Kanban Product Professional

A Kanban Product Professional is an expert in managing upstream, discovery, and innovation activities leveraging the power of the Kanban Method, Enterprise Services Planning, and the Fit-for-Purpose Framework to manage risk, select the most valuable work, and schedule it at the optimal time. Kanban Product Professionals maximize the flow of value by feeding delivery Kanban systems with the best possible mix of work. They enable improved customer satisfaction and better economic outcomes by segmenting markets by customer purpose, building empathy, and optimizing features and functionality to manage the complex fitness landscape of their market and product domain. 

Course Format:

Both courses will take place online in 4 half-day sessions. All sessions will be live and interactive. Students should come prepared to connect and participate in class exercises with peers.

Week 1: Kanban Product Professional I (Identifying and Defining Value)

 Half-day sessions Monday to Thursday

 Week 2: Kanban Product Professional II (Maximizing Value Delivery)

 Half-day sessions Monday to Thursday

KPP I- Identifying and Defining Value

This class teaches the underlying models to provide a means to make sense of markets and define products that are optimized for the complex fitness landscapes created by modern consumers.

KPP II- Maximizing Value Delivery

KPP II focuses on ¨when & in which sequence¨, the scheduling, and sequencing problem to optimize economic outcomes and risk. Having learned how to select the most valuable product features and functions in KPP I, this class teaches the aspiring Kanban Product Professional how to understand the best timing and sequencing in order to maximize value delivery.

Managing large backlogs does not need to be tiresome and expensive.

Learn to filter large backlogs using risk assessment frameworks, and triage thresholds. Learn to sequence work by risk profile to minimize or balance risk across a portfolio or product mix. Learn to manage dependencies efficiently by understanding cost of delay and utilizing dynamic reservation systems in downstream delivery Kanban systems to avoid unnecessary burden and wasted analysis in upstream.

Extremistan or Mediocristan (a Pareto distributed payoff probability or a Gaussian distributed payoff probability), how would you know and why does it matter? Entirely different approaches to product management, selection, sequencing, and scheduling must be taken depending on which domain you are in. Students will learn how to recognize extremistan versus mediocristan domains and to use the appropriate methods and tools. 

In Extremistan you must use real options theory, experimentation, tight feedback loops, and amplifying the hot spots in your data and experience. You need human approaches to make sense out of complexity, and to enable emergent product optimization. 

In Mediocristan you can use more traditional product management methods including cost of delay and return on investment. Learn to choose the right method based on the strategic approach to capital at your business. 

Triage has become a commonly used term during the coronavirus pandemic but how do you use triage techniques to maximize the flow of value in your organization? You need to understand the cost of delay. This class will show you how to use Triage Tables from our Enterprise Services Planning body of knowledge in order to determine when to start something and with how much urgency (which class of service) .

No prior course work is necessary. Previously taking Kanban for Design and Innovation is strongly recommended and will enhance understanding during KPP courses.

Week 1 Objectives: Kanban Product Professional I (Identifying and Defining Value)

KPP I Course Objectives:

KPP I teaches the underlying models to provide a means to make sense of markets and define products that are optimized for the complex fitness landscapes created by modern consumers. 

• Students will learn to segment markets by customer purpose, and to create personas based on an imaginary consumer in each segment. 

• Using the Fit-for-Purpose Framework, learn the concept of a whole product with design, implementation and customer experience or service delivery. Define fitness criteria in terms of functional and non-functional requirements to meet each of the three whole product dimensions.  

• Using business domain modeling and the product feature template, students will explore product requirements and learn to categorize them and map them to market segments as differentiating, neutralizing, cost reducing, or table stakes or regulatory in nature. The six commonly recurring fitness criteria of time, quality, safety & compliance, convenience, optionality, and affordability, act to explore requirements and discover hidden value. 

• Students will learn to analyze customer experience using the humans & narrative approach and the Fitness Box Score survey and data approach from the Fit for Purpose Framework. Define product strategy using the Fitness Target Matrix and focus investment and experimentation where it is most valued. 

Week 2 Objectives: Kanban Product Professional II (Maximizing Value Delivery)

Learn to:

• Filter large backlogs using risk assessment frameworks, and triage thresholds
• Sequence work by risk profile to minimize or balance risk across a portfolio or product mix
• Manage dependencies efficiently by understanding cost of delay and utilizing dynamic reservation systems in downstream delivery Kanban systems to avoid unnecessary burden and wasted analysis in upstream
• To recognize extremistan versus mediocristan domains and to use the appropriate methods and tools. 
• Understand the cost of delay
• Use Triage Tables to determine when to start something and with how much urgency

Who should attend?

• Product owners
• Product managers
• Anyone who oversees strategic decisions regarding products, improvement, and customer segments

Anyone with a professional interest in:

• Feature selection
• Scheduling
• Sequencing and prioritization for new product, services, and portfolios of projects

Kanban Product Professional

• Attendees will receive a certificate of completion from Kanban University.
•  Participants in both KPP courses will earn the Kanban Product Professional credential from Kanban University.