What is a Product Owner?
A Product Owner is the member of the Scrum Team that is accountable for “maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of the Scrum Team.”
The Scrum Team as a whole is accountable for creating a valuable product, specifically “for creating a valuable, useful Increment every Sprint.” It’s the Product Owner who helps the rest of the Scrum Team gain clarity about what would be “valuable.”
The Scrum Guide outlines the Product Owner’s accountabilities as “effective Backlog Management, including
- Developing and explicitly communicating the Product Goal;
- Creating and clearly communicating Product Backlog items;
- Ordering Product Backlog items; and,
- Ensuring that the Product Backlog is transparent, visible and understood.”
Those very new to Scrum may read these accountabilities and conclude that it is a very tactical job, centered around administration of the backlog. Nothing is further from the truth!
The Product Owner owns the product vision. They play a crucial role in guiding the rest of the Scrum Team toward a shared understanding of the product’s value, purpose, goals and direction. A professional Product Owner uses both agile product management and Scrum skills to fulfill their responsibilities:
- Product Owners use agile product management skills and techniques to manage the product lifecycle and its long-term business objectives. Examples include: market research and competitive analysis; product strategy; product roadmapping; acting as the voice of the customer; engaging with stakeholders; maximizing revenue and return on investment; product launch; and product retirement.
- Product Owners Scrum and the elements of the Scrum framework to deliver on their vision of the product. For example: applying empiricism and experimentation for product and value discovery; crafting concrete, actionable and measurable Product Goals to provide focus for the Scrum Team; and using strong backlog management techniques to help communicate steps toward the Product Goal.
In order to maximize the value of the work of the Scrum Team, the Product Owner must provide timely decision-making and guidance to the team. This requires that the accountabilities of the Product Owner and the outcome of the work the team does, rest with one person. They cannot be distributed across several people or a committee. However, the Product Owner may delegate the responsibility of doing the work to others.
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