Who is an Agile Product Owner?
An Agile Product Owner or a Scrum Product Owner is a professional at the core of complex projects who is entrusted with the vital responsibility of enhancing the profitability of an organization’s business by creating a positive image of the product in the market so that it sells with a margin of profit. The Product Owner has an array of roles and responsibilities, which may range anything from the business side of the product to its design and being the “face” of the product by creating the link between the development team and the customer.
Roles and Responsibilities of the Agile Scrum Product Owner
An Agile Scrum Product Owner takes on several roles, including business strategist, product designer, market analyst, customer liaison, and project manager. Of these, the key roles and responsibilities are enumerated as follows:
1. Outlining the vision of the product
The Product Owner is the one who creates the vision of the product. The product owner constantly follows up with all parties and, through many deliberations and meetings, creates the product vision for the company. The vision is constantly communicated with the team as well as the customer. It is the responsibility of the Product Owner to create any modifications in the product vision as per realistic outcomes and communicate the same to the developers as well as the customer(s) periodically.
2. Maintaining the product backlog
One of the primary roles of the product owner is to manage the product backlog in which the roadmap is created. The product owner is responsible for building up a list of items in the backlog and sorting them out as per business goals.
3. Making a priority list and ordering items in the product backlog
Another role of the product owner is to prioritize the needs of the stakeholders. The product owner should be able to determine the priority of the backlog items and deliver a maximum outcome.
4. Monitoring the development stages of the product
Taking into consideration the three development stages of the product i.e. outlining the vision, creating a product backlog, and prioritizing the product, the product owner spends his/her simultaneous time monitoring the actual development of the product. The product owner is the key player for every event and helps in analysis, refinement, sprint, etc.
5. Understanding customer requirements and conveying the same to the Development Team
In today’s world, the product owner needs to understand and sort out the customers’ or clients’ needs. Here the main role of the product owner is to know the customer’s issues and figure them out.
6. Carrying out the role of a primary liaison
The product owner is the primary liaison between the customers and the teams. In this, the Product Owner should be very fast to send the information and clear any misinterpretation.
7. Scrutinising the progress of the product development at each iteration
It is the product owner’s responsibility, through each iteration, to inspect and assess the progress of the product. The product owner will make decisions regarding product increment according to the vision for the product and, if required, will revise the vision in later sprints.
8. Participation in daily Scrum and sprint planning meetings
The product owner needs to participate in the Scrum program to keep the development team up to date and understand the team’s importance.
9. Deciding on terminating a Sprint if not in line with the customer’s requirement
The product owner can terminate the sprint if there is no drastic change or if it holds no value for the business.
Conclusion
An Agile Scrum Product Owner has one of the most critical and vital roles and responsibilities to handle in the Scrum team of an organization. The Product Owner plays the role of the mediator between the Customer and the Product Development Team. He or she keeps updating each regarding the newest developments and recommends changes, if any. They decide when to step in and change the product backlog at any moment when the current development is not in line with the original product vision. Overall, an Agile Scrum Product Owner is entrusted with great responsibility, which justifies a great deal of respect a product owner commands globally, along with a good pay package. At Spoclearn, we provide some of the best Product Owner certification training programs, including CSPO Certification Training from Scrum Alliance, ACSPO Certification Training from Exin, and SAFe POPM Training from Scaled Agile Inc. Check out the course outline and benefits of these Product Owner certification courses to enroll today.