Mangalam Nandakumar
Digital Specialist
McKinsey & Company
location_on India
Member since 3 years
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Mangalam Nandakumar
Specialises In (based on submitted proposals)
I am a software professional with over 16 years of experience in product management and software delivery. I have played multiple roles in her career starting as a developer. I transitioned to business analysis, product management and am at present a digital technology consultant. I am a multipotentialite - an entrepreneur, speaker, blogger, feminist, mentor, coach all rolled into one. I am also an artist and have exhibited and sold my art works. At present, I am authoring a book on product management
My first startup venture was Purple Art School ( https://www.facebook.com/purpleartschool/, where I conducted art workshops for children and adults. My second startup (AIDA) was in the event mobility and digital engagement domain (http://www.aidaio.com/ ). AIDA was shortlisted under the Top 10 Promising Startups by CII in 2015 and shortlisted finalist for Best Event Technology honor at MICE Asia Pacific, 2015.
I take great passion in mentoring and coaching women in their career pursuit. I love bringing people together to achieve meaningful goals. During my corporate tenure, I initiated a forum to encourage women to speak at conferences. I was also instrumental in setting up a childcare center at one of my former workplaces. I has also served in the global diversity/ inclusivity editorial board during my tenure at ThoughtWorks.
Some of my previous speaking experiences
Conferences
- Speaker at Converge, 2016 – “Designing Solutions for Rural India”
- Speaker at Mobile India 2015 – “Event Mobile Apps”
- Speaker at Construkt, 2015 - “Evolving an idea into a Product”
- Speaker at Dr. Dobb’s Conference 2014, Pune – “Agility in the Workplace”
- Organized BAConf, 2013 at ThoughtWorks, Bangalore.
- Speaker at BAConf 2013, Bangalore– “Bringing up a product owner”
Blogs
Personal blogsite: http://mangalamnandakumar.blogspot.in/
Articles published on TalkingCranes
- The Silent Spectator: http://www.talkingcranes.com/tc-article/silent-spectator/1509
Articles published on Womensweb
- What men should learn from women: http://www.womensweb.in/2017/04/what-men-can-learn-from-women/
- The New LeanIn Guide for Men: http://www.womensweb.in/2017/03/lean-in-guide-for-men/
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Why story points make no sense for a product company
45 Mins
Talk
Advanced
T-shirt sizing. Fruit Sizing. Planning pokers. You might be familiar with any or all of these estimation (relative sizing) techniques. Story points based estimations (along with velocity mapping) is touted as a predictable method to plan for software delivery. Teams are expected to get a good sense of the effort needed to deliver a piece of work by comparing estimates with references of similarly complex work they have delivered in the past.
The accuracy of point based estimates fares more or less in the same range as sheer gut feel. So, the natural inclination for software teams is to try and make it more accurate than gut feel. Thereby, we obsess with breaking functionality into smaller byte sized stories. We freak out when there is "scope creep". We debate endlessly about ideal days vs. person days. We fuss over the specific visual representation for the burn-up or burn-down.
Does it matter anymore how many days the team spent chipping hard at a feature that added no value to the business? Have we made agile teams into mini waterfall teams by focussing on the wrong metrics? Can product companies afford this?
Process heaviness in product companies can cost a lot. We need to find better ways to invest in success metrics. We need to change the conversation from productivity to value add.
My talk intends to challenge prevalent estimation practices and contest their validity in product companies. I will also introduce ideas around capturing relevant business metrics and sizing stories using business value.
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Lean Delivery : Measuring Business Value
45 Mins
Talk
Advanced
Business value is a rather abused term in product teams. We continue to drive development teams to understand the business value of what they're building. Business goal posts are ever changing. But do business teams themselves understand how to differentiate between "just an idea" and "an idea worth pursuing" ? How should product teams ensure that priorities are based on measurable & actionable success metrics, not just an idea that sounds important ?
My talk is to demystify business value by creating a framework for quantifying business value.
Understand business value points
Measuring product progress based on business value points (rather than story points )
Sustainable product iteration based on success metrics tracking.
My talk will be most useful for teams aiming for Lean delivery, with a greater emphasis on outcomes rather than processes.
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