Professional Scrum Product Owner - Advanced

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There is NO prerequisite course for this course.

If you’re a Product Manager, this is the course for you.

While Scrum recognizes that effective Product Owners should also be accountable for product management, that alignment isn’t always possible in practice. The Advanced Professional Scrum Product Owner course takes a deep look at Product Ownership through the lens of both an entrepreneur and a product manager—focusing on how to drive product success in complex, real-world environments.

Familiarity with the Scrum Framework is helpful, but this course goes far beyond its mechanics. You’ll explore tools, strategies, and techniques for evolving a product that are just as effective outside of Scrum as they are within it.

Navigate the complex world of product ownership and take value to the next level 

How can a Product Owner effectively juggle the multitude of responsibilities, priorities, and personalities that come with product development? The Professional Scrum Product Owner™ - Advanced (PSPO-A) course is here to help! This hands-on, activity-rich course is designed specifically for experienced Product Owners and Product Managers seeking to sharpen their skills and make a more effective impact on product value.

In this course, you’ll explore a range of behavioral patterns and mental models, or “stances,” to help you handle challenging situations with greater confidence and clarity. You’ll go beyond foundational Product Owner concepts, learning how to set a powerful vision, validate hypotheses, and deliver more value to stakeholders. PSPO-A dives deeper than the basics, empowering you to become a truly professional Product Owner with a comprehensive view of the role and strategies to tackle the complexities of real-world product management.

Product Owners understand different approaches to problems

Product Ownership is About Vision, Value, and Validation

Product Owners don’t just manage requirements—they evolve the product by deeply understanding its vision, delivering customer value, and validating outcomes.

The Product Owner is a Strategic Value Maximizer

Often mistaken for a “requirements generator,” the Product Owner’s role is focused on maximizing strategic value. This class explores how Product Owners can drive product impact through well-informed, value-focused decisions.

Scrum is More Than an IT Delivery Method

Scrum is commonly misinterpreted as a delivery tool mainly for IT teams. This course reframes Scrum as a flexible mechanism for delivering potential value to customers. By continuously responding to customer feedback, Product Owners can pivot towards delivering the highest value.

Collaborative Requirement Creation and Product Backlog Management is Key

While the Product Owner steers the Product Backlog, they aren’t solely responsible for creating or modifying requirements. Effective Product Owners communicate and collaborate closely with the Scrum Team to foster shared ownership and leverage team insights.

This course helps product owners embrace a strategic, collaborative approach that drives true product value.

Class Mechanics and Strategy

My classes are designed to transform the way you think about work, not just teach the mechanics of Scrum. If you only follow the rules without understanding the principles behind them, Scrum will feel rigid and disappointing. But when you grasp the why behind Scrum, you gain the insight to apply it effectively—and the freedom to adapt it to your team’s reality.  

This class is not a guided practice of Scrum, but an even more thorough approach to understanding it. Through in depth discussions and exercises, you will change your thought process around agile.  We tackle complex, authentic exercises that reflect the realities of product development. Every student as an intelligent peer who brings valuable experience and creativity to the discussion, and the class is designed to respect and build upon their insight.  

I don’t guarantee everyone will pass the Scrum.org assessment, and with good reason.  The test is difficult and should be seen as a significant achievement.  I don't run a certification mill and as such, I teach a deep understanding of the reasons behind Scrum rather than how to pass a test.

Why Scrum.org?

Choosing Scrum.org means choosing quality, consistency, and expertise. Scrum co-creator Ken Schwaber directed the creation of every course with hands-on exercises aligned with the Scrum Guide. Scrum.org classes are the intent of Scrum, right from the inventor.

Aside from a first-hand understanding of Scrum, what sets our courses apart is the collaborative approach. With input from hundreds of Professional Scrum Trainers worldwide, our courses continually evolve through a steward model. This collective expertise ensures that our content reflects the latest thinking and best practices in Scrum, giving you access to insightful and innovative training.

When you choose Scrum.org, you’re getting more than a course. You’re getting the course created by the inventor of Scrum, which is curated and evolved by a global network of experts.

Why Dr. Suscheck?

Dr. Charles Suscheck is a seasoned software development and Agile education expert, with over 30 years of experience that spans from hands-on development to enterprise-level Agile coaching. Starting as a developer, he has grown into a leading figure in Agile transformation, helping organizations align business and IT to unlock the full potential of Agile principles. His classes range from advanced, highly technical programming classes to executive-level organizational change classes.

Dr. Suscheck holds a Doctor of Computer Science, a Master’s in Computer Information Systems, and a Bachelor’s in Computer Science. He has served as a full-time faculty member at Colorado State University and continues to teach as an adjunct faculty member at several universities. Beyond teaching, he consults with large organizations, helping align business and IT to maximize the benefits of Agile principles.  Charles is a past Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner course Steward.

Learning Objectives

• Learn and explore the different stances (behavioral patterns) a Product Owner takes in order to navigate everyday challenges
• Modern complementary practices will be introduced through discussions, case studies and exercises
• Students will leave with a clear understanding of Agile Product Management as they continue on their Product Owner journey
• Learn about the various types of stakeholders that Product Owners represent and how to best work with them.
• Learn the skills, traits, and behavior shifts required to be an effective Product Owner.

Outline

The PSPO Advanced course is a mix of lectures, case studies, and interactive exercises as you collaborate with other students. Active learning is the main approach throughout the course.

The Product Owner role is multifaceted, requiring them to engage in behaviors and adopt mindsets beyond the core of Agility and the Scrum framework. Students explore these techniques and how to pivot among them by exploring several Product Owner "stances" including:

• The Customer Representative:
  • Focus on understanding customer problems, pains and opportunities
  • Get into the mindset of the customer, placing yourself in their world, understanding their needs
  • Deliver value by connecting product features to customer outcomes
• The Visionary:
  • Champion the future state, possibilities, goals and chances
  • Communicate the product vision, strategy and Product Goal
  • Understand value and pricing models
• The Experimenter:
  • Focus on innovation through experiments, hypotheses, tests, learnings, data and validation of value
  • Understand the Product Owner’s role in a scaled environment
• The Decision Maker:
  • Focus on making better decisions
  • Navigate conflicting customer feedback
• The Collaborator:
  • Seek collaboration with stakeholders and the Scrum Team
  • Work beyond the Scrum Team including contracts, finance, budgeting and governance in an agile way
• The Influencer:
  • Lead the stakeholders, customers and Scrum Team, to move in the right direction and to change their minds, when necessary
  • Learn how to create a stakeholder management strategy

Who should attend?

The course assumes some experience with product development and a basic understanding of the Scrum framework.  If you are unfamiliar with Scrum, this course will be a challenge.  Certain terms and rules of  Scrum are discussed assuming that the students are familiar with them. You should read the Scrum Guide (www.scrumguides.org) before class. The course is perfectly appropriate for non-IT professionals who are looking to apply Scrum in their context. 

Certification

After completing a Professional Scrum Product Owner course, students receive credentials to take the Professional Scrum Product Owner II (PSPO II) assessment, which earns them the industry-recognized PSPO II Certification. Students take the assessment independently after class.  

Virtual via Zoom.

We’ll use Zoom and MURAL during our class. You don’t need to be an expert in either tool. You won’t need an account for either one or any applications - everything is completely browser-based. 

Having a good internet connection, a webcam, and a microphone will help as the class is very interactive.

For more information or to arrange group rates contact:  info@juniperhillassociates.com