Comments on: Two Common Ways to Apply the Product Owner Role

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:21:33 +0000

In reply to John Peltier.

Thanks, John. Glad you’ve found the post helpful.

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 08:21:03 +0000

In reply to Paul Herwarth von Bittenfeld.

Thanks for sharing, Paul.

By: Paul Herwarth von Bittenfeld

Paul Herwarth von Bittenfeld — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 17:37:06 +0000

Hi Roman,

we work with the second way as we are an agency and our teams work for different clients in a year’s time. They mostly are not able to provide a full time product owner. The big advantage of the second way is that we have skilled Product Owners that work very close with the team throughout the year. They build a real Scrum team and don’t have to restart the team building process with every new project. Like you said a big challenge is the empowerment of the Product Owner.

Cheers
Paul

By: John Peltier

John Peltier — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 15:29:27 +0000

Confusion about this leads to lots of problems, in my experience. Engineering wants a product owner who is present at most/all times, but for a product manager to fulfill that role and provide the vision and understanding required, they must be interacting with customers and can’t be sitting in engineering all day. Then you find a product manager working with a dedicated product owner, and there is more risk for communication gaps.

Good way to point out the two models!

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 18:58:00 +0000

In reply to Stefan Roock.

Hi Stefan, I don’t like the term customer-proxy either but I’ve used it for the lack of a better one. Is there a synonym with a more positive connotation? I completely agree that the product owner needs to have a vision of the future product – which should be validated by gathering customer and user feedback on early product increments / working software.

By: Stefan Roock

Stefan Roock — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 16:30:28 +0000

I am not that happy with the wording “customer proxy”. My association is that such a PO would primarily collect what customers want and just prioritize the requested features. While I think listening to customers is crucial, just implementing what they request doesn’t create innovative products, or as Henry Ford stated it: “If I’d asked customers what they wanted, they would have said ‘a faster horse’.”

By: PM Hut

PM Hut — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 11:16:10 +0000

Hi Roman,

I like the way you are exploring the role of the product owner, and explaining who can embody the role…

I would like to republish your post on PM Hut ( http://www.pmhut.com ), where a lot of project managers will benefit from it. Please either email me or contact me through the “Contact Us” form on the PM Hut website in case you’re OK with this.

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:45:32 +0000

In reply to Vin D’Amico.

Great point, Vin. I couldn’t agree more that early and frequent customer feedback is essential to develop the right product. I would add though that the product owner should have a vision that acts as the shared, overarching goal and that allows to evaluate the feedback received.

By: Vin D'Amico

Vin D'Amico — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:25:59 +0000

I think that either approach can work and they share the same risk. There is always the chance that the Product Owner will get it wrong. The PO may misinterpret something the end users or stakeholders articulated. The PO may be biased in some way that leads the team down the wrong path.

For these reasons, it is essential to deliver early and often so that the real users and stakeholders can see for themselves and offer feedback. If they are not available to do so, at least you made a good faith attempt to involve them.