What is Important for a Young Scrum Product Owner?
Before I decided to become a Scrum Product Owner, I had read many articles about the characteristics of a great Product Owner. I got back to those articles today and found many of them helpful, especially for a person who wants to learn more about this role. Nevertheless, I consider much information superficial and rather theoretical than practical. I believe that the main challenge for every young Product Owner is turning theory into practice. It is extremely difficult to do that without being experienced in acting as a Product Owner.
I have been holding a role as a Product Owner for a year, working for Lufthansa Systems, one of the biggest IT companies in the aviation industry. During this period, I found out what are the most important aspects of this role. I learned them from my experience, and this knowledge helps me to carry out responsibilities successfully and effectively.
Be an Entrepreneur
Act like you are your own boss who aspires to put his best effort in launching a successful business. No one but you is responsible for the current and future success of a product. I realized that only full engagement can yield positive results.
Very often a working schedule can be unpredictable, and stress levels are high due to constant ups and downs. Do not get upset, these cons are common for this role and you need to cope with them.
Know a Direction and Define Destination
Goals are extremely important. Every short- and long-term planning should include goals. Plan your Sprints, quarters, years in a way to know which result you will achieve by the end of a certain term. The goals should be discussed and agreed with the development team because of the two important aspects: they should be feasible and transparent. Take into account the fact that long-term plans can evolve and change with time.
Trust your Team
Never make any decision on “how” to build the product, your development team knows it better. Likely, you as a Product Owner do not have the necessary competence to make educated decisions on architecture and design of a system. Instead, invest your time in activities to make your product better for a customer and increase its value.
Delegate tasks to the development team, e.g. replying to questions and requests from stakeholders, clarification of requirements, etc. You are not supposed to know each technical and functional detail of the product. If an answer to some question is not off the top of your head, ask the team to prepare it. If you feel that you can dig into details and do some task on your own, bear in mind that it may take your valuable time and distract you. Yet never address the questions concerning vision and strategy to the development team.
Prioritize Everything
A backlog of your product must be ordered. However, backlog management is not only an activity that needs prioritization of tasks. You should prioritize everything, e.g. meetings, emails, etc. You may have two meetings at the same time and you need to manage it. Making trade-offs constantly is one of the challenges of each Product Owner.
Be not Afraid to Negotiate
There are many stakeholders and many of them want to have a solution to their problem or fulfillment of their needs very fast. In the beginning, I tried to put almost every original request in the scope of the upcoming Sprint but it did not work. Then I started negotiating the scope and time of delivery with my stakeholders. Unfortunately, not all requests can be negotiated. You need to assess the severity of a problem. If the problem is critical, immediately put it on the top of a backlog.
Be not Afraid to Change Decisions
It is impossible to foresee the future. Circumstances can change or you can simply forget about an important detail during the decision making. Therefore, an agreed goal can be changed for the sake of a successful product. Any change should be transparent, and a development team and stakeholders should know “why” your decision is changed.
Be not Limited to Scrum and Agile
Although Scrum and Agile have become an integral part of our professional life, many activities go beyond these approaches. For example, market research, communication, price negotiations, cost structure, PR, etc. If you wish to initiate a project, you will need to sell your idea to a steering board or CEO of a company. A clear business case should be created and presented.
Know your Product as Best you Can
If you take responsibility for an existing product, make an inventory and try to understand its every key functionality. You need to know for what customers love the product and which features of it may be enhanced or retired. The knowledge will help you to maximize the value of your product and focus on the most important things. The SWOT analysis can help to take the first step.
Be Available for a Team
A development team needs your support daily. You are a decision-maker, and many aspects of routine work need to be discussed and agreed with you.
Respect your Stakeholders
Always reply to emails, do not ignore any request. I strongly believe that an answer “no” is much valuable than a lack of the answer at all.
Ask Questions
You learn constantly. The more questions you ask, the higher chances of learning more.
Be Open for Feedback
Any feedback helps to grow. Negative feedback will help to improve your performance, while a positive one will reinforce your merits.
In conclusion, I believe that during the first year of acting as a Product Owner, a risk of failing will be minimal if you follow these suggestions. We learn through experience and “progress is based on observations of reality”. Making use of my experience, you have a chance to learn and put the knowledge into practice faster.
