Rating Scale? or Story Points? or T-Shirt Sizing? & The Bias
In a casual discussion yesterday, we landed to a point where we were discussing rating things, people and all beings. The question that most often popped up was “Against What?” or “What is your benchmark?”.This puzzled me as when we talk about rating someone or something, we always need a comparison parameter and without that, the given rating has no meaning.
For eg. If a critic rates a movie and gives it 3 stars, then he must have some movie in her reference which is a 5 star and some movie which has 0 stars.
Now, if the critic has not rated any movie 5 or any movie a 0, then, we can easily say that her inference is biased because the screws at both ends are loose or as we call it open for interpretation.
So, what is this bias that I am referring to here?
Whether we like it or not, we all have a bias. And the biggest bias is the limit of our own knowledge, experience, both under and oversight.
Continuing the above example, has the critic seen all the movies that are released? 🤔 I would really doubt it. So when she is assigning the rating, then it means it is against her knowledge or database of movies she has seen/rated.
Then the next question that comes is how do we get rid of this bias?
With the bias that I come from, I can say, removing bias is a process and the process itself is never-ending.
- Creating a small enough Focus Area
Once you create a small focus area, you can go through the entire content to decide what should be the rating scale. However, we have to remember, this would still be biased, as it would be limited to our understanding of that area. But remember, this bias is required as it showcases the individual's uniqueness.
2. Creating a reference board
Create a reference board and start to categorize as you learn more about the topic. Also, keep this board open to the audience. At least, the top and bottom, this would help the audience visualize your scale and then the rating.
3. Revisit your reference board as you amass more knowledge
As you learn more about the area, keep revisiting the wall of reference and keeping adding new reference points to give a better understanding of the scale to the audience.
4. Finetune Focus Area
This according to me is the most difficult part. In this, we should be able to finetune the focus area to either increase or decrease the scope of the same.
Confused?
Yes, normally we would want to only reduce the scope of the work. However, as we increase our knowledge along with the depth, our length & breath also increases. And including this knowledge into the focus area only helps in looking at a bigger picture and also then help in making a better rating scale.
What’s in it for Product Management?
As we are moving into Agile and scrum, we start talking a lot about When we look at the Story Points or T-shirt sizing. This is nothing but a rating scale which need to be defined by the scrum team. And as the team evolves, the rating scale and the wall of reference also needs to evolve and be more refined and yet its focus area should always increase to incorporate new business problems into the product. Though, it would be the role of the Product Owner to ensure the Product Vision and Mission are intact while adding things into the Wall Of Reference and increasing the scope of the Product.
I would like to leave you with a thought:
“As in nature, when a baby is born, it is constantly learning new things. And as it learns, its knowledge & understanding of nature increases, which in turn feeds into more learning, giving the ability to crawl, walk and then run.”
Now replace the Baby with team and Nature with Product!!!
