The Product Owner Coach

Hello, I'm Kai Stevens

Product Owner | Product Owner Coach

+31 6 38258853
The Netherlands

Kai Stevens

Product Owner & Product Owner Coach

Skillset

Product visioning
Roadmapping
Mastering backlogs
Stakeholder management
Business analysis
Agile coaching

Professional Profile

I am a passionate product owner driven to build game changing software products together with inspiring people. In the past years I have worked with several development teams on challenging products. I am experienced in mastering backlogs, roadmapping, and creating a clear product vision. Experiencing the power of agile, over the years I became a dedicated agilist. In my spare time I like to study agile books and blogs and visit conferences to keep on top of the latest developments in the agile community. Also I try to make my contribution to the community by blogging about my own agile experiences and training and coaching other product owners.

My life as a product owner

The most important things I do.

Crafting a Product vision

Building the right product is almost impossible without a clear product vision. I like using Roman Pichler's Product Vision Board to express the product vision, and most importantly, to continuously validate if we are building the right product or if the product vision might have changed by new insights.

Mastering the Product Backlog

The product backlog should describe all necessary features to realize the product vision. I will start with creating epics, giving a high level description of all features. Next I will refine the first epics into user stories which are small and detailed enough for development. Keeping the backlog DEEP is an ongoing process during the product development cycle.

Roadmapping

One of the most misunderstood things about Scrum is that there is no such thing as release planning. For large and complex projects, release planning in the form of a (goal oriented) product roadmap is essential! I like to use the GO product roadmap from Roman Pichler and combine it with a more detailed roadmap telling which epics will be completed each future sprint.

Managing stakeholders

I am always in close contact with my stakeholders, finding out new requirements, discussing solutions and informing them about progress. I am experienced in hosting product presentations, and like to use the burn up chart as an artifact to inform stakeholders about progress.

Coaching teams

As an agile enthusiast I like to help teams improve their agility.

Having fun

I must mention the most important ingredient to success: fun! I am privileged to work with some of the greatest people and learned that humor is essential when you are working on complex projects. I really love my job: making great software products together with inspiring and humorous people!

The Professional Product Owner by Don McGreal and Ralph Jocham

Product ownership is about more than mechanics: it’s about taking accountability and focusing on value in everything you do. In The Professional Product Owner, two leading experts in Scrum product ownership show how to identify, measure, and maximize value throughout your entire product lifecycle.

The product samurai by Chris Lukassen.

With agile practices becoming the standard, the call for product leadership has never been louder. Meanwhile, product managers are drowning in feature alignment and internal takeholder discussions, slowed by technical and organizational complexity, and crippled by risk-averse company cultures. How can they focus on clear market outcomes when fear and uncertainty cloud the way?

Strategize by Roman Pichler.

Using a wide range of proven techniques and tools, Strategize explains how to create effective strategies and actionable roadmaps to help you maximise your chances of creating successful products. Written in an engaging and no-nonsense style, Strategize offers practical advice and valuable examples so that you can apply the practices directly to your products. Comprehensive and insightful, the book will enable you to make the right strategic decisions in today’s dynamic digital age.

User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton.

User story mapping is a valuable tool for software development, once you understand why and how to use it. This insightful book examines how this often misunderstood technique can help your team stay focused on users and their needs without getting lost in the enthusiasm for individual product features.

Resume

My product owner journey

Product Ownership

Value Stream Lead

As a value stream lead I am in the role of product owner for a larger team that consists of all skills needed to deliver value for our smart thermostat, boiler monitoring and home security features. See this presentation from Scrum Day Europe 2019 for more about the Quby value stream model

Quby BV

2019 - present

Product owner

As a product owner at Quby I am part of the product team responsible for the development of Toon, a leading smart thermostat and energy insight solution.

Quby BV

2017 - 2019

Product owner

As a product owner at Enrise I have successfully completed several projects with my team.

Enrise BV

2012 - 2017

Product owner

As a product owner at EasyApps BV, I was responsible for the development of the online travel community WaarBenJij.nu, introducing new features for thousands of travelers who like to share their experiences.

EasyApps BV

2009 - 2012

Community manager

As a community manager at EasyApps BV, I was responsible for keeping the members of the popular travel community WaarBenJij.nu satisfied. Most important activity was the identification and specification of new features that were requested by the community.

EasyApps BV

2008 - 2009

Training and coaching

Besides my work as a product owner I also run my own company The Product Owner Coach. The mission of The Product Owner Coach is to help other product owners grow further in this beautiful but challenging role to enrich the world with awesome products.

Product owner 1-day workshops

Tailor made and highly interactive workshop to meet the learning objectives of participating product owners.

Advanced Product owner 2-day training

Training covering the art of product ownership from vision to releasing the product. During 2 days both practical tools as personal (soft) skills needed for advanced product ownership are covered

Product Owner Journey

A series of monthly workshops with in-between coaching to put learning right into daily practice. The best way to make sure that theory ends up in reality within your organisation.

Portfolio

Products that I am proud of.

Toon - Smart thermostat and energy services

Make Toon even smarter

Simpel.nl

Build a Business Logic Layer for Simpel

Ziggo.nl

Build a responsive component based frontend

Contact me

Drop me a line or give me a ring. I am looking forward to meet you.