Several misunderstood stances associated with the Product Owner role can hinder the effectiveness of Scrum teams and impact product development. In this blog, we will explore six commonly misunderstood stances of Product Owners: “The Clerk, The Story Writer, The Line Manager, The Project Manager, The Subject Matter Expert, and The Gatekeeper.” We will discuss the patterns associated with each stance, and their impact on product development, and provide tips to overcome them for a more successful Scrum implementation.
Misunderstood Stances – The Clerk
In this stance, the Product Owner acts as a passive order-taker, merely managing the backlog and executing tasks assigned by stakeholders. This limits their authority and ability to make strategic decisions, resulting in a lack of product vision and diminished ownership.
Acts as a passive order-taker.
Manages the backlog but lacks strategic decision-making authority.
This results in a lack of product vision and ownership.
Pattern:
Endlessly long product backlogs.
The usual interaction of order takers is with internal stakeholders. They rarely interact with external users or people who actually buy the product.
Acting as a carrier pigeon between the development team and the stakeholders, never making any decision on their own.
Impact: This stance can lead to a lack of alignment between the product vision and stakeholder needs. It may result in a product that fails to address customer requirements or deliver the expected value.
Unmanageable product backlog filled with an endless list of user stories.
The product is not based on vision but just on what everybody wants.
Ignoring the long-term effects like (TCO and ROI) while focusing only on small details and short-term results.
The product development team slows down and becomes heavily dependent on product owners.
Tips:
Encourage the Product Owner to actively engage with stakeholders, understand their needs, and align the product backlog with the overall product vision.
Foster collaboration between the Product Owner and stakeholders to ensure a shared understanding of product goals and priorities.
Misunderstood Stances – The Story Writer
The Story Writer stance involves an excessive focus on writing detailed user stories without fully understanding the underlying business value or the needs of end-users. This can lead to a lack of collaboration, inefficiency in development, and inflexibility in responding to changing requirements.
Focuses on writing detailed user stories without understanding business value.
Lack of collaboration and flexibility in responding to changing requirements.
Pattern
A well-organized product backlog where all the items will be clearly written.
A keen eye for details and love to dig into all the nitty gritty stuff.
Playing the role of a business analyst, technical writer, scribe, and note-taker at the same time.
Impact: This stance can lead to a fragmented product backlog and a lack of coherence in product development. It may result in features that do not contribute to the overall value or strategic goals of the product.
Too much time wastage on unnecessary details.
Slow product development pace due to the lack of vision and strategy.
Ignoring the long-term effects like (TCO and ROI) while focusing only on small details and short-term results.
The scrum team slows down because of this behavior.
The scrum team never remains dependent on the product owner.
Tips:
Encourage the Product Owner to take a holistic view of the product and consider the underlying business objectives when creating and prioritizing user stories.
Foster collaboration with stakeholders to understand each user story’s context and broader impact.
Misunderstood Stances – The Line Manager
In this stance, the Product Owner assumes a supervisory role, micromanaging the development team’s tasks and dictating how they should work. This hampers self-organization and autonomy within the team, hindering creativity, motivation, and ownership.
Assumes a supervisory role, micromanaging the development team.
Hampers self-organization, autonomy, and creativity.
Pattern
Always look after the team and inspire the team members to grow.
Evaluating each member’s performance individually and giving everyone equal attention.
Interacting with every team member and making them feel comfortable and wanted.
Impact: This stance can hinder the self-organization and autonomy of the development team, stifling creativity and innovation. It may also lead to a lack of trust and collaboration within the team.
While focusing on the performance of his team members, the manager product owners often forget their ultimate goal, i.e. maximizing the value of the product.
The managers may end up overdoing things because coaching, training, and mentoring the development people is basically a scrum master’s job.
Tips:
Encourage the Product Owner to focus on defining product goals, priorities, and requirements, while empowering the development team to decide how to best achieve them.
Foster a culture of trust and collaboration, allowing the development team to take ownership of their work and make decisions.
Misunderstood Stances – The Project Manager
The Project Manager stance involves the Product Owner primarily focusing on meeting deadlines and managing resources, neglecting the strategic aspects of product development. This can result in a misalignment with long-term goals and an inability to respond effectively to market dynamics.
Focuses primarily on meeting deadlines and resource management.
Neglects strategic aspects of product development and long-term goals.
Pattern
Clear insights about the start and the end of the project.
Great concern about the day-to-day progress of the development team.
Measuring the success of the team in the form of increased velocity.
Product owners with the project manager stance prefer to be micromanagers, making sure everything happens on time and the input is maximum.
Impact: This stance can shift the focus away from the customer and value delivery, leading to a lack of customer-centric product development. It may result in a product that fails to meet user needs or deliver the expected outcomes.
Ignoring the long-term effects like (TCO and ROI) while focusing only on small details and short-term results.
Forgetting about delivering value to customers in the quest to deliver more output.
The development team gets dependent on product owners and stops learning to be self-organized.
Again, being a carrier pigeon, there is less initiative taken from the end of product owners following this stance.
Tips:
Encourage the Product Owner to prioritize customer value and align product development with the needs of the end-users.
Collaborate closely with the Scrum Master and development team to ensure a balance between project management aspects and customer-centric product development.
Misunderstood Stances – The Subject Matter Expert
In this stance, the Product Owner relies solely on their own expertise and opinions, disregarding the valuable insights and contributions of other team members. This limits diverse perspectives, potentially leading to a product that does not fully address user needs and expectations.
Relies solely on their own expertise and opinions.
Disregards valuable insights from other team members.
Limits diverse perspectives and potential user-centric solutions
Pattern
Great attention to detail.
Rapid use phrases like “I will let you know about the next steps when we get there.”
SME product owners love playing more than one role like an architect, a development expert, a test manager, a UX designer, or a micromanager.
Impact: This stance can lead to a narrow product vision and a lack of innovation. It may result in a product that does not meet the evolving needs of the market or the end-users.
Forgetting long-term outcomes (TCO and ROI) as product owners are too busy focusing on short-term goals.
The scrum team may slow down and become dependent on the product owner.
Since SME product owners don’t share their vision with others, product development can be affected by this.
Tips:
Encourage the Product Owner to actively seek input from stakeholders, end-users, and market research to gain a broader understanding of customer needs and industry trends.
Foster a mindset of continuous learning and exploration within the Product Owner role to stay updated on emerging technologies, industry best practices, and customer preferences.
Misunderstood Stances – The Gatekeeper
The Gatekeeper stance involves the Product Owner making decisions in isolation and controlling access to stakeholders without involving the development team. This hampers collaboration, and transparency, and can lead to a lack of shared understanding and buy-in.
Makes decisions in isolation, controlling access to stakeholders.
Hampers collaboration, transparency, and shared understanding.
Pattern
The gatekeeper product owner tends to block all interactions with the outside world. They believe that the development team can deliver more work if they are protected from the distraction from the outside world.
The gatekeeper product owner emphasizes that all the ideas, demands, or work-related queries will have to be discussed with him/her – not the stakeholders.
Gatekeepers also tend to block the feedback from the stakeholders to the development team. Some will not even let the development team talk to customers.
Impact: This stance can lead to a lack of collaboration, limited transparency, and a decrease in the effectiveness of the Scrum team. It may result in a product that does not fully leverage the expertise and creativity of the development team.
Since all the feedback, communication, or interaction is blocked with the stakeholders, your development will never come to know where it lacks and how it can improve the product. This stops growth.
The development team becomes heavily dependent on the product owner and never learns to self-organize.
This behavior also slows down the product development process.
Tips:
Foster a culture of collaboration and open communication within the Scrum team, encouraging the Product Owner to actively engage with the development team and seek their input and feedback.
Emphasize the importance of transparency and shared decision-making in product development, ensuring that all relevant stakeholders are involved in the decision-making process.
Overcoming Misunderstood Product Owner Stances
To overcome these misunderstood stances and ensure effective product development in Scrum, it is crucial to promote the following:
Clear Communication: Encourage open and transparent communication between the Product Owner, stakeholders, and the development team. Foster a culture where everyone feels comfortable expressing their opinions, ideas, and concerns.
Collaborative Approach: Emphasize collaboration between the Product Owner, stakeholders, and the development team. Involve all relevant parties in the decision-making process and actively seek input from diverse perspectives.
Focus on Value: Keep the customer and value delivery at the forefront of product development. Encourage the Product Owner to prioritize features and user stories based on their impact on customer satisfaction, market competitiveness, and business goals.
Continuous Improvement: Foster a culture of continuous learning and improvement. Encourage the Product Owner to regularly review and refine the product backlog based on customer feedback, market trends, and lessons learned from previous Sprints.
Conclusion
The role of the Product Owner is critical in driving successful product development within the Scrum framework. However, it is essential to recognize and overcome the misunderstood stances that can hinder the effectiveness of the Product Owner and the Scrum team. By understanding the patterns associated with each stance, recognizing their impact on product development, and following the tips provided, organizations can create a more collaborative, customer-centric, and successful Scrum implementation.
Remember, the Product Owner’s role is not just about managing a backlog but about envisioning, aligning, and delivering value to the customers. With the right mindset, skills, and approach, Product Owners can truly become the catalysts for successful product development in the Scrum framework.