What it means to be a Product Owner
Being a Product Owner is hard. The responsibilities are daunting. The tasks you have to accomplish every day can feel like climbing a mountain. But, if you are able to successfully conquer these hardships, the Product Owner role is a very rewarding job.
Let’s talk about what being a Product Owner means. What should your responsibilities look like (at a big or small company — spoiler alert, they should be the same). What are some of the key personality traits you should have or learn? What are your objectives? Lots to discuss, let’s dive in!
Responsibilities
I’ll jump right into the good stuff. Responsibilities of a Product Owner. I’m going to list these out based on my personal experience, other blogs, conference talks and job postings.
Embody the product vision
As the Product Owner, your number one responsibility should be embodying the vision of your product. The vision should influence every action and decision you make on a daily basis. It’s also imperative that everyone understands this vision as well. Do you want a motivated team? Make sure they know why they are coming to work everyday.
Obsess over your customers
I recently listened to a conference talk given by Gibson Biddle (check out the references to watch the whole thing) and it revolved around obsessing over the customers. He used to be in the business of just focusing on the customer, just giving them what they need. He learned how to shift his thinking to an obsession into pleasing the customers beyond what they even think they need. This is crucial to being a product owner, and a product leader, you should be innovating, and delivering experimental experiences that help grow your product into something amazing.
Shape the roadmap
I would define a good roadmap as one that the team understands and feels ownership over. It includes the right problems that are driving the company strategy and is useful to those both in and outside of the team. — Matt Walton
I like this definition of a roadmap a lot. It distinguishes what you should be responsible for versus what the companies product manager or chief product officer or some other role is responsible for. As a PO, it’s not your job to determine the strategy of the company. But it is your job to make sure the product you are developing is helping the company achieve their strategy, and that’s where the roadmap comes in. Each feature and iteration of the product should be helping the company achieve their goals. With a good roadmap in place you can break down features, write stories, and do all the fun prioritization stuff with your team or teams!
Own the backlog
This is really closely related to the roadmap stuff, but at a more granular level. The backlog should be like your garden. You are planting seeds (writing stories), watering the plants (grooming stories), harvesting the fruits and veggies (closing and releasing stories), picking weeds (creating and prioritizing bugs or tech debt). You get the picture! The backlog is yours to command and you get to choose what stories are planted and what order they go in based on the roadmap.
The honest truth
Hopefully you’ve noticed so far that I haven’t distinguished these responsibilities by what sector you work in (banking, insurance, travel, video games, etc.) or if you work at a 10 person start-up or a 50,000 person multi-million dollar company. And, this isn’t even an exhaustive list of what a Product Owner is responsible for, just some of what I believe to be the most important ones! Is the Product Owner role be challenging and full of responsibility? Heck yes it is! But it’s challenging for different reasons depending on where you work. The 10 person start-up Product Owner’s challenges might be getting good user feedback, where the million dollar company PO challenges might be how to satisfy the many stakeholders. This is honestly the hard truth that we need to accept — being a Product Owner is really hard and it’s not for everyone.
If you aren’t the most informed person about the product, it might not be the role for you.
If you can’t think outside the box and try new ideas, it might not be the role for you.
If you can’t be responsible for making tough priority decisions, it might not be the role for you.
If you can’t collaborate between technical teams and business teams, it might not be the role for you.
This might be tough to hear. Especially in the industry now where it feels like everyone is being encouraged to become a Product Owner. But the reality is that being a Product Owner is a tough gig, with a ton of weight and responsibility behind the title. No one said being a Product Owner would be easy, and we shouldn’t sacrifice our key responsibilities to make our jobs easier, because that’s what defines us.
Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views or opinions of my employer.
References
Biddle, Gibson. “Customer Obsession.” Mind the Product, 15 Aug. 2018, www.mindtheproduct.com/2018/08/customer-obsession/.
Walton, Matt. “Creating Good Roadmaps: 6 Practical Steps for Product Leaders.” Mind the Product, 19 Feb. 2018, www.mindtheproduct.com/2018/02/creating-good-roadmaps-6-practical-steps-product-leaders/.
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