As a self-proclaimed Scrum Master whisperer, I’ve chatted and worked with more development teams than I can count. As a result, I’ve experienced a wide diversity of Product Owners. From the good, the bad, to the downright ugly – I’ve seen it all.
One thing is crystal clear, a good product owner can turn a decent project into a masterpiece. Meanwhile, a less than average product owner can sink a project faster than the Titanic.
So, what sets the two apart?
The secret ingredient to being a successful product owner is an innate ability to understand people’s needs. Whether it’s your stakeholders, customers, or team members – a good product owner knows what they need and makes sure they have it. But, how do they do it?
By displaying and living the attributes described below:
1. Easily Accessible to teams – Empowering the teams by being present and available
2. Ability to see the big picture – Envisioning a holistic view of the Product’s goals to drive outcomes.
3. Collaborative team player – A dedicated team player, fostering a collaborative environment to drive success
4. Setting high expectations – Setting high standards to achieve ambitious goals and deliverables
5. Prioritizing / Negotiating and building consensus – Prioritizing tasks, negotiating with stakeholders, and building consensus for successful project completion
6. Storytelling / communicating effectively – Mastering the art of storytelling and communicating complex ideas in a simple and effective manner
7. Motivating and inspiring – Inspiring and motivating team members to work towards a common goal
8. Decisive and willing to make hard decisions – Making tough decisions with confidence and conviction for the project’s benefit
9. Taking economic view to balance business with technology – Balancing business and technology by taking an economic view of project decisions
10. Building good relationships with stakeholders – Building strong relationships and maintaining a good rapport for long-term success
Let’s look at these closely
1. Be Available: A Key Trait of Good Product Owners
In the fast-paced world of Scrum teams, having an available product owner can make all the difference between project success and failure. Your team needs you to answer their questions, clarify their expectations, and provide support whenever they need it.
To build a collaborative and productive relationship with your team, you need to be part of it. Sit closer to your team members when at work and be active in the product development chat groups when away.
Regularly attend all the team events. Remember, you’re a Scrum team member and team members expect you to be present and actively participate in Daily Scrum, Sprint Planning, Sprint Reviews and Retrospectives
Remember, you are expected to grow into an expert who understands users, customers, and markets; knows the product inside out, is involved in every stage of product development and demonstrates the product knowledge and understanding through conversations. This is much more than writing user stories; it should also show in your ability to demo new functionalities, features during Sprint Reviews. Are you on top of what is needed for you to be connected and available to your team member?
2. Motivate and inspire your team to succeed: The visionary aspect of Product Ownership
The best among the Product Owners not only set a clear vision for their teams but carve a path filled with inspiration to drive their teams towards that vision. Remember, a great vision is important as it provides a sense of purpose and direction, but outcomes are driven through actions.
Many Product Owners start writing grandiose Steve Jobs style vision. This is not required. A clear, inspiring vision that motivates your team is enough.
Remember, If you cannot imagine it, you cannot achieve it! Start with a clear goal. That will help you get to a compelling vision.
Example: Alexander Graham Bell had a goal. It was to communicate by transmitting speech across great distances before the end of the century. It was clear and elevating. It inspired him to invent the telephone which revolutionized communication and shaped the future of technology!
Make sure your Product Vision just a clear and inspiring, although it needn’t be as grand as Bells’.
A few examples of clear, inspiring goals:
- Design a product that will help reduce carbon emission by 50% in 20 years.
- Build a product that enables people to learn a new language in 3 months.
- Design and build a Product that helps solve food waste by 50%.
Your Product Vision can evolve over time. Jeff Bezos started Amazon as an online bookstore initially and evolved it over time. Keep the vision flexible but it stays clear and inspiring to the team members.
3. Use the Power of Collaboration: Product Owner Game Changer!
Successful Product Owners collaborate effectively with stakeholders. They know that success with product is not only dependent on understanding customers, users, markets, risks and competition but also working closely with teams and collaborating with stakeholers.
Collaborating effectively involves listening to stakeholders’ opinions on priorities, features, needs, and concerns. Building trust with team members and creating a shared sense of ownership and purpose will lead to better outcomes.
Example: Team might request some dedicated time to refactor code. Do not dismiss it right away. Instead ask good questions to understand the impact of this refactoring and how the value delivered measure up with competing stories you wanted to prioritize,
Remember, collaborating is not just about getting to done but also about bonding and building trust with your team and stakeholders. It pays off in the long run.
4. Raise the Bar with Ambitious Goals to achieve Exceptional Delivery: This way you will be able to challenge the team to come up with creative solutions to tough problems.
Example: Ask them to create a user interface that is so simple and intuitive that even their grandmother can figure out.
Give your team enough time to build work items with quality. Often, the rush to quickly finish committed items hardly leaves them with time to be creative enough or build to a high quality. As a result, achieving barely “good enough” state becomes a habit. Imagine if Beethoven was asked to shorten his masterpiece, the symphony number 9!? OR if Leonardo Da Vinci rushed to complete is greatest work, the Mona Lisa; what would the outcome look like?
Disastrous, or at the least, average, right? So, be a good product captain and do not insist on shortcuts. Of course, there will be times when you will need to ship a feature or release a product with some known imperfections or workarounds but that should not become the norm. Give reasonable time and space to your development team to produce their best work.
Invest in your team’s learning and education by allocating time and budget. This is helpful, specially in the tech industry where new technologies emerge, and skills get outdated quickly. This will help them grow and also add value to your product.
Remember, a team that learns together, grows together, and succeeds together!
5.Prioritize but stay flexible: The Keys to Being a Good Product Owner in Agile
A wise person once said, “Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.” And in the world of agile product development, time is a currency that’s always in short supply.
That’s why it’s crucial for product owners to prioritize the functionality they want built. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that everything is equally important. The team needs a clear understanding of what’s truly essential so they can focus their efforts accordingly and deliver the most value in the shortest amount of time.
Of course, priorities can change as the market shifts and new information comes to light. And that’s okay. A good product owner knows how to stay flexible and adapt to changing circumstances. For example, imagine you’re developing a new mobile app for a fitness company.
You might have initially prioritized features like calorie tracking and workout logging. But if you notice a trend in the market towards more social and community-oriented fitness apps, you might pivot your priorities to focus on features that allow users to connect with each other and share their progress.
Opportunities can arise at any time, and it’s important to be open to them. For instance, let’s say you’re
There may be times when you have to ship a product with known imperfections or release a feature in its “good enough” state, but it’s essential to balance that with the time and space for your team to produce their best work. After all, rushing anything almost always leads to costly mistakes down the line.
Quality work takes time, but it pays off in the long run. Rushed products are seldom worth it and come with hidden costs. So, it’s wise to schedule in time for learning and improvement. As the famous saying goes, “If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.”
In the tech industry, technical skills become outdated quickly. New technologies emerge, and old ones improve or get replaced. So, give your team the opportunity to learn new skills and improve their existing ones. This not only benefits the team but also adds value to your product.
As a product owner, you want to deliver high-quality products quickly. Working on a project with a tight deadline and a limited budget. You’re already halfway through your product backlog when an unexpected opportunity arises to partner with a small group of influential users who are willing to pay a premium for early access to your product.
In this case, you might prioritize finishing the features that are most important to this particular group of users and release a half-finished product to them, knowing that they’ll provide valuable feedback that can help guide the rest of the development process.
It’s important to note that not all changes are created equal. Random changes and indecisiveness can be frustrating for the development team and derail progress. But changes based on new knowledge, market shifts, or emerging opportunities are a necessary part of the agile process.
As a product owner, your job is to balance the need for stability with the need for adaptability. Ask yourself, “What’s the most important thing right now?” And be willing to adjust your priorities as circumstances change. Remember, in the world of agile product development, the only constant is change.
What about the thoughts shared in this article so far stood out for you? What would you add to these 5 qualities discussed in detail? What have I missed that you can think of? Please share your thoughts.
The Part 2 of “How do Great Product Owners help their Teams” will be published next week where we will deep dive in the remaining qualities and the conclusion.
