Agile for Beginners: “Product Owner” (PART 1)
An agile organization that implements Scrum has clearly defined roles and responsibilities, but also a completely new way of defining success.
While in a traditional organization, we achieve success after the completion of the project, in an agile organization we achieve and deliver “partial success” in phases. That means that teams focus on priorities and the most important items of the product, which they deliver in the first stage, and therefore it is possible to offer clients a functional product – but with certain limits. In the agile development of a new product, first, a basic model with minimum functionality is delivered, it is tested on the market and if a positive response is received, the team continues with further development and adds options that will attract a broader target group.
Business agility is applicable to all industries, although it was the most common and applicable in the IT environment (due to fast and frequent technology changes). The process of developing a new product is the same for each company, but what makes the difference between an agile and a traditional organization are:
– Business positions/roles,
– Responsibilities and powers of team members,
– Iterative status checks with alterations according to new information.
In an agile organization, the following key roles are defined: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and Development team (which is cross-functional and consists of usually up to a maximum of 10 different team members necessary for product development).
Product owner” – also known as a Product Champion, Value manager…
The Product Owner is a person who understands the client’s needs and turns them into a vision that needs to be communicated to the team, by breaking it down into stages and priorities so that product development can be monitored.
Everything starts with a good understanding of the client /buyer’s needs, which is obtained during numerous interviews. In this phase, a Product Owner becomes a detective who must find out what the client/customer wants and what is the most important to them. This is a crucial phase because, in practice, misunderstandings often occur, and therefore open communication is needed when defining expectations and realistic deadlines. The entire process of communication with the client and, ultimately, his satisfaction depends on accurate synchronization.
When the research part is finished, the Product Owner becomes a visionary, because he creates a product vision that will be a guide for all team members involved in development. It is very important to explain to the whole team why something is being done and what their contribution is so that they feel included.
The next step is to create a vision for the long-term that lasts from 2 to 5 years, and the detailed plan for the short-term at the sprint level – which lasts from 2 to 4 weeks. Then he becomes a caring supervisor who takes care of meeting deadlines and fulfilling client requests.
Check out the PART 2.
If you want to learn how to be a successful Product Owner, we can help. Check out our CSPO course and join us.