What’s a Proxy Product Owner anyway?

Since I’ve started my most recent position many friends ( and family ) have asked me what it is I actually do? And what’s a proxy product owner while we’re at it?

SCRUM is an agile framework, that means it provides a set of guidelines, ceremonies and tools to deal with agile software development and one of the roles that exist in this framework is that of a Product Owner, PO for brevity.

This PO sits between the ‘client’, that’s whoever will buy the product, and the ‘team’, that’s whoever makes the product. A PO decides what needs to be done and in which order it should be done.

To do this, the PO talks with ‘stakeholders’, that’s the different people who stand to derive value from the product’s success — like investors and users — and also people who are not part of the ‘team’ but still needed to make the product a success in the first place — like marketers, executive officers, the pizza delivery service etc.

The PO gathers wishes and requirements from all these stakeholders, talks with stakeholders whose interests do not align to mediate and broker a mutually agreeable solution — then puts such a solution into a certain format which the ‘team’ will then implement as working software in a new iteration of the product.

To get the team to do the right thing, the PO must be clear on what they want, negotiate possible ways to get the desired value added to the product at the lowest cost at acceptable quality. For this the PO will meet with the ‘team’, talk about these things and agree what really needs to be done — and afterwards check whether all the agreed-on things are really there, because the PO is accountable for the value and cost of their product towards their stakeholders.

To succeed, a PO should be:

• a skillful negotiator
• a good listener
• a quick learner
• a patient teacher

It also helps to know some of each of the trades their work intersects with, such as:

• software engineering
• digital strategy
• business development
• project management
• experience design
• market research
• quality assurance
• platform architecture
• financial services
• procurement
• staffing
• accounting
• human resources

So, what is a “proxy” PO, PPO for brevity, doing then? Simple: all of the above, as a representative of the actual PO — as far as they do not do it themselves. Well, at least that’s the idea.

Often times a ‘client’ may be unfamiliar with SCRUM or even agile methodologies in general or simply software development per se. In such cases they will be hard-pressed to find someone internally to successfully own their product on their own, and thus they would rather an experienced PO helped them along the way — all the while retaining all the powers a PO possesses.

While this lifts some duties from the PPO, it also adds some which one might more typically find with a Scrum Master, SM for brevity, or an Agile Coach such as:

• helping the PO write sound specifications
• helping the PO understand agile processes
• helping the PO make sound decisions on issues they have little knowledge of
• helping the PO communicate effectively with the multi-disciplinary ‘team’
• administrate the project’s principal to-do list, the product backlog
• helping the PO maintain due process
• keep the PO safe from from all sorts of costly beginner mistakes
• help the PO understand available progress and success metrics
• help the PO digest stakeholder input

So, all in all, the PPO takes on both a hands-on role and acts as a personal consultant and mediator at the same time.

So who can successfully be a PPO? Anyone, right? Not so much, no.

One needs to have intimate knowledge of SCRUM and some hands-on experience with the PO and/or the SM role, successfully shipping products from inception to market — the client relies on your expertise to do the same!

Personally I’ve served in similar positions, such as Game Designer, Product Owner, Producer and Product Manager and the Proxy Product Owner role has so far proven to be a welcome new challenge.

So, is this a positiont that’s exclusive to agencies? No. In companies where there are few managers and even fewer who have the proper experience to take care of all the duties of a PO, i.e. when they need to take care of multiple projects at the same time, can benefit from having PPOs to ensure smooth sailing and shield them from the time-consuming details of the role while still remaining personally in control and grow into the PO role rather than jumping in at the deep end. This is especially worthwhile in long-standing companies with managers who’ve been with the company for a long time, possibly long before they knew they’d have to play the role of a PO eventually — hiring a PPO may prove more convenient than replacing these managers.

If you would like to ask a question regarding this role, feel free to send me a PM as usual. And don’t forget to enjoy your day!