Who is the product owner?
(STL.News) The product owner is a member of the administration team that manages the whole establishment process of the product in the company.
Product owners act as preliminary connections between scrum teams, product establishment units, and stakeholders. Product owners stand as the center of the establishment of the product.
Determining the product needs for the development team is also a part of the product owner’s responsibilities. The product owner also increases the value of the product that is developed by the scrum team. The product owner must have the ability to make decisions that are of utmost importance.
The product owner describes user stories that are based on clients’ needs and prioritizes them for a development team.
In the scrum team, the product owner focuses on two orientations simultaneously, 1) at the market and 2) at the product establishment.
The market Orientation
The product owner must interpret stakeholders’ and customers’ requirements so that they can act as their representatives. At that point product owner must assure that the correct solution has been formulated.
The product establishment
The product owner is continuously in touch with the development team, figuring out their input and prioritizing their requirements. They specify test and acceptance standards and verify them using product enhancement.
Responsibilities of product owner
The primary responsibility of the product owner is to assure that product carries usefulness to its clients and organization.
Some major responsibility of the product owner includes Establishing the product vision, overseeing the product backlog, describing approval standards, prioritizing needs, administering developmental stages, checking progress, serving as a liaison, and foreseeing customer needs.
Establish the product vision.
The product owner establishes the vision of the final product. To establish the product vision, the product owner has to maintain the integrated and unified approach to the product, adapt to the flexible and rapid nature of agile product development, keep the stakeholders equal, and for the business purpose, assure the feasibility of the product.
Oversee the product backlog
All product requirements are collected and organized in the product backlog. In the user story, descriptions of backlog products are written. Costumers’ needs, product detail, and planning items are written in user stories. It’s the responsibility of the product owner to create the product backlog, specify the sequence of items and maintain it. The product owner must ensure that the product backlog is up to date according to the requirements of the project. The product owner must have to make backlog approachable to all parties that are involved in the product throughout the development process.
- To create a valuable product backlog, they have to;
- Introduce backlog items that are compatible with larger business purposes
- Arrange the item in sequence based on product strategy
- Formulate the realistic product reliance
- Execute the efficient development sequence.
The product owner should work continuously to optimize the backlog for better product performance and business value.
Describe approval standards
Approval standards are terms of satisfaction that are specific to each customer’s story, and according to it, the product must meet the active and passive requirements. The product owner must ensure that approval standards are defined, and the test that will confirm compliance with those standards is built and implemented.
Prioritize needs
From the backlog of products, the product owner hierarchizes the person needs that in which order which function is executed. The product owner discusses the product requirements and preferences with the scrum team, then they both decide what to do in the current scrum sprint. The product owner checks the progress after every sprint and makes necessary changes.
While prioritizing needs a product owner:
- Explain all project restrictions
- Estimates which areas of development have few barriers
- Decide which deliverable will be implemented into development at which time.
- For every product iteration, repeat the priority process.
The product owner’s responsibilities also include determining the timeline of product development and making sure that the development team follows that timeline.
Administering developmental stages
The product owner must check the development stages of the product after describing the vision, product priorities, and strategy. In product planning, development, sprint, and review, the role of the product owner are vital. In the product planning step, the product owner and stakeholders decide the steps that are important for the iteration of the product.
To oversee the development of the product owner:
- Continuously in contact with the development team to determine, clarify, and compile the steps that are needed for the next iteration of the product
- Point out the area that needs improvements
- Must support the sprints of product design.
The product owner strictly observes the development and looks forward to making the process more efficient.
Checking progress
Giving feedback is a remarkable aspect of the product owner’s responsibilities. At the end of the sprint, the review meeting is significant because here, the results of the work are presented. The product owner is responsible for inviting the important stakeholders and explaining the topics of the review meeting. At this event, the product owner gives feedback to the development team for improvement.
Serving as liaison
The product owner cooperates and liaises with the scrum master and development team, give suggestion and direction on what is needed to be done and provide a development team with a free hand to identify the ways to implement it. The product owner also cooperates with stakeholders.
Foreseeing customer needs
One of the important product owner’s responsibilities is to represent the customer’s needs correctly. Product owners control the process of development more efficiently and effectively by predicting and understanding the customer’s requirements.
Conclusion
The role of the product owner is very important as he/she ensure the delivery of quality products and enhances the product value in accord with the product vision of clients. Summing it up the product owner must be an expert in the company. The product owner must be familiar with business logic and the product’s technical capabilities for a better understanding of customers’ needs.
Author Bio: Steve Parkar has extensive experience with Inbound marketing for various industries like eCommerce, Manufacturing, Real-estate, education, and advertising. Having worked with a reputed Digital Marketing Agency Bangalore, he has a stronghold on digital content creation, SME acquisition, and White hat link building techniques. Manasa has hands-on experience in Influencer marketing and worked with International influencers and content writers.
Twitter – https://twitter.com/jootoor
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/JootoorDesigns