What It Takes to Be a Product Owner for Scrum and Agile Teams | smart sheet (2023)

Product Owners are the authority on product development and the public face of the product. Product Owners are the leaders who guide the progress of the product and lead the team to success. The role is essential in all types of product development, especially in Agile methodology.

Companies first developed the Product Owner role to address the challenges of agile development, especially for Scrum teams. Scrum is a type of agile framework typically used in software development that relies on a team of five to eleven people from all departments to solve the problem and complete the project. (Learn more about agile project management andDownload the templates here.)

Without a Product Owner, the Scrum Team faces several challenges:

• They have difficulty clearly identifying goals and outcomes.

• You receive information from multiple sources without the ability to identify what is critical to the project.

• They have no responsibility within the larger organization to complete the work on time.

The Product Owner provides the single point of information to keep the team focused and reduce churn caused by waiting for information or answers. They also resolve any conflicting priorities.

On a Scrum team, the Product Owner's role has since evolved to become the person who clarifies the group's shared goals, direction, and process. Additionally, the Product Owner works with internal and external stakeholders to ensure the company is developing the best product.

Product Owners are the main stakeholders in a product development project. They are the end-to-end gatekeepers and managers of the vision, strategy and tactical execution related to product development. They develop and prioritize the program and manage the product.Residue— the list of tasks that must be resolved before the project is completed. The Product Owner works closely with the development team, examining user pain points and needs, analyzing the competitive landscape, and developing and refining feature lists. They are also responsible for maintaining the integrity and quality of the final product.

The endproduct ownerwas created using a Scrum framework (a type of agile methodology) to develop software. Companies that did not have a traditional project management system and no product managers initially used the Scrum approach. These companies reported to a small multi-departmental working group known as thebumpto identify and complete a project. But they also had to hold someone accountable who was accountable for ensuring the team completed the work and met the goals originally set for the project. With that, they created the role of Product Owner to take responsibility for the success of the product.

In addition to typical Scrum development, Product Owners are now part of Large-Scale Scrum (LeSS), which applies Scrum concepts and elements in a way that is scalable and relevant to many teams. Several industries, such as retail, banking and e-commerce, now employ Product Owners to articulate a vision for a product and drive it from conception to completion.

Product Owner and Scrum Team Structure

The Product Owner leads the Scrum Team to complete a project in a short development cycle calledpique🇧🇷 This small, flexible workgroup typically consists of five to seven people across the organization. Each person has different strengths and experiences, and they are united by a specific goal and deadline. The Product Owner works closely with the Scrum Master, a coach who has a good understanding of the job and fine-tunes the Scrum process to ensure the team works effectively and efficiently.

Both the Product Owner and the Scrum Master focus on the objective and avoid any change in the scope of the project, keeping the team on target to develop the product identified at the beginning of the sprint. While additional ideas may come up during the Sprint, the Product Owner's role is to make sure they don't exist.opportunist, which adds new features or functionality to a project.

From an organizational point of view, the Product Owner can be seen as the center of the universe for product development. As the clearinghouse for all development activities, Product Owners serve as the liaison between the development team and internal organizations, including product management, marketing, sales, customer support, and the C-suite.

The Product Owner plays a crucial role in technology or software development by understanding what features the customer needs and communicating those requirements to the development team. The Product Owner collectsuser stories: Descriptions of the software or application from the customer's point of view. These can be simple tasks like B. the ability to create a new account or edit a shopping cart. The Product Owner prioritizes stories that impact application or program development.

In a Scrum framework, the Product Owner works with both the development team and the customer to clarify what the user wants and what the development team is building. Rather than relying on a traditional list of requirements, the product owner prioritizes and manages all tasks drawn from user stories.

Most importantly, the product owner is passionate about technology and acts as a gatekeeper for features and functionality. The product owner ensures that each backlog item adds value to the software or application.

Each organization differs in the exact way it implementsAgile🇧🇷 Some organizations may only have one role, Product Owner or Product Manager, while others use both roles and see clear differences between them. On some teams, the Scrum Master is the agile project manager who identifies and prioritizes tasks. In others, the product owner is the agile project manager responsible for the success of the project.

"Product Owner" is not just another name for the project manager. Product owners typically have the authority to define and adjust the scope of work, while project managers deliver the project already described by others. According to product management expert and consultant Roman Pichler, author of Agile Product Management with Scrum: Building Products Customers Love, the transition between the two is inherent in the role of Product Owner with qualifiers. "A product owner is more than a renowned product manager," he says. "Product Owners tend to take on a wider range of responsibilities, making the role diverse and challenging."

Pichler also points out that product management has changed since Scrum was developed in the 1990s. In the beginning, product managers were responsible for preliminary market research, product planning and requirements definition. The requirements specification was then passed to a project manager who worked with development and testing to complete the project.

The clearest way to differentiate the two roles is that the Product Owner represents the voice of the business.productswhile the product manager is the voice of thecould.

Other roles in product development

The Product Owner leads the team and is accountable for the success of the project. At the same time, the owner must work with a team that will perform the work and have an in-depth understanding of the project's components. In this role, the Product Owner's responsibilities may overlap with those of other team members or be confused with some of these responsibilities:

Functional owner or component owner: It is based on technical skills and focuses on individual components and features to ensure that all features are up to the expected standard.

business analyst: Also known as Agile Business Analyst or Business Systems Analyst; understands how the business works and communicates with developers to implement customer needs around the business opportunity.

customer on site: It brings customers into the team in a system called Extreme Programming (XP) so there is close collaboration and feedback in product development. This type of collaboration yields better solutions that meet your customers' needs. It also improves customer motivation and empathy by allowing developers to work directly with them.

product manager: Organization specialist in understanding the company's performance and brand, identifying the set of products to develop.

What do product owners need to know about stakeholders?

We could also consider the role of the stakeholder. As per Pichler's definition, a stakeholder is an internal person (as opposed to a customer or user) who is involved in, affected by, or showing an interest in the product. Stakeholders form the core infrastructure that assists in product development, manufacturing, and delivery.

Depending on the type of product, according to Pichler, the stakeholder group will be made up differently. "For a commercial product, the group will likely include representatives from marketing, sales, support and administration, but could also include human, financial and legal resources," he says. "With an internal product, the stakeholders can be operations, affected business units, and management."

Product owners must also pay attention to external stakeholders. It could be the customer or the company you are developing the product for. In a broader sense, these are your customers and users. They are interested in how the product works and whether they remain your customers or look elsewhere for solutions.

The Product Owner is responsible for managing stakeholders and must be empowered to identify and meet product objectives. Here are some tips for successfully collaborating with internal and external stakeholders.

Know the Plan: Make sure you have clearly identified the scope, schedule, and resources of the project. Communicate your strategy and roadmap clearly to all stakeholders.

be a leader: The Product Owner is not just the person who takes orders and tries to fulfill all orders. Be prepared to say no if a request is outside the scope of the project, or yes if it improves the work at hand. The team relies on the product owner's ability to listen to stakeholders and separate the signal from the noise.

Lawyer for your clients: The product owner understands and clearly explains the product. The Product Owner can also articulate when ideas are best suited to the customers' interests and when they are outside the scope of the product.

To learn more about working with stakeholders, read thisArticle.

Earning the Scrum Product Owner certification demonstrates your commitment to your career and your understanding of the job. This can make you more valuable to your team and set you apart from other job seekers. While certification doesn't reflect your real-world experience, it does show that you've spent time studying the best practices that will make you more effective as a product owner.

The average annual base salary for a Product Owner ranges from $93,000 (Scrum Alliance) worldwide to $101,000 in the United States (R$). Data in 2017-2018Scrum Status Reportfrom the Scrum Alliance show that certifications and years of experience lead to higher salaries.

Here are some organizations that offer Scrum Product Owner certifications:

Scrum-Allianz:Scrum Product Owner® Certification, a personal, two-day program that includes classroom instruction, group discussions, and hands-on practice.

Scrum.org:Professional Scrum Product Owner™, a two-day face-to-face course with instruction and team exercises.

Scrum Inc.:Training to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner, a two-day personal course taught by Scrum co-creator Dr. Jeff Sutherland.

Project Management Institute:PMI Agile Certified Professional (PMI-ACP)®, which has experience and education requirements and includes passing the PMI-ACP exam.

Pichler Roman:Certified Scrum Product Owner, two-day face-to-face workshops in Germany and London.

cagil: ONEMonitoring of certification programs, including business value analysis, enterprise product ownership, and certified expert in ICAgile product ownership.

climbing agility:SAFe® 4 Owner/Product Manager(POPM), a two-day course specific to Scaled Agile Framework.

280 group:Face-to-face and online coursespara prepará-lo para o exame Agile Certified Product Manager and Product Owner® (ACPMPO) administrado pela Association of International Product Marketing and Management (AIPMM).

easy learning solutions:CSPO Certification Training, two-day face-to-face training.

Learn more about training resources and the value of certificationhere.

Another valuable resource for product owners is Robert Galen's bookProduct Ownership Scrum: Balancing Value from the Inside Out.

The product is the focus of the product owner's work. To find the right product owner, you need to identify the type of development and the product. The role and vision of the product owner can vary greatly depending on the type of product.

Business software or product development.- Primarily designed to drive sales to customers or external markets, this requires a Product Owner who has strong organizational and technical skills, as well as a strong understanding of the market and audience.

Internal solutions or development: As with commercial software development, Product Owners for internal software solutions must have both organizational and technical skills. Here, however, the "market" consists of the product owner's company and its competitors, and the "audience" is the business and technical (BDM/TDM) decision makers and employees of the organization. The development group can be information technology or systems development.

Project development: This work usually involves an external customer or client, often as part of a contract. The product owner is usually from the company commissioning the work and is therefore close to the user experience as he understands the practical needs of the customer.

Product Owner job descriptions can vary by company, industry, or even region. However, some essential skills are fundamental to the success of any Product Owner:

• authority to do the job: The organization must empower the product owner to make decisions and complete the project. Stakeholders and bureaucracy cannot undermine the work of the product owner authority, but they must provide a strong support network. Product Owners need to secure the full support of top executives.

  (Video) Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell

• guide: A Product Owner must be a leader from the beginning of the project. You need to have a strong voice in making decisions about what to build (and what not to build), identify gaps in the market and customer needs, and provide clear, actionable feedback to guide development teams. The Product Owner is also the developer of the project, vision and team. And they must demonstrate commitment to the product by being available and engaged throughout the development cycle.

• make a decision: The Product Owner must be able to make decisions quickly and confidently. Ultimately, this person has a thorough understanding of customer and stakeholder needs, including knowledge of the market domain and product environment.

• Communication: A product owner needs to build a team and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders. Being able to share the vision, focus the work and communicate with different stakeholders is crucial. The Product Owner also connects people to information. Developers may need to talk directly to users to get the details they need about the code they are writing. Stakeholders may need to speak with the business analyst to gain insight into the value of the product to the customer. You don't have to be the expert in every conversation, but the product owner is the knowledge broker.

• Delegation: While the Product Owner is responsible for the overall result, he cannot be the only person doing the work. The Product Owner needs to know which tasks best suit each team member's skills and ensure smooth collaboration. They provide oversight and find resources to ensure the job is completed.

• conflict resolution: No project progresses without some disagreement. In the words ofLowell Lindstrom, Certified Scrum Trainer® and an early pioneer of agile software development, "If you can't handle conflict, you're in the wrong game." However, some conflicts cannot be resolved at the Product Owner level. Knowing when to escalate a dispute up the chain of command is just as important as knowing what to resolve.

• Advocacy group management: It could mean the difference between progress and chaos. A successful Product Owner focuses on efficient workflows, clear expectations and milestones, and open and frequent communication. This ensures that the team quickly identifies and resolves issues and achieves goals, keeping development on track.

• Development and product experience.: While a product owner doesn't necessarily need to be a trained software developer, understanding basic software development processes is crucial to developing realistic timelines, workflows, and stakeholder expectations. Experience with existing products or the entire product category is essential to identify market and audience needs.

• Market and customer knowledge: The Product Owner provides the core information that drives features, pricing, sales forecasts, marketing strategies, and more. Understanding the product owner's business helps them make decisions during the development process. To keep customers happy, the product owner must be able to respond to their needs and act as the primary storyteller about the product's value.

• Tactical Skills: While many of your skills center on leadership and strategic thinking, a successful product owner also needs tactical insights. This includes day-to-day management of what needs to be done and when.

According to Roman Pichler, a product owner's primary responsibility is to ensure that theproductscreates value for its customers and users, as well as for the company. “Think of the product owner as the person who champions the product, who facilitates product decisions andwho has the last word on the product"This includes whether and how feedback is applied and what features are rolled out."

These are the roles and responsibilities of a Product Owner:

• set the vision: The Product Owner not only states the purpose, but explains how the product meets users' needs, aligns with the company's strategy, and fulfills the mission. This is a central management task. The vision must be communicated to the team, stakeholders, and everyone involved in the project. The vision is the guide the product owner uses to set priorities and direct the team's work. You must communicate throughout the project as the "North Star" leading the project.

• Develop the product roadmap.Product Owners work to develop plans that align business objectives with product strategy to identify technology solutions that achieve both short- and long-term goals.

• develop product strategy: A product strategy breaks down the vision for a product over time, defining the market, offering, value proposition, pricing, distribution, and more.

• Communicate with stakeholders, development teams and the Scrum Master: The product owner broadcasts the status; train stakeholders; negotiates budgets, scope, funding and timelines; organize reviews; and perform demonstrations of solutions.

Although the Product Owner is responsible for the success of the project in each development cycle, some roles are unique to the Scrum framework, where the Product Owner is the authorized leader of the team. Here are some key tasks in Scrum:

• Explain why you work in an agile Scrum: The Scrum process may be new to team members and stakeholders. The Product Owner should explain the value of this process and the principles that drive its success.

• Limit the Scope of a Sprint Scrum: Many organizations think they use Agile Scrum to develop products. In reality, they build entire systems in a series of sprints, none of which have independent value. This is a waterfall approach that doesn't work in Scrum. Scrums are designed as short cycles of developing a defined application, not as one step in a longer process. The goal is to deliver customer value through sprints and not use a waterfall approach.

• Manage order book: A backlog is a list of requests for work that need to be resolved. Backlog management involves reviewing, adding, editing, and prioritizing backlog items to ensure that all information is clear, transparent, and visible.

• Develop user stories: user stories are functional descriptions written from the user's point of view. User stories are usually short (one or two sentences) and help define product or feature requirements. The team often needs additional user stories "just in time" as part of the development process. The Product Owner manages the feedback flow and adjusts the backlog as needed.

• Participate in Scrum meetings:Scrum meetings(sometimes calledmonitor) are short daily status meetings focused on providing project updates and status.

• launch planning: Release planning is a detailed and evolving tool for optimizing communications and setting timelines for delivering products and milestones.

• Collaborate with development and the Scrum MasterA: The Product Owner must be in regular contact with the development team and theScrum Masterto ensure steady progress and identify potential roadblocks.

• Engage Stakeholders, the Scrum Team, and Users: The Product Owner is the voice of the customer and must ensure that information is not lost in transfers between user stories and the development team. After identifying challenges that arise in user stories, she encourages creative solutions within the team and fosters collaboration between the team and her customers. Keep communication open through feedback loops, stand-ups, and more to ensure the team is building the right product.

• Meet business objectives and manage finances: The Product Owner is responsible for all resources, including finance, during development. This includes making decisions based on the best return on investment (ROI) and understanding the costs and benefits of prioritizing the backlog.

• grant final approval: The Product Owner has the responsibility and authority to approve the work and decide whether it meets the acceptance criteria. For example, a user story early in the sprint might have been an application opportunity. The product owner can accept (yes, the user can participate) or reject the story. It is the responsibility of the Product Owner to support Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) based on the user story.

  (Video) Introduction to Scrum - 7 Minutes

• Change the project direction: Within the confines of the sprint, the Product Owner can steer the team in a different direction based on stakeholder needs and customer feedback.

• Understand the work of facilitators:facilitatorThese are the systems architects and engineers who support the needs of the company and its technical infrastructure. Product Owners do not need to have deep technical skills, but should work with enablers to ensure that the company's infrastructure is compatible with new software or applications being developed by the Scrum Team.

Learn more about becoming a Product Owner by reading "The best resources and training courses for a Scrum Product Owner.“

The goal of the Scrum framework is to deliver a product increment every Sprint. The Product Owner decides the length of the sprint, which is typically two to four weeks, and guides the development team through the work required to achieve a main goal and have the results ready for review. One of the main roles of a Product Owner is to participate in all development events including planning, daily standup, refinement, review, team demos, retrospective and sprint. The Product Owner champions the product, promotes the vision, and encourages the team.

Before the start of the sprint, Product Owners work with stakeholders and users to identify project goals. This helps to identify the scope of the sprint and plan the work. At the start of a Sprint, the Product Owner and Development Team outline and agree on the work to be done during the Sprint. The Product Owner defines the criteria the sprint must meet for review and acceptance, then creates the backlog items for the project.

During the Sprint, the Product Owner attends meetings to monitor progress, get updates, and answer questions. The Product Owner accepts or rejects the pending items in this phase based on acceptance and testing criteria. In refinement sessions during the sprint, the Product Owner can add or remove items from the backlog and perform reviews to get feedback and adjust the development process.

At the end of the sprint, the Product Owner leads the sprint demo or review meeting to update stakeholders. Any feedback from this review meeting can help plan the next sprint and identify items for the next sprint backlog. After the completion of the sprint, the project manager participates in the retrospective, evaluates the process and identifies opportunities for improvement.

Outlining sprint goals up front is imperative for product owners, but according to Pichler, developing sprint goals comes with a caveat. “Unfortunately, many product owners and agile teamsNoUse sprint goals or use them ineffectively,” he says. “Sprint goals often give thestoriesbe implemented instead ofReasonto perform the iteration. When settingBecausethe sprint is done andwhichWhen goals are met, everyone involved is on the same page before the sprint starts, leading to better results.

A Product Owner's wide range of responsibilities and skills can make the job seem overwhelming. They usually face many challenges:

• lack of authority: A product owner may not have enough support from management or the right people in the organization. The Scrum Team cannot be effective if the Product Owner has no real authority to carry out the work. Make sure you are trained and supported and trusted by the people who matter to your business.

• feel overwhelmed: Product Owners may find that they don't have enough time to do the work or that they don't get enough support from the team. In turn, these overworked Product Owners create bottlenecks for a project and are not always available to team members. If time is an issue, make sure the Product Owner has only one job: to serve as the Product Owner for a single product. Organizations often form agile teams without an official product owner, relying on someone "borrowing" from another job to step in when needed.

  according to thatAgile Allianz, the ideal relationship between the product owner and the product development team is 1:1, with a full-time product owner dedicated to one team. This ratio also works for product owners who don't get enough support from the team. When a team has only one product owner, there are clear lines of authority and decision making. And if the Product Owner lacks team support, make sure the team has enough time to get the job done and collaborate effectively.

• Proxy product owner: Sometimes, when transitioning to the Scrum workflow, companies sometimes use proxy owners before designating a product owner. This can happen when the official product owner is unavailable and a team member steps in to do the job. Regardless of the cause, this lack of clear direction and authority can lead to team confusion.

• Partial owner of the product: Make sure you understand the full scope of work and commit to the company to devote all of your time and energy to the product. This includes access to market research and project sales figures and other data to support your decisions. Otherwise, it might be difficult for you to assume all the responsibilities of a Product Owner.

Tips for Product Owners
Instead of feeling overwhelmed or powerless, try these tips:

• Act like a leader, not a manager: The main task of a product owner is to maximize the value of the product. One of the goals of Scrum is for the team to organize itself through work. Trust team members to do the work, so you can focus on the value the product brings to the business.

• redefine success: A project manager focuses on completing a task on time and within budget. As the product owner, you need to focus on the product and not just getting the job done. Product success does not depend on being ready, but on meeting user needs and reaching the right target audience. This means you need to focus on value, not the number of meetings or reviews or the speed of product development.

• user focus: Don't get bogged down trying to please stakeholders. Always listen to user needs and let them guide your decisions. Always listen and learn from your customers' feedback. This means you are reducing your time to learn, not your time to market.

The development of the Product Owner role is closely related to the Scrum framework that exists in an Agile environment. A Product Owner is responsible for the success of the project and connects users, developers and stakeholders to create the best possible product. The job is part marketing, part business, and part technology. The bottom line is that the product owner is looking for the best way to develop a solution for customers.

As the rate of innovation increases, many companies are turning to a deeper understanding of user experience and embracing design thinking. The skills of a product owner who is passionate about users and who can inspire teams to work become even more valuable. A Product Owner who knows what works for the team, the product and the market can be successful in any industry.

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