadmap is perhaps the most critical step when developing a product. The best way to gauge a product owner’s ability to do their job is to see how they handle product roadmap development.

The answer to the question will vary based on the candidate’s exposure and expertise. For example, in smaller organizations, the product owner is likely to be directly involved in the development of the product roadmap. In larger organizations, product owners would only provide their input. In any case, the experienced product owner would take feedback with every release and cross-check it with the product backlog. They would analyze every feature and design to check whether the roadmap is developed correctly. If the candidate mentions how it’s essential to follow the Cone of Uncertainty, their answer is a success.

13. How do you use the product vision when building a product roadmap?

This question helps the recruiter to understand if the candidate has a thorough knowledge of the product development cycle — from the product vision to the product launch.

The product vision includes the purpose, image, and values a product has. It explains why the product exists and what purpose it will serve for the customer. The product roadmap should be based on product vision. It is a blueprint of how the vision will be achieved. It includes growth tactics, stakeholder management and alignment tactics, budget development, a timeline, goals, milestones, and deliverables in development.

14. Tell me about the last time that a stakeholder’s feedback affected your product roadmap.

Various stakeholders tend to suggest or desire some changes for the product. The product owner has to satisfy every product stakeholder to ensure product success and customer satisfaction. This question is a test to see how the candidate would handle stakeholder desires.

The right answer would be to coordinate and collaborate with the stakeholders while planning the product roadmap. The product owner would seek the stakeholders’ input and feedback while defining backlog items. Continuous discussions and constant collaboration are the keys to ensuring stakeholder wishes are taken care of.

Segment 5: User Stories and Product Backlog

User stories and product backlogs are both crucial parts of product and software development. The following questions are meant to give candidates the chance to demonstrate their experience with these aspects of product development.

15. What should a good user story look like?

This question is meant to check the candidate’s knowledge of a user story’s structure.

The product owner is the face of the customer. They are the ones who understand the customer or client best. They must know what a product needs to be successful. That gives them the power to control the release of user stories because they see the result of it.

16. How do you go about backlog prioritization?

Backlog prioritization is essential to make sure the right features make it into the final product, and of course, to avoid technical debt. This question will show whether the candidate is capable of effectively prioritizing changes to existing product features, to new features launch, and bug fixes.

The best outcome will be if the candidate mentions the Moscow method. However, if someone mentions and explains Stack Ranking, that would be a good indicator of success too.

17. What would you do if you were unable to control the product backlog?

A product owner should have absolute control over the product backlog items. It’s their job to make sure that the product backlog management is healthy and updated. Therefore, recruiters should expect a product owner to have confidence when it comes to the product backlog.

But this question will show how candidates would handle adversities in the job. It would also show how they would go about relying on their co-workers and managers.

Segment 6: Sprint Planning and Implementation

In an Agile team, a sprint is a set period during which specific work has to be completed and made ready for review. If candidates know how to effectively plan, organize, and implement a sprint, chances are that they will be successful in the job.

18. Sprint planning requires a lot of resources. Should you release all of them?

Asking this question would tell hiring managers whether the potential product owner understands the difference between sprint planning and release planning.

Prospect product owners should know that you don’t have to release every sprint. Product deployment is a planning activity and can be based on every sprint. Product release is purely a business and strategic activity. Development teams will create the products, but any future decisions are business decisions. Those decisions are made along with the product manager.

19. How would you explain what is a sprint to someone who doesn’t have experience in product development?

Explaining what a sprint is to someone who doesn’t have familiarity with Agile development is not an easy task. Candidates who don’t have much experience leading sprints will likely use a few industry jargon while candidates with strong familiarity with product development will be able to explain a sprint using simple words.

Ideally, the answer would highlight the fact that sprints are short and protected from external changes. This interview question also allows recruiters to evaluate the candidate’s ability to communicate with different audiences.

20. What do you think that justifies canceling a sprint?

It’s crucial to figure out how the candidate would treat sprints. This question will tell you how dedicated the product owner will be to each sprint.

The right answer would be that a cancellation only occurs when there’s a drastic change in priorities. For example, if some critical requirements with high priority are suddenly marked as low priority, there would be no point in continuing further. Most importantly, the product owner can only make a call to cancel the sprint; they do not have absolute power to do so.

Acing Product Owner Interview Questions

A product owner’s job is complicated and requires a lot of knowledge and expertise. As a consequence, finding the right candidate to perform the job is not easy.

Hiring a great product owner is essential as they are masterminds of successful products. For both product managers and owners, it’s important to have the right expertise and knowledge when you’re applying for the job.

The product owner interview questions listed above are common questions asked by recruiters.

If you need to put together effective interview questions, feel free to use these questions as inspiration. If you’re on the other side of the table — looking into landing a PO job — make sure you can answer these questions with confidence.

Here are answers to the questions regarding a product owner role:

How to prepare for an interview for a Product Owner?

To prepare for a Product Owner interview, thoroughly understand Agile and Scrum methodologies, focusing on the Product Owner role. Review key concepts such as backlog management, user stories, and stakeholder communication. Practice articulating your experience in prioritizing tasks, defining product visions, and delivering value to customers through iterative development.

How do you clear a Product Owner interview?

To clear a Product Owner interview, demonstrate a deep understanding of product management principles and Agile practices. Showcase your ability to prioritize the product backlog, create clear and concise user stories, and effectively communicate with stakeholders. Provide specific examples of how you have successfully launched products or features and how you’ve handled challenges in previous roles.

What are the three main responsibilities of product owners?

• The Product Owner is responsible for creating, prioritizing, and maintaining the product backlog to ensure the team works on the most valuable features first.
• The Product Owner defines and communicates the product vision and roadmap, aligning it with customer needs and business objectives to guide the development team’s efforts.
• They act as the primary liaison between stakeholders and the development team, ensuring clear communication of the product vision, goals, and priorities.

Why should we hire you as a Product Owner?

Here’s how to answer this question:

“You should hire me as a Product Owner because I bring a strong track record of successfully managing product backlogs, delivering high-value features, and effectively collaborating with cross-functional teams. My deep understanding of Agile principles and customer-centric approach ensures that the products I oversee meet market needs and business goals. Additionally, my excellent communication and problem-solving skills enable me to bridge the gap between stakeholders and the product development team well, driving successful product outcomes.

Specialization in Product Ownership Analysis

Product ownership analysis empowers business analysis professionals with the standards, practices, techniques, and competencies to keep pace with the agile approach while creating value. .

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Product Ownership Analysis - What You Need to Know

Guide to product ownership analysis.

As organizations transition from project-centric models to a product-centric view, it is important to understand how product ownership is evolving and how business analysis professionals can drive the delivery of successful products.

Key Features Include: 

• Integrating product ownership and business analysis 
• Understanding roles and responsibilities in product management 
• Applying Agile and product ownership analysis 
• More than 50 case study examples
• Over 25 techniques for applying POA 

Uncover the framework, context, techniques, and competencies that can give you an advantage.  

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Product Ownership and Business Analysis

Successful product owners need business analysis skills.

What is Product Ownership Analysis? Product Ownership Analysis is a discipline that can be used to assist teams in creating and delivering exceptional products and services for their customers. It empowers Business Analysis professionals with standards, practices, techniques and competencies to create value.​

According to  IIBA’s 2020 Global Business Analysis Salary Survey , Business Analysis responsibilities including  process development, analysis, testing etc. support product ownership work. 

Integrating Business Analysis and Product Ownership Analysis

Did you know:​.

Respondents of IIBA’s Salary Survey indicated they are spending 31% of their time performing product owner related work. And 36% of respondents are looking to transition from a Business Analyst role to a Product Owner role.​ ​ Gain more valuable insights in IIBA's infographic.​

Product Success Starts with Analysis

What makes Product Ownership so vital to the success of a product or service? What are the tools, techniques or processes that help a Product Owner? Are there business analysis competencies that can give you an advantage?

Learn more in this short overview video with Delvin Fletcher, President and CEO, IIBA® as he shares his insights.

Certificate in Product Ownership Analysis  (IIBA ® -CPOA)

Iiba’s product ownership analysis certification program recognizes the integration of business analysis and product ownership with an agile mindset to maximizing value. the program provides the opportunity to acquire essential concepts needed to create successful products..

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Here's What People Are Saying About #ProductOwner

Analyst catalyst blog & product ownership.

Product Ownership Blog Series, Part 1: Value Stream Mapping and Collaborative Games

January 19, 2021

A Product Owner is primarily responsible for managing the product backlog, though they may delegate that task to the Development Team.

Product Ownership Blog Series, Part 2: Getting Good at User Story Mapping and Minimum Viable Product

January 26, 2021

Every Agile team has a Product Owner, which is one of the three roles defined by the Scrum Guide. Sometimes the individual in this role is a business analysis professional. 

Product Ownership Blog Series, Part 3: Discovering Vertical Slicing and Behavior-Driven Development

February 2, 2021

In each of our blog posts in the series, we’ve been explaining Agile techniques Product Owners can implement and providing practical tips for those in this role, or those who hope to one day to become a Product Owner. 

Product Ownership Blog Series, Part 4: Getting Familiar with User Stories and Job Stories

February 9, 2021

User Stories and Job Stories are Agile techniques every Product Owner should understand. Here’s why.

Business Analysis Specialization

Business analysis professionals come from many different backgrounds and fulfill different needs to deliver the best business outcome for their organization. find the resources you need for best practices and specializations relevant to business analysis in today’s transformative world..