On the 12th and 13th of March Dirk and I attended the first in-person Product Owner Days in Cologne, this is our summary.
After a smooth drive from Berlin to Cologne, with a quick stop in Bremen, we arrived at our hotel on Monday night, had a quick nap and then set off in the best drizzle in the Rhineland to the conference venue, the Design Offices Köln Mediapark.With finding the right entrance, fighting for a coat hook and successfully persuading the coffee machine we already overcame three of the biggest challenges and managed to start right of with the first keynote: „Creating Clarity“.
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- „Creating Clarity für Product Owner“ – Holger Nils Pohl
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- „Agil vs. nicht-agil – wie klappt’s besser mit dem Vorstand?“ – Silke Kanes
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- „Was Product Owner nicht aus dem Scrum Guide erfahren – aber ASAP wissen sollten!“ – Oliver Winter
What followed afterwards were 24 sessions contributing to the overall goal of bringing together people and knowledge from the three bubbles „Agile“, „Product Management“ and „User Experience“ – As usual the talks differed in usefulness, but gave the both of us various insides into how to approach things differently, try something new or reinforce present behavior. Apart from this breaks and the evening event presented multiple opportunities to come together with Product people from all over Germany, who, by definition, are often lone wolves in their environment.
Our highlights include:
- „Gestalten statt verwalten“: Going back to shaping things instead of being the „Behörde für Agilität“
- „Outcome-based Roadmaps – Mythos oder Realität?“: Prioritizing and planning by maximizing the outcome instead of the output
- „Creating Clarity for Product Owner“: Enhance your presentation and common understanding of ideas via visualizations
Overall the variety of topics broadened our PO toolkits, gave us several ideas how to improve and ultimately were super motivating.
I’d also like to use this moment to express my gratitude for Dirk, who, under threat of unannounced „Wellenstreiks“, drove the both of us safe and sound through seven states with his car while simultaneously being my sparring partner for crazy ideas and exciting initiatives.
You can find the whole schedule here.
