A Product Owner is a respectable member of the product development team. He/she is responsible for attending the Scrum meetings and managing the backlogs. Product Owners are expected to organize the team and ensure that the Developers are doing their job consistently and putting effort into the right product. Having a CSPO certification makes you even more desirable as a Product Owner.
Apart from being the center of every development team, the Product Owner has several roles and responsibilities to look after. He/She has to take the lead and guide the team, a skilled Product Owner is the one who is packed with enough market knowledge so that he/she can gain the trust of the shareholders, should be regular with team meetings to set and reach the goals, etc.
Are Product Owners mini CEOs?
A Product Owner who is well-versed with his roles and responsibilities has attained his Product Owner training, has enough experience, brings laureates for his company, and is good at his job can be called a mini-CEO. As rewarding as it sounds, it is not simple to earn that title. Every Product Owner cannot be labeled as a mini-CEO. For that, he needs to work hard, become efficient, understand the roles, take the certification, and gain experience in the field.
Product Owners are known as mini CEOs when they are aware of their roles. Such as:
- Knowing the vision: The Product Owner is responsible for communicating with all stakeholders (including Stakeholders, business managers, and developers) to ensure that the goals are clear, and the vision is allied with the business goals. Although agile product development is flexible and usually fast-paced, having a Product Owner with an excellent perspective ensures that the team maintains a consistent vision. Everyone needs to be on the same page to make the project work effectively.
- Knowing what’s important: They should cope with the trio of range, cost, and time, considering priorities matching to the demands and intentions of shareholders.
- Prioritizing customer demands: A profitable Scrum Product Owner will be a professional who understands and predicts customer needs to manage the development process more effectively. Their deep knowledge of the market and their communication skills allow them to anticipate problems or needs and solve them.
- Primary link: The Product Owner is also the main communicator and the link between stakeholders and the team. Therefore, they must be professional communicators to ensure that stakeholders are committed to all important decisions and strategies, as well as to provide Developers with clear instructions and products.
- Responsible for the final product: The Product Owner is accountable for every phase of the growth process and the ultimate product. They play a leading role in checking and evaluating the progress of the product in each iteration. The Product Owner decides to judge performance and decides whether the team needs to go back or can proceed to the next step.
To gain the qualities of a mini-CEO, the 2 steps which can be followed by the Product Owners are:
As a Product Owner, accept the powers
The next key step is the explicit acceptance of the role by the Product Owner. Does the Product Owner know what it takes to succeed, and can he meet this challenge? The complete transparency of roles and responsibilities from the beginning will ensure the best clarity and the Product Owner can deliver results.
Product Owners should be trained and qualified enough
The Product Owner must have leadership qualities-he can inspire and motivate the team to work together to solve problems. In addition, they must be connectors and be able to communicate with all relevant parties (internal and external). Because it is such a versatile role, and this person is responsible for the success of the product or service, the Product Owner is sometimes called a mini-CEO.
In larger organizations, this role is more complex than in start-ups or expansions, which usually have clear goals. Therefore, proper training and guidance for the Product Owner are essential. Project Managers, Managers, Analysts, and Developers often receive two days of training and certification and then accept the responsibilities of the Product Owner. However, for people to become mini-CEOs who can truly do the job, more investment is required.
Now that you have reached the end of this article, it must be clear to you who is a Product Owner, what are his roles, why is he known as a mini-CEO, and what can do to earn that title.
