What’s a day in the life like for a DIO Product Manager?
By Hajar Amidian
For this next post in our “Day in the Life” series, I had the opportunity to virtually meet with Gabe, one of the amazing product manager that has been working with the DIO for the past two years.
This interview has been edited for length.
HA: What does a typical day look like for you as a product manager?
GP: I generally start my day off catching up on emails and doing some Sprint backlog maintenance, prepping a presentation, or maybe researching a new idea that I’m exploring. Then I’ll head into the office, which nowadays is usually my kitchen table!
I usually attend the fifteen minute daily stand up with the Aboriginal Consultation Office (ACO) digital product team. We check in with each other and talk about what we’re working on that day. This also gives us an opportunity to have that personal connection, since we’re all working remotely now. After stand up, I usually spend some time meeting with individual team members to address any questions, blockers, or concerns they have.
After that I will usually meet with Indigenous Relations leadership, to update them on what we’ve been doing and what it entails for all our users. Our users include Ministry staff, industry proponents and Indigenous communities. We also discuss our strategic vision, and how future projects and new services that we’re building align with that. As part of these meetings, I try to show our leadership the return on investment of the services we’re building and the approach that we are taking. This involves demonstrating that even with a small team, we’re able to do something truly valuable for Albertans.
Based on these meetings then I’ll have to carve out a few quiet minutes to update the product backlog with new priorities. Every two weeks, we have Scrum ceremonies like sprint planning, review, and retrospective. I also catch up with our regulatory partners like the Alberta Energy Regulator, or Albert Environment and Parks. I sometimes have to present to internal stakeholders, like GoA executives, and external stakeholders, like the Canadian Energy Pipeline Association. We also work with users wherever possible. Some days we do co-design workshops where we talk with users about their needs and come up with some ideas for new service functionalities.
HA: What has the ACO Digital Service team been up to recently?
GP: The ACO Digital Service released its first Beta to users in 2020 and has been issuing successive releases at regular intervals since then. We’ve on-boarded more than 30 users to date and receiving positive feedback, including “You really listened to us!” and “This is already much more efficient and easy to use.” We are excited for our next major release in May 2021, which we think will be a game-changer for industry proponents and ACO Staff.
As the ACO Digital Service grows, we have additional work that we are exploring. One such example is integration with the Alberta Energy Regulator that we’ve been building. This will allow regulatory systems to share critical information to streamline the regulatory process.
HA: Do the main responsibilities for this position at the DIO differ in any way from similar positions elsewhere? If so, how?
GP: I have a lot to say on this! There’s a really interesting government flavor to being a product manager here. Government hasn’t traditionally been known to be at the forefront of innovation and has often lagged behind private sector. We are trying to bring government — and government services! — into the digital world.
Being a product owner in government consists of the “traditional” responsibilities — focusing on the delivery of the product and representing user needs in the setting of the product vision. Unlike the private sector, government doesn’t really have “customers”. However, we do have users. Everybody who lives in Alberta, participates in government’s processes, or needs government services is potentially a user. So, we must focus on those users and their needs, to add value to government service delivery.
In the public sector, the product owner has additional responsibility to generate buy-in and create enthusiasm from stakeholders and executives. This entails many meetings (and demos!) with different stakeholders and executives to socialize what we’re doing and ensure that the project is supported financially and in terms of staffing and resourcing perspective. We have to read and anticipate the internal and external business and political landscape and plan the product road map in a way that responds to those challenges. Also, because our services aren’t being built in a vacuum, but in a space where other services exist, we have to be in touch with other areas of government to coordinate as needed. However, we also need to challenge these services and show a new and better way of doing things.
HA: What’s your favorite part about working here?
GP: It is for sure the fast-paced working environment, which initially surprised me. It is exciting to be empowered to implement process and service improvements and build a new service that users actually want. Being able to talk to the users is also another positive aspect. Admittedly, this can get hectic at times! But it also makes me feel like I’m getting a genuine opportunity to work on something important.
HA: Every job comes with its own set of challenges, what are the biggest challenges that someone in this position would face?
GP: There have been many challenges, and they have evolved over time. At the beginning, the challenge was understanding the DIO approach. Most people had no idea what service design, agile, and modern technologies meant. Over the past two years, I’ve been trying to build that understanding within my Ministry and government sector. Since this was a new role, there wasn’t a clear job description. While sometimes I wish I had a manual on how to be a product owner in government, I do enjoy the challenge of learning on the job and finding my own path.
There are also specific government challenges, such as institutional inertia when working in big organizations. We are trying to stick our wood in the water and steer the super tanker in a different direction, but I believe we are rising to this challenge. Our Chief Digital Officer Dom, has really been awesome at setting this vision. As the DIO portfolio grows, you can see how government is starting to change the way that it’s doing things.
HA: I’ve heard that a Product Owner guild has started. Can you tell us more?
GP: I’ve always been a big proponent of the product owner role within government. Finding the right people is a challenge — product owners need to be empowered by leadership to make everyday and strategic decisions. They also need be business experts, but also be open to try new things, accept risk, and go out and talk to users. The DIO has set up guilds for all our different team roles. We are seeing some amazing things from the product owners in various teams. These guilds help people get better as product managers (or designers, or architects) by bringing together people with the same job to learn, share, and align to the DIO way. People are starting to create their own vision of what being a product owner entails and our goal is to build a community of practice that goes beyond the province. For example, here at the DIO, open source is fundamental to our work, which opens up an avenue for further collaboration with our provincial, federal, and territorial counterparts.
HA: What might you share with others that are considering working with the DIO?
GP: First ask yourself — do you believe that the government can offer better services than it does today? Do you want to work with an awesome team of talented individuals on a project that that might seem daunting but could really delivery value? Do you like a fast-paced work environment? If you said yes to any of these questions, then go for it and take a chance like me to work with the DIO. If you are ready to roll up your sleeves and “Do It Ourselves”, join the DIO!
