Ever since humans gathered in tribes we’ve had visionaries in one way or another, people who come up with big ideas and who know how to relay them to others. What Ken Schwaber and Jeff Sutherland realized when they came up with the Scrum framework was that the person with the ideas didn’t also have to be the manager.
In a cascade-like methodology, we usually country wise email marketing list have a manager who is tasked with handling the big picture while managing their development team. That makes sense – the person who understands how all the pieces go together should be the one calling the shots, right?
Not necessarily. That’s a lot of responsibility for a single person, especially if you assume that the project’s vision will change and evolve as you go into production.
Product owners define the vision
Think of the product owner as a bridge between the client and the development team. In fact, some software developers even assign the role of product owners to their clients. Their job is to understand what the client’s needs are and use them to define goals and create a cohesive vision for everyone involved in the project.
Having a person with a higher perspective ensures that everyone is on the same page despite the flexibility of agile frameworks. In a way, the product owners align everyone behind a common goal.
Working hand in hand with the client
As we said before, one of the key responsibilities of a product owner is to be the main link between clients and teams. Product owners infrastructure requires existing infrastructure need to be great communicators and even better listeners.
To help a client and have a better understanding of their epic, a good project owner should be knowledgeable of the client’s market. This will often involve a bit of homework and research on the product owners side, but it’s usually well worth the effort.
With active listening and a grasp of the market, the product owner can anticipate potential problems and explore areas the client may overlook at first. This, in turn, will lead to a clearer image of what the end goal is.
Managing the backlog
One of the key values of agile methodologies buy lead is “Responding to change over following a plan”. As such, the product backlog is a living entity that grows and adapts as the development process advances. For example, a functionality that had a low priority may suddenly become necessary as the client realizes that not having it creates another problem down the line.