In the last Agile – Speakers | Groups | LinkedIn meetup we played the Business Value Poker game from agilecoach.de – Agile Coaching, Beratung und Training
Our product had three features:
- Intuitive UI
- Predictive Analytics
- Massive Parallel Processing
We had three product owners with 10000 Euros each:
- Ineke from Marketing
- Mikaela from Sales
- Vera from IT
The aim of the game is to understand the different perspectives of the players they have regarding the business value of the features.
I like the fact that you can play it with simple materials like a flipchart, markers and post-its.
In the first round, two of the product owners voted with a bigger budget for their own features. Predictive analytics (maybe because it sounds clever) got 12500 Eur, followed by intuitive UI with 11000 Eur and then massive parallel processing with 6500 Eur.
| Product | Ineke | Mikaela | Vera | Total |
| Intuitive UI | 5000 | 3500 | 2500 | 11000 |
| Predictive Analytics | 3000 | 5000 | 4500 | 12500 |
| Massive Parallel Processing | 2000 | 1500 | 3000 | 6500 |
We then posed the following questions and discussed it with the product owners:
- Which feature helps to generate new Business?
- Which feature helps to maintain existing Business?
- Which feature improves the efficiency of internal processes?
| Product | Ineke | Mikaela | Vera | Total |
| Intuitive UI | 4000 | 3500 | 5000 | 12500 |
| Predictive Analytics | 5000 | 5000 | 3000 | 13000 |
| Massive Parallel Processing | 1000 | 1500 | 2000 | 4500 |
After the questions were asked the focus of all product owners moved towards predictive analytics because they felt that it was the feature which could bring value for new and existing Business and also improve the efficiciency of internal processes.
We managed to complete this game in 30 to 45 minutes and do two rounds of budgeting.
What the product owners took back with them was the ease with which budgeting rounds could be done when the right questions are asked for the features surrounding a product.
I enjoyed the Business Value Poker game for its simplicity and improved collaborative thinking across multiple product owners.
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