Product Management and Product Ownership in FaST
FaST moves a Collective toward collective product ownership and management, much like XP moves a team toward collective code ownership.
A core part of FaST is creating a Big Picture. There are two aspects to the Big Picture: a vision/purpose/outcome statement and the visualisation of high-level work to achieve this — typically a roadmap, product map, opportunity tree, or combination of. In the five sentences used to describe FaST, the visualisation is somewhat greatly simplified in the sentence — we throw our work on the wall.
There is a role in FaST for a Product Manager (PM) (or the plural of if you have a collective with multiple products). The PM is the holder of — and responsible for — creating a shared purpose or shared consciousness to borrow from McCrystal’s Team of Teams book. They do this through both aspects of The Big Picture. That is to say, they create a visualisation of the high-level work and then overcommunicate to the Collective the vision, purpose and desired outcome that this work is there to achieve.
FaST is designed for the entire Collective to take collective ownership and responsibility of the work and, even more so, the vision behind the work. Each member is continually Doing the Right Thing toward realising the outcome defined by the vision/purpose/outcome. The Collective is also continuously working with the PM in creating and correcting the visualisation of high-level work as more and more information comes to light through both doing the work and discoveries made.
To reiterate or say the same differently — the PM is responsible for owning, refining, and over-communicating an overall Big Picture. Product “ownership” is the responsibility of the entire collective and the PM. The PM is tapping into the crowd's collective wisdom to execute the vision. They are no longer a “single throat to choke” — a statement commonly heard in Scrum when defining the Product Owner role.
Org Topologies captures what a Collective should aim to be in the Holistic Product Development state (C3), where a Collective is a “Multi Learning Unity with a Whole Product Focus”.
The Two Modes of FaST and How They Relate to Product Management
There are two modes that FaST can work in - Project Mode and Product Mode. Let’s examine what product management and the Product Manager’s role look like in both the Project Mode and Product Modes.
Product Management in FaST Project Mode
In Project Mode, the PM here will maintain a roadmap of features, and the Collective will deliver on these features. The FaST collective is an output engine. The Collective should be working with the PM to determine the best sequence of work to deliver on the roadmap and help refine and spot gaps. It is collaborative, with a focus on delivery.
Product Management in FaST Product Mode
In FaST Product Mode, the FaST PM role is intended to be what Melissa Perri, Teresa Torres, Marty Cagan and John Cutler describe a Product Manager as.
A FaST Collective in Product Mode is doing both discovery and delivery work. In this mode, the PM spends much of their time driving the discovery activities and working on strategy. Here, the collective is co-owning the discovery and delivery with the PM. A Collective Member doing the Right Thing here includes knowing when to move from discovery to delivery work items and helping contribute to what discovery and delivery work to do. Important to note that discovery and delivery work happened at the the same time and are continuous when FaST is working in Product Mode.
Image used under permission of Org Topologies™
