Anastasiia Khait: Building Product Passion: Empowering Development Teams through "Know Your Product" Initiative (UA) UA Online PMDay 2024 Spring Website – www.pmday.org/online Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/startuplviv FB – https://www.facebook.com/pmdayconference

1. Building product passion:
empowering development
teams through the “Know
Your Product” initiative
April 27, 2024
UA Online PMDay

2. Anastasiia Khait
● Product Owner and Senior Business
Analyst at an InsurTech product-led
company.
● Mentor on the ADPList and Mentory V Tylu
platforms.
● Member of the British Computer Society
(BCS).
● Head of Business Analysis at London Tech
Community.

3. Agenda
1. Understanding and bridging the gap.
2. Superpower of product people.
3. "Know Your Product" initiative – what is it?
4. How to prepare for the session?
5. How and when to conduct the session?
6. What outcomes to expect?

4. Does my development team
understand their impact on the
product,
or how to spot the gap?

5. Signs of the gap
1. Delivered functionalities don’t meet clients’ expectations.
2. You have difficulty in aligning sprint or milestone priorities with a team or
its leader.
3. Developers and QAs don’t ask questions during refinement and planning
meetings.
4. The team constantly underestimates the scope of the features.
5. Occurence of scope creep after feature implementation.
6. Team focuses on story points and closed tickets rather than delivered
capabilities.

6. Lost in translation

7. Understanding the gap
● Lack of clear company and
product vision.
● Limited access to stakeholders.
● Poor communication.
● Focus on technical aspects.
● Lack of empowerment.

8. Bridging the gap, or what is within your power?
● Lack of clear vision.
● Limited access to stakeholders.
● Poor communication.
● Focus on technical aspects.
● Lack of empowerment.

9. Your superpower!
Access to the source of
information
Global vision
Easy plain business
language

10. If the current approach doesn’t help, take the initiative.
It’s never too late!

11. Know Your Product
- periodical knowledge sharing sessions on product capabilities with deep
immersion into the business context and usage + the “as is” vs “to be”
system analysis aligned to up-to-date product vision.

12. Where to start?
1. Define the product perimeter you want to
cover.
2. Divide it into logical areas.
3. Establish the order.
4. Select the area of the highest priority.
5. Conduct a set of calls to cover this logical
area from the business and system
perspective.
6. Collect feedback and additional questions.
7. React to the outcomes from step 6.
8. Take the area next by priority and repeat
steps 5-7.
Practical tips

13. Format of the session
Suggestion: use whatever format that works for your particular team!
My preference:
a combination of slides
and a demo on an
environment or
prototypes.

14. Contents
1. Business meaning and need.
2. Who uses it and how often?
3. Status (done, partially done, pre-planned,
postponed).
4. Logic. How it works or is supposed to
work.
5. Live or pre-recorded demo.
6. List of requirements artifacts.
Your granny should
understand how it works!

15. When, how often, how long?
When: during refinement OR prior to refinement OR not
aligned with refinement.
How often: once in a sprint or more often (if you need to
cover this logical area prior to delivery).
How long: 1-1.5 hours.

16. Be prepared to:
1. Listen to feedback.
2. Answer a lot of questions.
3. Repeat several times.

17. Outcomes
1. All team members are on the same page.
2. No exclusive knowledge keepers.
3. Team involvement during an implementation cycle.
4. Better team collaboration.
5. Better quality of refinement and delivery.
6. Less scope creep.
7. Increased personal motivation and individual impact on the product
within the team.

18. Thank you for your attention!
Feel free to connect on LinkedIn: