7 Traits of a Successful Scrum Product Owner
Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Having a strong Product Owner on the Scrum Team is critical to the success of any product. There are seven key traits that all great Product Owners possess, which are:
Team player
Strong communicator
Receptive of other ideas
Value-driven
Data-driven
Entrepreneurial
Invested in their role
In this article, I will go into depth on each of these traits and why they are important for a Product Owner to have.
A Successful Product Owner is a Team Player
The Scrum Product Owner is one of the most important roles on the Scrum Team. The Product Owner is responsible for (among many things) defining the work that needs to be done to deliver the most value to the end customer of the product. Defining these requirements can sometimes feel like the Product Owner is dictating the work for the Scrum Developers, however the process is meant to be more collaborative. The Product Owner needs to be a team player, willing to listen to the rest of the Scrum Team, accept feedback and pushback, and be open to suggestions from the Scrum Master. Even though the buck stops with the Product Owner, and they are ultimately accountable for the success of the product, the Scrum Team operates as a whole and everyone, including a strong Product Owner, are all teammates who support and respect each other.
A Successful Product Owner is a Strong Communicator
As a Product Owner, I find a lot of my time being spent on updating stakeholders and key leaders within my company. These updates are a mix of face-to-face meetings (mostly over video conferencing), emails and chat messages, and in the form of presentations I have prepared. Whether through an individual discussion, email, or a presentation to a large group, strong communication skills are an absolute must for a Product Owner.
I recommend Product Owners use consistent wording across all communication platforms, and always be prepared to deliver a 30-second elevator pitch on the current status of their product. You never know when you will be caught in a conversation with a C-level executive who is curious how things are going (this happened to me in the bathroom at one of the companies I worked at when the COO asked me how one of my projects was going!).
Personally, I feel being a strong presenter in a group setting is one of the best professional development areas a Product Owner can devote time to. A strong presentation (both the slides and the delivery) can really set the tone for how your product continues to get support from key stakeholders.
A Successful Product Owner is Receptive of Others’ Ideas
It is easy for a Product Owner to get caught up in their own vision for the product and have blind spots to other opportunities for product innovation. The Scrum Developers on the Scrum Team should be considered a valuable resource of new ideas and improvements for the product. A strong Product Owner recognizes this and remains always receptive to other team members’ ideas and suggestions. The refinement meeting is a great opportunity for the Product Owner to solicit feedback and ideas so they can evaluate them as they work on backlog development.
A Successful Product Owner is Value-Driven
Delivering value to the customer is Job #1 for the Product Owner. As a Product Owner myself, everything that makes the product backlog list or into a sprint, has to have been vetted through a value decision process. This means that the work I am proposing to be done by the Developers on the Scrum Team HAS to deliver value to the customer, or I can’t justify the work being done. The decision process is as simple as having a question at the end of each user story you create that asks, “when this work is complete, will the customer see additional value?” If the answer to that is “yes”, then the work makes sense. A good Product Owner asks themself the hard questions, though, and is willing to kill even their best idea if it does not deliver value to the customer at the end of a sprint.
A Successful Product Owner is Data-Driven
One of my favorite quotes of all-time is, “In God We Trust, Everyone Else Bring Data”. Definitely a quote I believe has merit and one I practice as a product owner myself. A great Product Owner uses data as another driving force around what work needs to be done to deliver value to a customer. Despite what “gut feelings” we may have about what a customer wants, it will never be as good as what the data tells us they want.
I recommend Product Owners get to be best friends with customer analytics team members, customer support teams, and anyone else internally who captures and reports on customer satisfaction and feedback. A successful product owner should allocate a set number of hours each week to evaluating customer feedback, usage trends, and other metrics to help develop product backlog items.
A Successful Product Owner is Entrepreneurial
As Product Owner, you are ultimately responsible for the success of your product, meaning you have to be aware of all the successes and failures of the product, the profit-and-loss metrics of the product, and defining the future of what value the product will deliver to customers. In short, as Product Owner, it is essentially like you are an entrepreneur with one product you offer to customers.
In this role, you have to think like a business owner, making critical strategic decisions on where the product goes to meet your goals and objectives. At the same time, you have to provide clear directions to others on the team, and report your results back to stakeholders. I challenge all product owners to think like a CEO, because the responsibilities are very similar.
A Successful Product Owner is Invested in Their Role
A Product Owner who goes above and beyond to understand the product, the customer, the Scrum Team, and the organization's goal is the Product Owner who will see the most success.
Product Owners who go above and beyond take time to understand the technology that drives their product, gets in the weeds to understand where that technology is going in the future, plans according to how the market is and how the customer's needs are changing, before they change. They read books and research studies on topics related to their product. Bottom line: They spend time on professional development to become a better product owner.
Additional Resources for Product Owners
The Product Owner role is extremely comprehensive and detailed. The role involves a lot of moving parts and a lot of responsibilities that have to be executed well to help achieve product success. Below are some additional resources that are worth checking out.
The Complete Guide to the Product Owner Role and Responsibilities
Below is an article I wrote that provides an in-depth look at the Product Owner role that you can check out:
The Responsibilities and Skills of a Scrum Product Owner
Preparing for the Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner Certification
I received my Product Owner certification in the Fall of 2020 through Scrum.org. Below you can check out a comprehensive blog post I wrote about how to study for the exam and test taking tips. I also have included a blog post about a book I recommend to all to-be and current product owners.
How to Pass the Scrum.org Professional Scrum Product Owner Certification Test (PSPO 1)
Book Notes: “The Professional Product Owner: Leveraging Scrum as a Competitive Advantage”
Product Owner Videos I Recommend
There is no shortage of videos on YouTube that talk about the Product Owner role. Below are some of my favorites.
