Product management and DevOps, together at last and kicking butt

DevOps and platform teams have too many projects, not enough time, and users who can easily ask if the thing is done, because "it's really holding them up." James Heimbuck explores the good, the bad, and the ugly of how SendGrid incorporates product management practices into planning and execution within DevOps and platform teams to cut off scope creep and never-ending projects and realize value.

DevOps and platform teams have too many projects, not enough time, and users who are an email, message, or quick walk away to tap you on the shoulder to ask if that thing is done, because “it’s really holding them up from completing something for real this time.” James Heimbuck shares some tried-and-true product management practices that help solve the problems of never-ending projects, squeaky wheels that demand priority, and projects that flop on launch. James discusses common product practices and the experience of introducing those at SendGrid in the tech ops org, including validating problems through customer interactions, using story maps to get to first-and-fast release, launching products for adoption, getting user feedback and incorporating it into the backlog, and sunsetting a product.