What Does a Product Owner Do?

What exactly is a Product Owner and what does the position look like?

Product Owners play an important role during every development cycle. Their role can include various tasks, from business strategy to product design. The implementation is different for every organization, but a Product Owner is always responsible for maximizing the products made by the development team. In this article we will tell you more about this special and challenging position.

What is a Product Owner?

A Product Owner always works according to an Agile or Scrum working method and is therefore often called an Agile Product Owner or Scrum Product Owner . A Product Owner always works in a team consisting of a Scrum Master and a Developer . He or she is responsible for maximizing the value of the work the Scrum team produces. In other words: how do we ensure that we deliver the best product to the customer?

To ensure this, a Product Owner takes on a multi-faceted role. For example, he or she takes on the roles of a business strategist, product designer, market analyst, project manager and customer contact person. A very challenging role!

What does a Product Owner do?

Product Owners are responsible for the results of the development team. In collaboration with the Scrum team, they develop the best products for the customer. He or she takes on various roles, from business strategist to project manager and designer.

For example, they spend one day tapping into in-depth knowledge of the market and devising strategies that they then present to stakeholders. The other day they have to use their skills as developers and manage the team to achieve the goals.

The duties and responsibilities of a Product Owner vary by organization, but in general the following duties belong to this position:

• Acts as the point of contact for the development team.
• Sets goals and develops a clear vision for the development project by creating a product roadmap .
• Mapping the customer journey, so that you understand the customer well and can anticipate during the development process.
• Communication with stakeholders: customers, business manager and the development team.
• Managing the product backlog: a project task list of the development team. You draw up a list of items, prioritize them and make them accessible to all stakeholders.
• Ensures a balance between scope, budget, time and priority based on the needs and objectives.
• Oversees the actual development of the product by keeping an eye on events and planning. Then comes up with areas for improvement and assessments to refine the process.
• Testing all product parts and accepting or rejecting them.

What do you need to be able to do in this position?

As a Product Owner, it is important that you are able to provide good leadership. Agile or Scrum product development has a flexible and fast nature, which can sometimes cause the team to forget the coherent vision. That's why it's important to ensure that the team is always on the same page to ensure the project runs effectively.

Furthermore, it is important that you:

• Understand customer needs well and can anticipate them.
• Have in-depth market knowledge to be able to properly anticipate problems or needs.
• Can communicate well. You must be able to properly present all important decisions and strategies to stakeholders. You must also be able to give developers clear instructions and goals.

In addition, it is important that you know everything about an Agile or Scrum working method, product roadmaps, customer journeys and product backlog management.