Who is or is not a Product Owner?

When we say Product Owner, we are talking about a person who focuses on value, puts the customer at the center, can spare time for his team and stakeholders, and has a vision and goals about the product.

Well, if you ask me, Abidin, can you draw a picture of unhappiness in a team :) I can give you a few tips on how PO should not be ^_^

Micromanager Product Owner:

The PO is the one who gives orders such as asking task by task, send him an e-mail, did you notify him, check and don't forget to add this, he still hasn't managed to pull himself out of the situation and thinks that he can achieve the goal by pulling the team somewhere so that they don't get caught up in the situation. Here the team becomes unhappy because it does not have its own space, the team members may feel worthless and uninformed as they tell how to do the job rather than being involved in how to do the job. Some teams like this because they are afraid to take initiative and responsibility, but this is the biggest obstacle to the team's development.

Antidote:

The PO should give the team space and allow mistakes to be made, the team will improve itself over time with what it learns from here and will come up with solutions and product parts that even the PO could not predict.

Male/Female Yes Product Owner

It has an incredibly large backlog, everything is there, any stakeholder will be happy when they see it because everything they do is there. He is not very good at prioritizing, requests that change the goal may come at any time during the sprint because his stakeholder wanted it that way. The team, on the other hand, starts to have problems concentrating while wondering what job they were doing with their eyes crossed, and after a while they cannot commit, trust in the team decreases and the roads to unhappiness are paved with stones, oh stakeholder! You took me out and seduced me :)

Antidote:

PO No! He must learn to say, take valuable work and NOT do work that will not create value. In this way, he will gain the respect of the team. In addition, prioritization methods may also be useful. SEE: MoSCoW

Product Owner Without Vision

The team has no path, no trace, they are thrown everywhere at any time, they are similar to Mr Yes but more dangerous. The team must be together for a purpose. If this purpose is not present, the team will fall apart. If there are ToDos, it will do it, but it cannot add creativity, it cannot feed itself with the work it does, and since it is purposeless, team members do not stay there for a long time. Ahh, the team that loses blood will have a hard time surviving anyway and the team will self-destruct.

Antidote:

The PO must first get to know the product, set a goal, come together with his stakeholders and customers, understand the expectation, and bring a vision to the team by adding his own creativity, he must have excitement and reflect it on the team. After coming with a purpose, you can enrich this vision with the team.

Merve Ergenç

22.09.2022