A team practising Scrum has three pivotal roles – the Scrum Master, the Product Owner or PO and the Team. The Product Owner is an integral part of a Scrum team. He is the guiding force that helps the team realize the product vision. A fully engaged collaborative PO is essential for a Scrum team to be successful.
The Product Owner is the product manager who has intimate information about the product. He acts as the customer proxy and is closely associated with the product vision. At any given point of time, he should be able to point out the features that are most important for the product, and should assist the team in building these highest value features early on. One of the advantages of Scrum is that the highest value/ most important parts are built first and are ready for release. The Product Owner’s contribution is essential to realize this.
The Product Owner assumes ultimate responsibility for the success or failure of a Scrum team. He is charged with the task of realizing the maximum ROI or return on investment.
What makes a great Product Owner? Apart from detailed product knowledge, what does the Product Owner need to drive a Scrum team to success?
Here are a few traits that I feel are important to be an effective Product Owner:
Total Commitment – complete engagement with the Scrum team is essential. While it may not be possible to be physically present in a Scrum team room all the time, the PO should be available via email, social media, messenger etc. The idea is to appear approachable so that the team members do not hesitate to voice their questions.
Product Backlog owner – the PO owns the Product Backlog. This is an ordered list of all the features that are desirable in the product. The PO continuously orders this according to changing business priorities and must be on hand to answer any questions regarding the backlog.
Subject Matter Expert – As an expert who should know the business and the product inside out, the PO is the go-to person for the Scrum team to answer any product related questions. He is the sole authority on the product and must be able to explain any business logic or detailed functionality that needs to be built in, and thus should assist the team as they work on their Sprint tasks.
Collaborative – Being collaborative and a good communicator is essential for the PO. He should be able to place himself ‘at par’ with the Scrum team and be open to deal with them at a peer level. A change in mindset might be needed here! Even though the person who is the PO is much higher in the organizational hierarchy, he/she needs to blend into the team and work shoulder to shoulder to achieve the common goal.
The Product Owner might need to take a back seat at times to allow the team to self-organize. This will require patience as well as faith. A good Product Owner will foster an efficient Scrum team – one that improves with each iteration and takes on bigger challenges.
