7 Strengths you must have as Product Owner
The role of a Product Owner is to guide the team on building a product that resolves a need. Besides, you can also consider profitable and is sustainable. As a product owner, your role is to create a product with a competitive advantage to gain the market. When I say create you need to think of all the complexity of the word: design, build, sell, train, market, everything around the product. Bellow the list of 7 main strengths every product owner must-have.
- As a Product Owner, you are the leader of the product you are building.
This role is about leadership. Your purpose is not only to define the needs the customers have so the development teams implement them BUT to create needs. Start identifying products that the customers cannot think yet it’s possible to have, create a demand. Take, for example, Apple and iPhones. Customers didn’t ask for an iPhone with all the functionalities it provided. Take Tesla. There was a need for electric cars, but the urge of self-driven vehicles came from a visionary man. You must anticipate customer needs. The Product Owner is visionary.
2. You know to say NO.
The hardest thing you need to do as a Product Owner is to reject the feedback with the lowest return of investment. As a Product Owner, you must decide what the minimum delivery that brings just the perfect product on the market to be profitable and to make the customers want more of your product.
3. You have an objective way of measurement of business value.
If the initial version of a product is preferably a prototype to prove the idea, later as a Product Owner, you must define yours owns system that will help you objectively to prioritise your list of functionalities quickly. Think about business value as a broad term.
- How often is that particular feature used?
- What specific functionality brings to your users?
- How much will a feature of your product bring to your business?
- Does the functionality open new markets?
- Does a particular requirement bring competitive advantage?
- How much does the requester of a feature contribute to your turnover?
- What does my business lose for not implementing a request?
4. You Explain WHY you are asking for a particular feature.
As a Product Owner, you are the ambassador of your product. Your role is to share your thoughts, explain to everyone around you the usage of your product features. As a leader, you’ll want to educate your customer and your team on the new need your product is meeting.
5. You are the WALL between the rest of the world requirements and team priority.
The scrum team has only one face and only one voice when it comes to making decisions about the product functionalities they build. It is your role as Product Owner to filter and to Know to prioritise the needs of the stakeholders into one prioritised product backlog. Nothing penetrates inside the team sprint backlog without your approval.
6. You can evaluate product progress at each iteration.
As Product Owner, you’ll need to know what are the success criteria of your product, translate them in acceptance criteria for each user story. You communicate it to the team and have an objective way of measuring progress. You must have an accurate idea of how much of your product is done.
7. You come prepared with the scope, user stories, information.
Don’t be afraid to share with your scrum team the meaning behind what they are building. Understanding the usability of your product will help the development team to create a meaningful outcome.
What are the strengths you think a Product Owner must-have?
