As I have mentioned in other blogs, the Product Owner role (now called an “accountability”) is THE most important member of a Scrum Team. The success of the team rests squarely on the Product Owner’s shoulders and finding a good Product Owner is extremely difficult. If you are looking for a good Product Owner, there is a set of knowledge, skills, and traits that you should look for.
Knowledge
Successful Product Owners must have or understand:
- Business expertise – the business or organization at a deep level
- Market knowledge – what is happening their market and their industry
- Competitive knowledge – use competitive analysis to identify opportunities to differentiate the product from the competition using new innovations or delighters
- Organizational knowledge – the organization, its culture, strategy, and corporate vision
- Product and feature value – the product and the value of it and its features
- What the customer wants – not only what the customer needs, but also wants. Be the “voice of the customer”
Skills
The following skills are essential for an effective Product Owner to have. These tend to be things that can be learned and practiced:
- Business Acumen – strong business acumen, and a network of people in and outside of their organization
- Organizational Communication – navigate and communicate at all levels of the organization, from the Help Desk to the CEO
- Prioritization – prioritize by ordering the product backlog, choosing the most valuable items
- Stakeholder Collaboration – collaborate with stakeholders; actively discover and seek out input and feedback on the product
- Negotiation – negotiation involves making trade-offs – not everyone will be happy all the time, and POs must help stakeholders understand their decisions
- Facilitation – able to facilitate, whether it’s a story mapping session, backlog refinement, Sprint Review, brainstorming, etc.
- Systems thinking – understand how things fit together and the impacts will occur when a change is introduced
Traits / Attributes
Attributes of a Product Owner are more about their personality and style and tend to be things that can’t necessarily be learned. But these are equally important traits for the Product Owner to have:
- Leadership – a strong vision and inspires others to get behind and build on that vision
- Trustworthy – trust is earned, and by consistently delivering for stakeholders, the PO will earn that trust. Likewise, the team will earn the PO’s trust as they also deliver
- Decisive – able to make decisions and not get stuck in analysis paralysis. Decision-making can be difficult and cannot be delegated. The PO needs to be empowered (and be able) to “make the call” on important decisions
- Influential – this is a skill that not everyone naturally possesses. The PO may not have “power” or authority in the traditional sense, but should be able to sway people to their cause
- Growth mindset – constantly seeking to learn new things, improve, and innovate (not a fixed mindset)
- Dedicated – to the organization, to the product, to the customers, and to the Scrum Team
Being a Product Owner is a tough job. Finding someone with all these skills and attributes is almost like finding a rainbow unicorn. When looking at potential Product Owners, I suggest focusing more on the attributes than the skills and knowledge, because traits can’t always be learned.
Are you looking to hire or discover a Product Owner for your organization? If so, how successful have you been finding candidates with all the requisite requirements? Are there any additional knowledge, skills, or attributes I may have overlooked? If so, please let me know!