A Day in the Life of a Product Owner

Every Product Owner carries out their daily life as a busy balancing act. As a matter of fact, he/she has to choose, clarify, and convey the requirements of the stakeholders. All are done just to make sure that the Scrum Team receives the right feedback to form the right product at the right time and place.

Who is a Product Owner and what are his/her responsibilities

The Product Owner is a member of the Scrum Team who keeps the vision of a Product. They take the accountabilities of prioritizing the Product Backlog and Defining User stories. In fact, they manage the priorities of a program while looking after the technical and conceptual integrity of the features for the team. Besides, they are considered the main ambassador of the team as they build the products. Moreover, while building a product, they take the customer needs and stakeholders' management into account to maximize the value of the product. Also, they ensure that the stories meet the needs of the users and comply with the Definition of Done. Furthermore, they are loaded with the efficient skills of market analyst, business strategist, customer liaison, product designer, marketer, and project manager as well. As of a note, a Product Owner has the accountability for maximizing the value of the product resulting from the Scrum Team.

1. Define the Product Vision

As a Product Owner defines goals and forms a vision for development projects with the use of their high-level perspective. They communicate with stakeholders comprising business managers, customers, and developers to ensure the vision is aligned and the objectives are clear.

For example, if a product is going to launch, the process of defining a product vision cannot be done at one go. It has to pass through different iterations as a Product Owner creates a product roadmap to summarize the product vision, and then the product state will be defined in the future.

2. Prioritize Requirements

A Product Owner also has the responsibility to prioritize the needs. It simply means that they look after the time, budget, scope, and weighing priorities as per the requirements and objectives of the stakeholders.

For example, if a product is under development and needs to launch in six months, the Product Owner would need to estimate the flexibility of different areas and focus on how to develop a product in a given period of time.

3. Foresee Client Needs

A Product Owner knows well to understand and foresee the needs of the client to handle the development process more effectively. Here all play their great communication skills and deep market knowledge that let them perceive the needs and problems of the clients.

For example, a Product Owner remains one step ahead of their clients with the use of customer journey mapping. This makes them save their time by knowing their customer's minds and resolving them.

4. Oversee Development Stages

It is the job of the Product Owner to oversee the actual product development stages by taking a lot of time. The entire process includes Sprint Planning, Sprint Review, Backlog Refinement, and Sprint Retrospective as well.

For example, during the stages of product development, the Agile Product Owner meets the stakeholders to recognize and make the steps needed for the next iteration. And then, they meet their squad to identify areas for improvement, refine the process, and support the Sprint. 

The Product Owner generally tends to be more hectic as compared to other professions; Let's have a sneak peek into the daily life of a Product Owner.

What are the Daily Routines of a Product Owner?

• The day of a Product Owner usually starts with a meeting with the Scrum Team, which may or may not be productive considering the time of the day. After assigning the team with all the tasks for the day and making the decisions the team requires, delivering the vision, and responding to their questions to keep them on track, the Product Owner tends to focus on other tasks at hand.
• After the meeting, the Product Owner is tasked with checking out the initiatives for the organization; as the initiatives are so big, it's practically impossible for a single team to handle it alone, so the Product Owner holds weekly project alignment sessions with the stakeholders and squads. Though the meeting generally focuses on initiatives, lots of other numerous things are also undertaken in the session, such as updating the company progress, calling out blockers, or finding other important aspects in the product.
• After checking the progress of the teams and identifying the crucial aspects of the product, the Product Owner has to now work on the strategy and hold strategic meetings with their strategic group. The Product Owner has to do a lot of work in the process of product strategy so as to ensure the strategies like market research, epics, and features go continuously. It is necessary to make the product roadmap review prior to proceeding with the update of the product vision. A Product Owner tries to get the right information about a new competitor from the internet as it is important to discuss with the shareholders during the meeting.
• After working on the product strategy, a Product Owner joins the lunch with a potential client to discuss the project development while taking lunch. As they are done with their lunch, he gets ready to conduct a meeting with the shareholders to communicate about the further proceedings of the project. Meetings have been held to have buy-in for the development of future or strategic moves or to inform. The Product Owner talks about the 3-time horizons to the stakeholders very clearly and collects all the essential information required to develop a product. During this time, the Product Owner carries out formal communication with the shareholders with clear decisions and data.
• The Product Owner conducts an informal meeting with a shareholder to clear the insights of the product development so that the product can adapt to the new market. The Product Owner shows interest in talking with the people who give a positive contribution to his/her product but never take product development decisions without the involvement of the team. And then, the Product Owner starts to prepare the Product Backlog by following proper Agile principles, and this makes him/her quickly prioritize the Product Backlog again in a disciplined manner.
• As it is necessary to review the product development cycle, the Product Owner generally takes part in meetings on technical or testing sessions. It helps the Product Owner to get the right insight of the team with respect to their decisions on distinct technologies, and accordingly, he/she guides them strategically. The accountability of the Product Owners is quite critical as they have to take such kinds of decisions in different phases of time. Moreover, it is their duty to make quick decisions, test, apply, improve, and learn from it as well. For the Product Owner, it is very crucial to forming the user stories for the next Sprints.
• At the end of the day, the entire team comes up with concrete outcomes. When the Product Owner attends a team meeting, he/she concentrates on the representation of test results and identifies any unexpected setbacks, and claims the next plan to act. At last, a Product Owner assimilates an advanced, strategic overview to modify an unsurpassable product.
• The job of a Product Owner is very challenging as they have to review the whole product development cycle after every Sprint and recognize the actual problems to find the solution for it. Once the product is developed, they look for the other Sprint meeting to release the next product with the business owners, and this goes on. They are even responsible for forming new ideas for the product while creating a work-driven and healthy environment. 

Conclusion:

Every Product Owner should be responsible and focus on a few prerequisites like service, sustainability, support, and strategy. In fact, the duty of a Product Owner is quite challenging in all terms. As mentioned above, a responsible Product Owner needs to carry out various duties on time, which is why a day in the life of a Product Owner becomes chaotic. In short, he/she has to maneuver all the building blocks at once. Interestingly, they launch a product with impermanence and brevity. This way, they produce fabulous results by offering solid support to the squad and winning the hearts of the stakeholders. With no doubt, a Product Owner is certainly a business model to an Organization.

Useful Links:

, CSPO Certification, Top 10 Scrum Master Skills, CSM Course, Design Thinking And Innovation For Business Training, Future Of Agile In Singapore