As Agile become mainstream increasingly organizations are looking to double down on the role of the Product Owner encouraging them to manage the intersection between technology and the business. But Product Ownership is a difficult role as it tries to balance the needs of the business with the reality of software delivery. Also, for many organizations there is some ‘confusion’ with existing roles of business analyst, product manager or even project manager. What does the product owner do anyway? In this talk Dave West, Product Owner and CEO Scrum.org, the home of Scrum and Professional Scrum Trainer with Prowareness Rob van Lanen describe the genesis of the Product Owner role and how many organizations are dealing with the challenges of slotting this key role into existing product, project and release roles. They will introduce some techniques such as user centric design, and hypophysis based development and describe how approaches such as Lean Startup and pragmatic marketing are providing product owners with a tool box to do their job. Recorded Webinar can be found at :-https://www.scrum.org/resources/who-product-owner-anyway

1. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
by Scrum.org – Improving the Profession of Software Delivery
Who is the Product Owner Anyway?
Dave West
CEO / Product Owner Scrum.org
Dave.West@scrum.org
@Davidjwest
Rob van Lanen
PST, Prowareness
rob@scrum.nl
@robvanlanen

2. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Improving the profession of
software delivery
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3. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
1,380,000+
Open Assessments
Taken
100,000+ Professional Scrum
Certifications
The Home of Scrum
90% Agile Teams Use Scrum
180 Professional Scrum
Trainers
TaughtPracticed everywhere 73,000+
+12M Using Scrum Daily
ONE Scrum Guide
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www.prowareness.nl
Office Bangalore (IN)
Building 2A-WestTower,
EmbassyTechVillage
Outer Ring Road, DeverabeesanahalliVillage,
Bangalore – 560087, Karnataka, India
+91 80 49 08 78 00
www.prowareness.com
info@prowareness.com
Office Düsseldorf (DE)
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Stadttor 1, 40219 Düsseldorf
Germany
+49 211 3003 401
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www.scrum.de
info@prowareness.de
Office Silicon Valley (US)
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2nd Floor
PaloAlto, California
94301, United States
+1650 617 3267
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Headquarters Delft (NL)
Brassersplein 1
2612 CT, Delft
The Netherlands
+31 15 241 18 00
www.prowareness.nl
www.scrum.nl
info@prowareness.nl

5. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Meet the Presenters
5
Dave West
Product Owner / CEO Scrum.org
Dave.West@scrum.org
@DavidJWest
Rob van Lanen
PST, Prowareness
rob@scrum.nl
@RobvanLanen

6. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Agenda
1. Introducing the Product Owner
2. The challenge of the role
3. Requirements vs Ownership
4. Who plays the role?
5. Making it work, and 7 characteristics of success
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Introducing the Product Owner
7
source: http://dilbert.com/2013-02-25

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Introducing the Product Owner
• The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing
the Product Backlog.
• Product Backlog management includes:
• Clearly expressing Product Backlog items;
• Ordering the items in the Product Backlog to best achieve goals and
missions;
• Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs;
• Ensuring that the Product Backlog is visible, transparent, and clear to all,
and shows what the Scrum Team will work on next; and,
• Ensuring the Development Team understands items in the Product Backlog
to the level needed.
• The Product Owner may do the above work, or have the
Development Team do it. However, the Product Owner remains
accountable.
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9. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved 9
Scrum Framework

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The Product Owner
• Maximizing the value of the product and
the development team
• Sole person responsible for managing the
product backlog
• Must be empowered to make decisions
about the product
• No-one else is able to tell the development
team what to do !
The what, who, how changes
depending on the situation
PRODUCT OWNER
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The Benevolent Dictator
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So, What is the ProblemThen…?
The Growing Product Company
• As organizations grow specialism of
activity challenges ownership and
responsibility
• Outbound vs inbound becomes
problematic
• Product becomes so complex that
no one knows what it does
• Fear replaces optimism as you have
something to lose
IT Adopting Agility
• Many roles exist to support water-
fall including BA, Project Manager
• Products exist on the business but
not in IT
• Agile being driven by IT
• Process has replaced responsibility
and ownership
• The PMO 
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13. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
AndYou Have to Answer Questions Like…
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How much is
it going to
cost?
What are we
going to get?
When is it
going to be
ready?

14. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
The “Ownership Dilemma”
Market Sensing
• Interviews
• Validation
• Competition
• Win/Loss
• Secondary Research
Inbound
• Business Case
• Numbers
• Strategy
• Portfolio Fit
• Roadmap
• Positioning
Planning
• User Personas
• Goals/Themes
• Epics
• Requirements
• Prioritization
• Acceptance Tests
• Release/Sprint Planning
• Demo Validation
Outbound
• Go to Market
• Launch
• Though Leadership
• Collateral & Tools
• Ongoing Support
? How Many
Products?How Many
Roles?
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15. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved 15
“The enemy is in front of us,
the enemy is behind us, the
enemy is to the right and to
the left of us.They can't get
away this time!”
- General Douglas MacArthur

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Requirements vs Ownership
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17. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Agile Does Not Remove the Need to do Requirements
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Requirements 15% of effort, 16 – 24% of duration
Testing 31% of effort, 20 – 32% of duration
Agile is NOT magic,
you still need to
do the work
The ScrumTeam
(includes the PO)

18. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved 18
Outcome based backlog
items, with clear measures
of success, are key

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Managing the Backlog, Not Doing Everything In It!
19
PRODUCT OWNER
Sole person
responsible for
managing the
product backlog

20. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Owning the ProductVision
20
0-6 Months
6-12
Months
12+
Months
Future
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Requirement
Sprint 1
Sprint 2+3
Sprint 4-…
Idea
Idea
Idea
If nothing
changes,
then…
• Setting true north for
the team
• Plans evolve over time
• Clarity come from work
• Will change ever sprint
• Refinement is crucial for
reviewing the backlog

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And in more complex
situations with more
‘stuff’ going on is
more of a leader and
less of a doer !
Decisions
PRODUCT
OWNER
Development
Team
SMEs
Stakeholders
Stuff
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22. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Leading is Not Easy
• The backlog is the primary vehicle
for driving work
• Requirements is a team task
• Managing stakeholders,
compromise and balance
• Providing a vision that
communicates intent and value
• And refresh the vision frequently
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Who plays
the role ?
23© 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved

24. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Where DoesThis Person Come From?
=
Project
Manager
PRODUCT OWNER
Business
Analyst
Product
Manager
Relationship
Manager
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Product Owner Skills
1. Visionary
2. Decisive
3. Communicative
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An ideal Product
Owner is empowered,
has business
knowledge, and is
technologically savvy.
*Warning*
Each situation is different,
so not possible to make fast
rules.This is illustrative of
the decision you will make.

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The PO’sTwo Commandments…
Empowered to
make decisions
about the product
Available to the
team to answer
questions

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Making it Work
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28. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Being the Mini CEO
THE BIGGER PICTURE PRODUCT OWNER MATURITY
CompanyVision
Business Strategy
ProductVision
Product Strategy
Release Plan
Sprint Plan
Daily
Plan
DevelopmentProductOwner
Management
Scribe
Proxy
Business
Representative
Sponsor
Entrepreneur
ExpectedBenefits
Maturity
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7 Habits of Highly Successful Product Owners
http://www.scrumcrazy.com/The+New+New+Product+Owner
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30. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
Summary
Not responsible for…
Responsible for…
Who does it? Anyone can do it but…
Writing all tests
Creating all
requirements
Knowing
everything about
everything
Delivering value
Managing
trade-offs
Leading the
delivery of a
valuable product
Visionary Decisive Communicative Empowered Available
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31. © 1993-2017 Scrum.org, All Rights Reserved
ScrumValues
• COURAGE
we admit we do not know everything
• FOCUS
on what is the most important
• COMMITMENT
dedicated to delivering working software
• RESPECT
cross-functioning, self-organizing team
• OPENNESS
frequently inspecting through delivering
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“Scrum Values” Illustration
© 1993-2016 Scrum.org All Rights Reserved

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Thank
You
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