Six tips for Product Owners
In this episode, we’ll be covering Scrum’s Product Owner.
Based on my own experience from my years being a PO, I’ll share with you six tips that will boost your success as a Product Owner:
#1 Backlog management
Or, I might say. “Manage the expectations of people who want things done”. Scrum knows only one product backlog, only one Priority One - and only one person who sets it. As PO, that’s you - which means that even the CEO’s requests have to get past you.
#2: Communicate
Your key responsibility is to maximize value. To understand what this value is, remove the organizational clutter from your schedule and spend time with your team, stakeholders and customers. Talk. Listen. Learn.
#3: Create transparency
Stakeholders want know when it’s their turn. Customers want to know what’s in the next release - and developers prefer design with foresight. It’s your job to find smart ways of making that information exchange happen without having your fingers in it all the time.
#4: Know your customer
At the expense of stating the obvious: the business side isn’t a real customer. They may have a budget, but they’re not paying for your company. Trace the money to its origin, discover what makes it flow - and ensure that more comes in.
#5: Discard
Adding stuff to the backlog is easy. Letting go of ideas is much harder. Eisenhower’s Importance-Urgency matrix may help, but you can try any other way that you can think of. Just don’t let your backlog clutter up.
#6: Say no
The biggest trap for an inexperienced PO is saying Yes to more things than the team can deliver. This causes stress, unrealistic expectations and disappointment. Saying No helps your team succeed. Try diplomacy.
Let’s wrap this up:
Manage expectations, communicate, create transparency, know your customer, kick stuff out of the backlog and say no. Not everyone will love you for doing that, but they will appreciate the outcome.
Want to read some stories how real world Product Owners work?
Get my book, “The Spirit of Scrum” (277 pages) at LeanPub and read more fact-based stories how others succeeded or failed with Scrum.