Product Management

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At Metal Toad Product Management is a serious area of practice. Sometimes referred to as Product Ownership within the Agile Scrum methodology, preserving the iron triangle while delivering what customers need takes time, attention and skill.

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    The High Cost of Technical Debt: A Case Study

    Technical Debt: we all have it. Yet, this phenomenon remains poorly understood by product managers. Unlike financial debt, the costs are often hidden and difficult to measure.

  • ScrumMaster Rules - No Interruptions

    The Value of a ScrumMaster

    I went to ScrumMaster training a few weeks into my first job in an Agile project management environment. I was brand new to the methodology, and throughout the training and after, I didn't really understand the value of the ScrumMaster. “What an easy gig,” I thought.

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    Agile Everything

    Chaos is a major pain in the ass. Yes, it can be invigorating, challenging, and propel you in your life or career — but I’ll be the first to admit that it’s extremely hard to appreciate chaos for...

  • Iceberg

    Hidden Features in Product Builds

    Once we get past POC and MVP, we need to start thinking about the entirety of the product we’re building. Here are four features that our clients commonly overlook, but, like the parts of an iceberg supporting the surface, are needed to support the whole.

  • To explore new worlds and new civilizations

    Discover, and Discover, and Discover

    We just completed a huge, deep, complex, and super sexy Discovery for a client I can’t name. But I can say that the timing was tight, the expectations were high, the info going in was murky, and the result at the end was, as our VP of Engineering likes to say, “level ten.”

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    Finding My Thing: Part 1

    Coming from a strict design engineering background and working in the realm of manufactured products, I have had a steep learning curve in the tech world I now find myself in. But, I have also found that there are lessons I have to share. This is my journey to find "My Thing"...

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    User Story Insights Using Google Sheets

    By using Google Sheets as a tool to glean metrics on user stories, Product Owners and Product Managers can increase the probability of project success by ensuring their team is building the right features for the most value and assisting in creating a healthy balance between releases.

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    The Sprint Commitment as a Dev Team’s Shield

    I was thrilled when I first learned and began applying Agile software development practices. Finally, I was able to get off the painful cycle of being forced by upper management to come up with and commit to long term schedules based on

  • illustration of a T-shirt

    Why I Love T-Shirt Sizing

    My husband and I are involved in a never-ending construction project that takes us to wonderful Portland businesses solely in search of odd things. A few months ago, we went to the stone yard. At one end of the stone yard were the boulders. They were big.

  • Rhinenna Renee Guedry

    Metal Toad Project Manager Profile: Rhienna Renee Guedry

    As part of our project manager application process, we ask applicants to respond to a number of questions about themselves focused on their approach and philosophy when it comes to project management.

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    Metal Toad Templates Part 3: Our User Story Template

    Following up on part 2 introducing our agile burndown spreadsheet template, part 3 focuses on our

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