Why are products taking so long to get in front of customers? Taking years of iteration before a single customer even gets a chance to use the product. These products had good intentions to solve some massive problems but would often fail after years of development.

What were some of the reasons that cause this failure? Poor planning? Not a great development team? Somewhere along the journey of 1000 sprints the product had lost its vision and wasn’t able to truly be of value to users. During development, they weren’t anyone who would truly own the product and the vision for what that product should look like. Often there isn’t a single person or at least a consistent group of people in charge long enough. Someone would write the requirements specifications, this would then be handed off to the project manager, who then passes this off to the development team. Everyone involved had a different opinion and vision for the product.

What’s the solution? A product owner. Someone who is definitely in charge of the product and its success.

Who is the Product Owner?

The product owner is the one who leads the development efforts. This often involves a mix of activities like creating and grooming the product backlog; planning the release; getting customer feedback and preparing the product launch all the while attending Scrum meetings, and collaborating with the team.

The product owner plays a crucial part not only in bringing new products to life but also in managing the product lifecycle. When one person is in charge or a consistent group of persons across releases, ensures continuity and encourages long-term thinking to ensure the product vision can be realized.

Positive Characteristics of Product Owner

What are some of the characteristics of a product owner that is crucial to the success of the project? Successful product owners often share similar characteristics. Let’s describe what these characteristics may look like.

Leader and Team Player

Good leaders are able to create visions, articulate that vision and drive that vision to completion. The product owners should be exactly that leader. As the individual responsible for the product’s success, the product owner provides guidance and direction for everyone involved in the development effort and ensures that tough decisions are made. In the same breath, product owners need to be team players. Nobody likes and tolerates a dictator. Product owner success relies heavily on his/her ability to collaborate effectively with other team members.

Visionary and Doer

Being a visionary means having the ability to see the invisible. To make the unmanifested turn into the manifested. Not only should they be able to paint a picture and articulate that picture to a team but they must be able to do what they say they are going to do as well. You know walk that walk.

Communicator and Negotiator

The product owner must be an effective communicator and negotiator. The product owner has to communicate across multiple groups including customers, users, sales team, operations, and management. They often have to negotiate what features get built and when they should get built.

Empowered and Committed

Product owners need just enough autonomy to be able to lead development efforts and align the team in a particular direction. Being a product owner is a tough job and requires a lot of commitment. The product owner must be committed to the development effort.

Available and Qualified

The product owner must be available and qualified to do a great job. A product owner is a full-time job. It is necessary to allocate the time and resources needed to get the job done. A product owner must be able to adequately understand the customer and market.

Closing

The product owner is the cornerstone of a great scrum team. If you find that you have all the right people in the development, sales, marketing, and operations but still not shipping the product that you want perhaps a product owner is missing from the mix.