This slide deck shares my thoughts on the product owner role. It discusses what it means to own a product, and how the product owner role can be scaled.

1. Roman Pichler
romanpichler.com
The Product
Owner Role

2. 2 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
Product Owner:
Responsible for maximizing the value
of the product.*
*Scrum Guide 2016

3. Do you own a product?
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4. 4 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
Product
Feature
Component
Solves a problem or provides
a benefit for a group of people and
creates value for the company.
A product capability
people can interact
with.
An architecture building
block of the product.

5. 5 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
Product Owner
Component Owner
Feature Owner

6. How much do you own?
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7. 7 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
Vision
Strategy
Tactics
“Big”
Product Owner
“Small”, tactical
Product Owner
“Product
Manager”

8. 8 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
Product Owner:
Responsible for maximizing the value
of the product.*
*Scrum Guide 2016

9. 9 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
What value does
your product create?
Photo courtesy of Rawpixel

10. 10 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
The Product Vision Board
Which market or
market segment does
the product
address?
Who are the target
users & customers?
What problem does
the product solve?
Which benefit does
it provide?
What product is it?
What makes it stand
out?
How is the product
going to benefit
the company?
What are its
business goals and
KPIs?
What is the product’s purpose?
Which positive change should it bring about?
Vision
Target Group Needs Product Business Goals

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Product Owner:
One person, not a committee.*
*Scrum Guide 2016

12. How do you scale?
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BusinessBenefits
Time
Launch
Product-
Market Fit
End of Life
Single
Product Owner
Shared Ownership
Product Life Cycle & Ownership

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Scaling Option 1
Product Owner
Component
Owner
Overall product decisions:
product strategy, product roadmap,
financial forecast, product backlog,
stakeholder management
Feature and component
decisions:
describing, validating, and prioritising
feature and component functionality;
working with the dev teams
Feature
Owner
Feature
Owner

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Scaling Option 2
Product A
Product A
Product B
Product Owner
Product Owner
Unbundle or
Create Variants

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Scaling Option 3
Chief Product Owner,
Product Manager
Tactical
Product Owner
Strategic product decisions:
product strategy, product roadmap,
stakeholder management, financial
forecast
Tactical product decisions:
product backlog management, epics
and user stories, collaboration with the
development team

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Scaling Option When to Use It
Strategic and tactical
product roles
When the product is stable /
mature
Product and feature owners To facilitate growth
Product variants and
unbundling
To sustain growth
Single product owner Before product-market fit

18. Summary
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19. 19 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
There is no one right way to apply the product
owner role.
The product owner is a product management
role and requires product management skills.
What matters are not job roles and titles. It’s the
good we do for the users and our businesses.

20. 20 © 2017 Pichler Consulting Limited
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