As a Scrum Master, How Can You help Your Product Owner?

Did you know that one of the most common reasons Scrum Teams fail is the lack of a skilled Product Owner & Scrum Master?

Scrum master and the Product owner are two vital roles in the Scrum Software Development Methodology. The goal both of them share is creating a viable product through the use of Scrum best practices. They both are working on different areas of the project, and yet, these two roles overlap in some of their skill sets. Thus, the Product Owner and Scrum Master should make every effort to collaborate closely in many different areas of the project.

Within the Scrum framework, the role of the Product Owner & Scrum Master is critical for the success of a Scrum project. Today, there exists little empirical evidence of how it is practiced and the challenges they are faced with.

In many start-up’s Product Owners are also asked to participate in many different meetings, workshops, calls, etc. If you add on top of that, that the Product Owner may be new to Scrum, and hasn’t learned yet where to focus his time, you have the right mix for the perfect storm in the Product Owner role.

Having the Product Owner missing critical Scrum meetings (e.g. Sprint Review, Sprint Planning, Grooming) will quickly lead to a demotivated team. None of us has more than 24 hours a day. Product Owners are no exception to this rule. Product Owners need to serve multiple stakeholders, not just the team which means that we need to account for a range of communication links for the Product Owner.

Now imagine that this Product Owner also serves two teams. He will have to attend two different Sprint planning meetings, two daily meetings every day, two Sprint reviews. I’ve developed a sample checklist for the average Product Owner that serves two teams and needs to handle two sets of stakeholders.

• To add to the time-burden, the multi-team Product Owner will also have:
• Two sets of stakeholders asking questions
• Two status reports completing for their superiors
• Two sets of business problems to focus on
• Two business models to understand
• Two sets of customers to take care of and research
• Two or more sales groups or people to support

Product Owners also get interrupted regularly by urgent requests that from the team or a stakeholder. How do we solve the problem of the overly busy Product Owner, who is absent because of all of his other responsibilities?

We need to help the Product Owner find a routine and schedule that helps him focus on what he is really good at, but at the same time gives support to the teams that he serves, and communicates with the critical stakeholders he needs to engage for the product to succeed.

Here’s a set of problems that we need to tackle:

• We need to help the product owner define and manage their tasks and responsibilities so that they solve the most critical questions/problems for the teams they serve and fulfill the expectations of the most critical stakeholders
• We need to help the Product Owner organize their time so that they can participate in the most critical ceremonies
• Finally, we need to help the Product Owner prioritize their work, so that none of the teams or products he serves is left without the critical support they need.

Here’s an approach that I have developed working with Product Owners through my own experience.

As Scrum Masters, we need to help Product Owners develop an approach that will help them be “effective Product Owners”. So, I developed my own checklist. A checklist that I used to make sure I didn’t forget anything critical in the many different aspects that are part of the Product Owner.

Here are some of the aspects that are critical for the Product Owner role:

1. Collaboration with each of the teams that the Product Owner serves.

2. The different Product Ownership stages for each of the products under development, including:

• Is a Product Vision defined and shared with stakeholders? o Does the Product Owner understand the business model and the
• Business Value Equation for the products they own? o Is there an Impact Map in place that defines what are the critical aspects that make the product a success?
• Is there a Story Map that helps the Product Owner and the team
• Understand what are the critical aspects of the customer’s goals, as well as the product functionality that is required to make this product first viable, and then successful in the market?
• Are the backlog management practices in place that allow the Product Owner to delegate some of the work to the team, as well as allow the team to understand what is coming next so that they can effectively prepare?
• What is the level of collaboration with the teams that the Product Owner serves? Are the right meetings in place? How is the Product Owner's relationship with each of the team members and the stakeholders for that team?

3. Regarding the product, what is the life cycle stage for each of the Products under development? A product might be in a discovery stage, or it might be about to be delivered to the market; or in maintenance; or sun-setting, i.e. being prepared for discontinuation.

4. Another aspect of the Product Owner's role is to define the most important experiment for the current week. In other words, what does he need to learn quickly in order to prepare the future of the product? Such an experiment could be about how to collaborate with the team, with stakeholders, or about the product-market fit.

5. How about critical stakeholders? Whom does the Product Owner need to engage with during this Sprint?

6. Does the Product Owner need to answer some customer queries?

7. Does the Product Owner need to collect feedback from users and customers to understand the success of the product in the market?

8. Regarding communication with, and reporting to stakeholders:

• ·Which stakeholders need a regular follow-up?
• Which stakeholders are perfectly happy with an email broadcast or a regular weekly meeting?
• And which stakeholders does the Product Owner need to engage one-on-one in order to either help, or get help from?

Using this simple list of questions we will work with the Product Owner to define a set of tasks and responsibilities that they need to accomplish during the Sprint that is starting. Use this checklist as the start of the conversation with the Product Owner. Encourage and help him to create his own version of the checklist. This is important because as they create their own version of the checklist they also feel the responsibility of checking those items during the Sprint.

The checklist acts as a reminder, but also as a contract between the Product Owner and you and with himself regarding the most important tasks and responsibilities during the upcoming Sprint.

Once the Sprint is over it is time to reflect. Just as we, Scrum Masters, have a retrospective with the team, we should also have a retrospective with the Product Owner to help him understand where he needs to improve, and where he is already working well; to find his blind spots; to understand the skills that he needs to develop further; and most importantly, to understand the role in practice.

As Scrum Masters, our role is to help Product Owners and the team prioritize their focus for each Sprint, not just help them to follow the Scrum process.

Credit: Visual-Program, NobleProg & Oikosofy