I have been an Agile practitioner for nearly 10 years now, so I thought I would pen a blog about 10 different attributes and behaviors of the many poor Product Owners I have encountered in my career. Now don’t get me wrong, if you exhibit any of these attributes or behaviors, you can work to improve them, which is part of the Agile philosophy. I simply want to help you identify opportunities for improvement.
Control freak
Have you ever met someone who couldn’t “share the love”? Being a control freak in some aspects of a person’s life might be acceptable – like taking care of your health, having a clean and tidy workspace, etc. But when it comes to Product Ownership, this mindset won’t fly. As a Product Owner, you must have a vision and goal for your product, but you don’t get to tell the team how to do anything. So, let go of control…
Too optimistic and not realistic
It’s great to be an optimist, but as a Product Owner, you must also be realistic. You may have a grand plan for your product to rule the world, but a Scrum Team can only get so much done within a sprint. If you know your team’s average velocity, use that as a guide for forecasting what can be completed. And, be grateful for whatever your team can produce, but don’t have unrealistic expectations.
Never satisfied
One phrase often associated with Agile is the “art of maximizing the amount of work NOT done” (scrum.org). If you are a perfectionist (like I used to be), you may not be very happy as a Product Owner. Perfection is not the goal, nor is it even achievable. You should be going for “good enough” as your benchmark for releasing a product to get feedback. Be satisfied with what you get (or as I say to my children: “you get what you get, and you don’t throw a fit!”).
Inability to say “No”
Are you a “pleaser”? If so, you probably have a hard time saying “No” when someone asks for you something. If you behave this way, you might want to re-think being a Product Owner. To do this job successfully, you need to be able to firmly say “No” when the request is not the best choice for your product, given the context of the situation.
Inflexible
If you think that Agile projects and products are straightforward and that your plans will go as planned, you may as well stop reading right now. Agile is all about being flexible and adaptable to change. The three pillars of empiricism (inspection, adaptation, and transparency) allow for a product and its backlog to be regularly reviewed, refined, and changed. A Product Backlog is a dynamic and ever-changing thing, and if you can’t handle that – bow out now.
Unapproachable
Do your teammates avoid you? Does it seem like you’re always having to pull information from people, rather than them coming to you and sharing? If so, then you might be unapproachable. If you don’t have an easy manner and social skills to communicate with people and develop a rapport, then they won’t like you, nor will they trust you. As a Product Owner, your door should always be open to anyone with a stake in your product.
Lack of empathy for the team
You are a leader who serves your team. As a Product Owner, you need to know your team and understand what is going on in their lives. It’s important to use emotional intelligence to detect when something is off so you can adjust if needed. Invest in the relationships with the rest of your Scrum Team – they are people, not just resources.
Not listening to the developers
If you are a Product Owner, who are your other team members? The Scrum Master, of course, plus the developers. But the developers are often not consulted by the Product Owner, and this is a huge mistake. It’s easy to forget that developers on your team are stakeholders, too. When they give you information and advice, listen to it. They have technical knowledge and insights that you probably don’t have, and you will save a lot of pain and rework by simply listening.
Does not provide transparency
Remember the pillars of empiricism? Transparency is about being truthful, not hiding anything, and communicating early and often with your team and stakeholders. You should not hold things back or be dishonest. If your project is not on track, don’t wait to alert someone until it’s too late to turn the ship around. With transparency comes trust, and the understanding that things won’t always go perfectly.
Hoards decisions
Do you make decisions in a silo? Do you require that every single decision goes through you? If you are a Product Owner, you may want to do this, but it’s not the right thing to. Decisions should be made as close to the people responsible or impacted as possible. Development decisions about “how” to meet your business need is not your responsibility – that is up to the developers, who are the experts – so leave it to them.
Final Thoughts
There are many attributes and behaviors that can create poor Product Owners, but that doesn’t have to be you, nor is this a comprehensive list. There are many other dysfunctions that may be seen when you have a bad Product Owner. What might some of those things be? Please drop me a comment, because I would love to hear what you think!