IHG Product Ownership Outside of Software

In this version of our podcast, IHG Product Owner, Rebecca Williamson and LeadingAgile Consultant, Russ Pena discuss how the role of Product Owner has played out on the hotel room redesign project at IHG. From there, Rebecca and Russ share how applying agile outside of technology has led to some interesting process modifications.

Introduction to Rebecca Williamson and Russ Pena : 01:47

Background on the Project 3:44

How does Version Control work with hotel room redesign 5:20

How IHG defines and evolves Product Vision 6:46

The complexity of designing a hotel room 10:16

Creating the IHG Product Owner Team 11:30

Working with themes 13:05

How the PO Team handles prioritization 13:25

Rebecca’s transition from architect to Agilist (yes, a real architect) 15:33

The importance of letting go of language 17:00

Inventing their own way of practicing Agile 19:10

Defining and practicing Agility 20:13

Celebrating Successes in the Review and Retrospective 22:22

The Celebrate Board 23:37

The hardest parts of switching to Agile 25:15

Documenting work at IHG 27:13

The aspects of Agile that teams resisted 29:03

Russ and Rebecca’s advice to their pre-project selves  33:11

Making the case for carrying work over 36:00

Getting in touch with Rebecca and Russ 38:29

Contact Rebecca Williamson at rebecca.williamson@ihg.com

Contact Russ Pena on Twitter: @russpena

vai Email: russ.pena@Leadingagile.com