The Scrum team comprises three roles; the product owner, the scrum master and the development team. The product owner in the scrum team aims to deliver the best end-value product. They act as a bridge between the scrum team and the stakeholders advocating the needs of the end user. In the current article, let’s explore the role of the product owner in making the scrum team successful.
A product owner in the organisation ensures that the entire scrum team aligns with product goals. The product owner should understand market trends and customer expectations to help the scrum team fit into bigger-picture goals. Taking scrum master certification online could help in enhancing the skills of the product owner and perform the roles at best.
Need of Product Owner in a Scrum Team
The Scrum team in the organisation work aligning to the defined vision of the product. The product owner will be responsible for defining features, crafting a strategy and creating product backlog items. The absence of a scrum product owner in the organisation could create a lack of proper workflow guidelines for product development, which can create significant problems further.
Role of the Scrum Product Owner
As the product owner connects the scrum team and stakeholders while advocating the needs of the end user, they often end up wearing multiple hats. Still, their responsibilities define their role in the organisation.
Create a Product Roadmap
Defining a product roadmap for the team is one of the key responsibilities of the product owner. The roadmap is a pathway that aligns the team across specific product goals. The product owner defines the team priorities to set the direction of the project. The team member should be able to refer to this project roadmap at any time to find the information about their assigned tasks, project progress and additional effort required.
Develop Product Backlog
The product backlog is a list of features aimed to solve the problems reported by customers. They record customer roadblocks in search of solutions. The product owner looks for the trends in customer feedback and records solutions in the product backlog. The product owner filters the list and shares it with the team for development.
Manage Product Backlog
Backlog refinement is one of the major responsibilities of the product owner. After filtering the roadblocks, they have to prioritise the tasks for the team based on the business needs. One should clearly define the product backlog with the team, establishing product requirements and customer expectations. The product owner also establishes clear communication to help stakeholders understand it.
Monitor Product Development Stages.
The product development process includes defining the product, testing and implementation. It is a six-stage life cycle, taking the product from the initial phase to market launch. The product owner communicates with the stakeholders to guide them through each phase of product development. He also monitors the performance of the scrum team through each phase to deliver maximum product value with less risk.
Monitor Guidelines Adaption by the Scrum Team
The product owner is also responsible for scrum team performance during product development. They have to monitor the progress to ensure the team is following the adapted guidelines and best practices to deliver maximum product value.
Requirements of the Product Owner
To fulfil the stated responsibilities successfully, the product needs to have a few traits and skills.
- The product owner should be an effective team facilitator. They should be actively engaged with the team, helping them to build the best possible product.
- The business-savvy product owner should be able to understand market trends, customer needs and stakeholder requirements to make sound decisions about the features that have to be included in the product.
- They should have good communication skills as they need to articulate the message to both their team and key stakeholders about the project at any given time.
Benefits of Working as a Product Owner
Product owner is a career option for you if you are an individual with good leadership skills who can help the organisation increase the product value.
Excellent Earning Potential
Product owner roles have a good scope for earning packages in the organisation. However, experience plays a key role. With scrum product owner certification and relevant experience, product owners can expect good packages in reputed organisations.
Improve leadership skills
Leadership is one of the key skills the product owner should have to be a responsible leader. The PO holds the ultimate responsibility for the successful completion of the product. They may have to shell out leadership skills and insights to bring the product from initiation to completion.
Witness Career Advancement
You can earn product certification like CSM certification to move ahead in a successful career path. Earning more advanced certifications may likely want to earn basic product owner certification first.
Conclusion
The product owner is a key participant in the product development. They can lead the product development team to develop the product, meeting customer requirements. They should have a solid knowledge of scrum market research to analyse future trends. Many product owner certification levels demonstrate solid knowledge and implementation skills of the product owner. Finding role-specific certification training will help you to be a successful product owner.
Author BIO
Sri Kalpa Meda is a freelance writer who specializes in creating content for finance, software real estate and digital marketing. My website writing helps your business rank well in the search engines. I am a passionate blogger exploring various finance-related topics, you can check them on www.quickmoneybee.com. My LinkedIn profile is https://www.linkedin.com/in/srikalpa-meda-1a190b14/
