Multiple product teams, spread across many geographical locations and working in different areas of the product portfolio, were not aligned and did not have the same competencies to build business cases and assess value. The teams experienced challenges in the prioritization of product development initiatives and with the communication of portfolio-level priorities within the organization.
“We have quite many development initiatives on the table. The questions are always: how do we quantify the business value of these initiatives? And should we prioritize cross-product development, for example, over the development work within a single product?” - Perttu Nihti, Chief Product Officer, Basware
Basware looked into a couple of different vendors that can deliver competence development training and coaching for the product managers and product owners.
Basware valued an opportunity to meet people who will be conducting the training already during the sales process. It helped them understand if the competence level of the vendor matches the expectations and needs of Basware.
Basware was looking for a longer-term partner rather than a single-training provider which could help them overcome further challenges, and share the knowledge with more teams within the organization. Eficode stood out as a well-known and established company that has been working in this area for a long time.
A training program that addresses particular needs and challenges of the organization is more valuable than a template approach. Basware appreciated a good way of adapting the approach to Basware’s own situation.
“Why we reached out to Eficode was of course because it is very well-known in this area, so we knew already before contacting that Eficode can support us here” - Perttu Nihti, Chief Product Officer, Basware
About 40 participants from the different parts of the organization attended a competence development training delivered remotely by Eficode. The learning path for Basware included the sessions about lean business case theory and hands-on agile requirements and prioritization techniques.
“The training was well-balanced. We were able to take the learning quickly into practice but without feeling overburdened. Now, we are busy with adapting the training as part of our processes and we are making good progress there” - Perttu Nihti, Chief Product Officer, Basware
What people at Eficode learned has been applied to the internal development of the portfolio-level priorities. The practices and principles learned by Basware on the training helped them to focus on fewer but more critical priorities that bring the most business value.
On the team level, more and more teams are engaging in the discussion on prioritization. Communication has become easier because we can refer to the practices and terminology used in the training by Eficode.
“Our teams can communicate more easily internally and with their colleagues because they all know what frameworks and methodologies they’re referring to when they’re discussing, for example, the value of given epics.” - Perttu Nihti, Chief Product Officer, Basware
On the individual level, Basware sees that their product managers and product owners have improved their skills for business casing and value assessments.
“I think the training was very well received by everybody who was attending there. So it also had a motivational boost for our employees.” - Perttu Nihti, Chief Product Officer, Basware
Basware considers taking the same training also in the future for the teams that did not participate in the previous one - from the R&D or elsewhere in the organization. As Basware was looking for a long-term partnership, it values that Eficode can support the company in further competence development of their employees.