Build Better Products with a Human-Centered Product Backlog

Join this free online course to learn how to build better products by balancing human needs, business values, and technical feasibilities with a human-centered product backlog.

Please note: There is a more recent version of this course Build Better Products with a Human-Centered Product Backlog (Repeat).

This course was retired in October 2023.

Self-paced since August 4, 2021
Language: English

Course information

Retired

This course was retired in October 2023.

Course Summary

The world is becoming more complex and digital transformation is radically changing people’s lives. This in turn leads to rising expectations for products and services that are expected to help users get their job done – both at work and in their private lives. Hence, product organizations have to change the way they build products. By combining User Experience Design, Agile approaches, and New Work topics, they have the chance to move the user into the center, create an environment of collaboration, and spark creativity to foster innovation.

If you’re interested in understanding how to balance human needs, business value, and technical feasibility with a human-centered product backlog, this course is made for you. You’ll learn how you can iteratively refine your product backlog, what touchpoints you need with your customer, and lots of good practices to make your new product tangible while validating your ideas right from scratch. We’ll highlight synergies between Agile and User Experience Design which will help you to integrate the human perspective into software development.

At the end of the course, you’ll be equipped with the methods and tools to deliver great products that users love.


Here is what some participants are saying about the course:

  • " I am very grateful to openSAP and the team that made this wonderful course possible. Congratulations. " Read the original post

  • " Great content and how the training is organized! I could see in every detail, how well this training was organized. I wish to see more trainings like this. congratulations and Thank you very much" Read the original post

  • " Great course and examples. Loved the course and the many examples throughout. A highlight for me was Boris' explanation of story telling, the boom wow wow boom methodology and translating it to a user centric product backlog. " Read the original post

  • " Great educational story. Thanks for this great course! I like the focus on key messages and repitition of important aspects. It's easy to understand fixed teams and iterations, but key prerequisite of a successful sprint is a well managed backlog." Read the original post

  • " Great content and context, great to see how to apply it in different use cases. Congrats for the course. I liked a lot: i) The content and visual aids, ii) The ability to do exercises and introduction to Mural and other tools, iii) The simplified explanation given during the session" Read the original post


Course Characteristics

Course Content

Week 1: Good Product Backlog Definition
Week 2: Product Backlog Structure and User Story Mapping
Week 3: Product Backlog Validation and Refinement
Week 4: Product Backlog Ranking
Week 5: Final Exam

Target Audience

  • Anyone who creates and refines product backlogs
  • Anyone interested in UX and Agile development methodologies
  • Software developers and product owners, design thinking and Agile coaches

Course Recommendations

Further Learning

Further learning_podcast Episode 20: Learn How to Build Better Products with a Human-Centric Product Backlog – openSAP Invites

About Further Content Experts

Heike Busch

pic Heike Busch

Heike Busch is an agile coach and product owner for the agile cross-function at SAP Customer Innovation & Maintenance (CIM). As well as driving agile topics in the organization, she also supports her colleagues and our customers in continuously improving their agile way of working. Heike has 22 years of experience at SAP in a number of roles, including developer, architect, quality manager, and scrum master. Her interest and passion in lean, agile, and scrum began in 2006.

Follow Heike on LinkedIn

Gudrun Leonhard

pic Gudrun
Gudrun Leonhard Marquard is an agile coach and trainer at SAP. She helps agile leaders and agile teams to evolve and focus on creating customer value. The systemic business coach education complements her holistic coaching approach. She is also the product owner for the internal SAP standard scrum course.
Gudrun has 30 years of experience in the software industry in various roles, and 14 years of lean and agile experience.
She holds a master’s degree in business administration.

Markus Peter

pic Markus Peter
Markus Peter is an agile coach and trainer at SAP. He supports SAP engineering teams in learning and applying the scrum approach to continuously improve and become more agile. He also supports leaders in adopting agile leadership behaviors.
Markus is a systemic business coach with more than 20 years of experience in software engineering, and became interested in agile and scrum as early as 1999. He has also developed courses and is an active facilitator for both classroom and online learning. Markus holds a PhD in physics.

Course contents

  • Course content no longer available

  • Week 1:

    Good Product Backlog Definition
  • Week 2:

    Product Backlog Structure and User Story Mapping
  • Week 3:

    Product Backlog Validation and Refinement
  • Week 4:

    Product Backlog Ranking
  • I Like, I Wish:

    We Love Your Feedback … And Want More
  • Final Exam:

    Good Luck!

Enroll me for this course

The course is free. Just register for an account on openSAP and take the course!
Enroll me now

Learners

Current
Today
4,804
Course End
Aug 04, 2021
3,607
Course Start
Jun 29, 2021
2,622

Rating

This course was rated with 4.51 stars in average from 412 votes.

Certificate Requirements

  • Gain a Record of Achievement by earning at least 50% of the maximum number of points from all graded assignments.
  • Gain a Confirmation of Participation by completing at least 50% of the course material.

Find out more in the certificate guidelines.

This course is offered by

Boris Bezirtzis

Boris Bezirtzis is an innovation coach and design thinking expert, and was one of the first design thinkers at SAP. He is the global design thinking lead at SAP Customer Innovation & Maintenance and facilitates a DT coaching community with more than 30 coaches. He combines agile and human-centered design principles to make innovation real in large customer projects, innovative products, and smaller innovation sprints.

Boris studied industrial design in Germany and did Master of Fine Arts (MFA) focusing on user research and co-creation at the Ohio State University in Columbus Ohio, USA. Boris is an SAP Mentor, has designed several design and innovation training camps, and was a speaker at the Lean Startup Conference in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden, as well as other events.

Follow Boris on LinkedIn

Nikolai Vetter

Nikolai Vetter is a UX designer, design thinking coach, and innovation expert at SAP Customer Innovation & Maintenance. His focus is on building next-generation software products with customers and partners in co-innovation engagements.

Before joining SAP, Nikolai worked at a retail fashion company, where he created unique omni-channel shopping experiences while building up UX competence and driving an agile mindset in software development projects. He holds a master’s degree in innovation management and certifications as a scrum master and in User Experience & Usability.

Follow Nikolai on LinkedIn

Sabrina Jahn

Sabrina Jahn supports theSAP Customer Innovation & Maintenance team as a working student. Her focus is on connecting design thinking and agile to develop innovative products. She is a design thinking coach and currently enrolled as a master’s student in product development.

Before joining SAP, Sabrina studied fashion design and gained experience in designing for a sports fashion company. She has also worked in innovation management at an automotive company and has engaged in consulting activities for a startup.

Follow Sabrina on LinkedIn