Main Responsibilities and Required Skills for Product Owner
In the Agile methodology, a Product Owner is responsible for driving the development of a product by collaborating with customers and stakeholders to understand their goals and requirements. They are in charge of monitoring the feature backlog, prioritizing tasks, and assisting in the selection of which features should be built first. In this blog post we describe the primary responsibilities and the most in-demand hard and soft skills for Product Owners.
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Main Responsibilities of Product Owner
The following list describes the typical responsibilities of a Product Owner:
Accept
Accept completed user stories to ensure the work fulfills the acceptance crixteria.
Accept Backlog Items as they are completed by the Development Team.
Accept Stories to Definition of Done.
Adopt
Adopt strategic view about evolution of engineer needs.
Advocate
Advocate customer needs to the broader team.
Align
Align product roadmap to strategic goals.
Analyse
Analyse data to decide on the next action.
Analyse requirements and identify gaps.
Answer
Answer questions from the delivery team and deliver direction.
Anticipate
Anticipate bottlenecks and help balance the needs of the business and our technical constraints.
Anticipate complex and strategic issues that have an impact on the entire organization.
Apply
Apply knowledge of Product and business drivers to enhance work.
Approve
Approve project scope statement.
Approve user stories and acceptance criteria.
Articulate
Articulate key analysis findings.
Articulate the business and data insights to executive business owners.
Articulate the strategic vision into tactical user stories.
Assist with
Assist Developers with product demos during Sprint Reviews.
Assist in auditing and managing project activities ensuring that governance controls are in place.
Assist in developing training materials and other technical product documentation.
Assist with coaching less experienced team members.
Assist with project level plans related to schedule, scope and resources.
Assist with the elaboration of Epics, Themes and Features into user stories that are granular.
Assist with the management and prioritisation of our product road map.
Balance
Balance time and resources to accomplish product goals with cross-functional teams.
Build
Build, prioritize and maintain the product backlog.
Build, prune, maintain and prioritize the product backlog.
Build and groom the user story backlog for one or more squads (prioritizing based on value).
Build effective relationships with internal / external stakeholders and ensures alignment.
Build effective relationships with internal / external stakeholders including third party suppliers.
Build solutions that are supportable, scalable and achieve our aspiration of common assets.
Build the team's passion for delivering value to customers using Agile Project Delivery.
Build Workforce Management capabilities.
Challenge
Challenge squad(s) and scrums to achieve outcomes in the best manner (better, faster, leaner).
Champion
Champion DevOps adoption and ensure best practice are followed by CM application development teams.
Champion efforts to attain objectives and key results for digital channels.
Collaborate with
Collaborate and communicate with software development teams to understand product features.
Collaborate and co-ordinate activities with the TechGRC distributed team.
Collaborate and drive engineering using Jira in an agile development environment.
Collaborate with Tech Leads and UAT to define when user stories are done.
Collaborate with other product teams to coordinate dependencies.
Collaborate with stakeholders to prioritize and maintain product backlogs to maximize product value.
Collaborate with the architects to define the roadmap by providing the business perspective.
Collaborate with the team to constantly refine and improve the delivery process.
Collect
Collect feedback from these discussions that drive functional requirements and design implementation.
Communicate
Communicate and support change management efforts.
Communicate changes, improvements and other important information about the Product as needed.
Communicate effectively, Engagement, Tech savvy.
Communicate it adequately to key partners and team.
Communicate product launches and incremental changes to the wider business.
Communicate status and progress externally.
Communicate the status of each phase for assigned projects to management on a scheduled basis.
Communicate to stakeholders the value created by each feature.
Communicate with the business, generate user stories, familiar with Jira.
Compare
Compare features for competitive review to inform prioritization within a platform product release.
Compile
Compile analysis of competing solutions in the market.
Conduct
Conduct backlog estimation sessions.
Conduct customer demos of new and upcoming functionality.
Conduct demos of new and upcoming functionality.
Conduct Ideation Session with Internal and External Stakeholders.
Conduct User Acceptance Testing (UAT) to ensure new products and functionality work as expected.
Conduct webinars to promote the product and usefulness.
Consolidate
Consolidate data into user stories and define KPIs to measure the success of features over time.
Consolidate stakeholders needs and prioritize the features backlog.
Contribute to
Contribute to identify potential new opportunities.
Contribute to product vision and roadmap.
Contribute to scrums, sprint planning, sprint retro and sprint review.
Contribute to the collaborative and stimulating work environment.
Contribute to the design and mapping of data conversion strategies.
Contribute to the development of organizational methods and standards.
Contribute to the Product Roadmap to realize the goals of the Product Vision and Strategy.
Contribute to Vision, Roadmap and ROI.
Convert
Convert product ideas to epics, features and stories.
Convey
Convey the vision and goals to their team for each new feature prioritized.
Coordinate
Coordinate a cross-functional team of engineers, project managers, and other contributors.
Coordinate multiple dependencies across different business units.
Coordinate sprints, retrospective meetings and daily stand-ups.
Coordinate the project specific technical task with all internal and external stakeholder.
Create
Create and maintain product roadmaps for the applications within your portfolio.
Create and maintain project backlog while prioritizing and updating requirements.
Create and maintain system and user documentation.
Create and prioritizes stories in the product backlog.
Create and prioritizes work for one team.
Create compelling visual layouts, frameworks, summaries and mockups of financial reporting documents.
Create mockups as needed to solidify plans with stakeholders and the development team.
Create, own and is measured against their agile team's objectives for each 10 week program increment.
Create reporting that meets each group's needs.
Create system and functional design documentation including data flow diagrams.
Create UAT plans, UAT cases and training material to facilitate UAT.
Create user interface prototypes for desktop and mobile apps.
Create user stories with appropriate technical detail and acceptance criteria.
Deconstruct
Deconstruct complex, ambiguous, ambitious ideas into sprint-sized epics and user stories.
Define
Define and analyze metrics that ensure the success of the release of products and features.
Define and breaks down features for delivery team.
Define and clearly communicate acceptance criteria for output based on business needs.
Define and Design and prioritize reports, dashboards for the development team to implement.
Define and elaborate epics and user stories.
Define and execute the implementation of the system and associated applications.
Define and manage requirements to & from other teams in SAP, manage dependencies.
Define and manage the IoT core platform program backlog.
Define compelling product vision, and illustrate the associated product design.
Define, document and communicate clear requirements for product initiatives and releases.
Define, govern & report success indicators.
Define, measure, and report on key metrics to indicate progress of the data quality program.
Define program increment objectives for the team.
Define the definition of ready and drive the definition of done with the team and Scrum Master.
Define the product vision to the clinical and technical teams.
Define the vision for a project and create a roadmap.
Define use case data strategy and vision with the functional Product Owner and IT group.
Define user stories, assess risk and facilitate progress throughout the product lifecycle.
Define what success looks like, how it will be measured and how it.
Demonstrate
Demonstrate good presentation skills by pairing sound analytics with storytelling.
Design
Design and develop appropriate procedures for the team to stay on track.
Determine
Determine who and how are using the product.
Develop
Develop and communicate both strategic vision and tactical roadmaps to key stakeholders.
Develop and continuously improve usability test criteria to guide product acceptance.
Develop and drives demos and is the only team member empowered to accept stories as done.
Develop and evaluate clear processes and procedures.
Develop and maintain a prioritized backlog of user stories to be included in sprints.
Develop and maintain product documentation and deployment processes.
Develop and maintain relevant product requirements, specs and documentation.
Develop and maintains appropriate tracking and reporting of product performance post-launch.
Develop and maintains on-demand computer based training resources for customers.
Develop and maintain standards and policies related to the Mac product and Jamf management platform.
Develop an understanding of target market and user base and uses this to guide product decisions.
Develop complex execution strategies, determine their scope and write procedures and guidelines.
Develop detailed requirements and user stories for the development team.
Develop domain-specific competence.
Develop functional requirements in the form of user stories.
Develop great working relationship with business partners / scrum masters.
Develop implementation plans and establish teams to introduce new technology.
Develop product vision, goals, themes and features.
Develop scope and define backlog items (epic).
Develop the roadmap of products with the leadership team.
Develop tools and models that would allow testing of price elasticity.
Develop user manual and release notes.
Document
Document new and modified features for implementation.
Document requirements in a format that can be shared with internal and external stakeholders.
Document include workflows, required logic, and design components.
Drive
Drive business capability roadmap in their area and drive business case development.
Drive ongoing backlog allocations and prioritization with an agile scrum team.
Drive revenue goals for each program.
Drive service delivery strategy, departmental processes and policies.
Drive the definition, testing, training and implementation of functional requirements.
Drive the planning and delivery of key capabilities as it relates to the Distribution strategy.
Drive the execution of high-level product roadmaps into features and product delivery.
Elaborate
Elaborate business requirements based on high level direction provided by the Business Lead.
Ensure
Ensure all program documentation is cataloged and archived.
Ensure bugs are escalated appropriately and resolved swiftly.
Ensure continuous growth of self and staff.
Ensure each story has the correct acceptance criteria.
Ensure goals are clear and the product vision is aligned with technical and business objectives.
Ensure roadmaps can be understood by technical and non-technical people.
Ensure smooth platform operations.
Ensure that the scrum teams understand items in the product backlog to the level needed.
Ensure that the team has an adequate amount of groomed backlog items to work on.
Ensure user stories contain adequate detail and acceptance criteria for implementation.
Ensure user stories convey the value of the functionality being requested and are testable.
Ensure value is delivered during adoption and rollout.
Escalate
Escalate and keep sponsors and stakeholders informed of key issues, risks and interdependencies.
Escalate issues and develops and recommends appropriate solutions.
Establish
Establish and publish data quality metrics for the entire pipeline.
Establish requirements baselines.
Evaluate
Evaluate progress against dependencies.
Evaluate and builds a network of third-party suppliers.
Evangelize
Evangelize and generate a consensus on the strategy from business partners across the enterprise.
Facilitate
Facilitate backlog requirement prioritization with project stakeholders.
Facilitate communications throughout the product development lifecycle to all teams.
Facilitate communication to development team.Communicate with stakeholders.
Facilitate discussion, decision making, and conflict resolution.
Facilitate Event storming sessions in support of establishing well formed requirements.
Facilitate internal requirements gathering sessions with various departments.
Facilitate the sizing (grooming) of product backlog items.
Focus on
Focus on evolving the client experience and underlying architecture for these critical growth areas.
Focus on mentoring the teams to be self-organizing, self-managed and self-disciplined.
Follow
Follow change management procedures to deploy new software, features, and enhancements.
Follow our competitors and the industry, identify value opportunities to grow the business.
Formulate
Formulate cases for acceptance testing, verifying that the software meets the business requirements.
Gather
Gather intelligence on best digital practices.
Generate
Generate reports on product performance and ensure adoption of your product and new features.
Get
Get answers for the team to clarify details as they are developing the application.
Handle
Handle requirements and backlog prioritization.
Held
Held prior accountabilities that required influencing leaders outside of administrative authority.
Help
Help clients define their needs.
Help define the product's strategic orientations with the Master PO.
Help design policies and standards.
Help development with architecture, thinking through technical risks and delivery roll out.
Help drive product innovation at BlackBerry.
Help determine business priorities and best sequence for execution of business / group strategy.
Help to improve the SDLC by identifying weaknesses and propose effective solutions.
Help to shape the future of Ampify Music's products and brand.
Identify
Identify and enrich backlog items to ensure features and stories are clearly defined.
Identify and manage continuous improvements and innovation of the platform.
Identify integration needs for further use.
Identify internal controls issues.
Identify key KPIs for both customer and business impact.
Identify when client feedback is out-of-scope and how to proceed.
Illustrate
Illustrate existing product roadblocks to team and provides advice on overcoming them.
Implement
Implement development planning that minimizes technical and schedule risks.
Incorporate
Incorporate feedback from customer insights and research.
Incorporate feedback from customer and / or producer interviews and user research.
Increase
Increase understanding of Agile practices within Aviva.
Interact with
Interact and communicate professionally.
Interact with automation engineers to ensure coverage of requirements in test automation.
Interact with the business to identify, capture and analyze business requirements.
Investigate
Investigate and raise cards to support new features.
Keep
Keep abreast of industry trends and drive QBR and ongoing partner engagement.
Keep a fresh look at digital health trends and provide insights on priorities.
Keep everyone fully engaged with the project progress.
Keep fully informed of product roadmaps with PMs and POs.
Keep product backlogs groomed with changing priorities from the business.
Keep projects on a schedule, ensuring all tasks are prioritized appropriately.
Keep up-to-date on the related technology and bricks & mortar landscape.
Lead
Lead a multidisciplinary team from design to production.
Lead and facilitate problem solving sessions with partners and vendors.
Lead and inspire the Agile Squad to instill quality, encourage innovation and reduce defects.
Lead and owning the marketing email team vision, strategy and execution.
Lead our bi-weekly releases and communications to senior management.
Lead prioritization and trade-offs among customer experience, schedule, performance and cost.
Lead product release plans and set expectation for delivery of new functionalities.
Lead project delivery and governance / status against our client's digital road map.
Lead requirements gathering effort for non-regulated Digital Health products.
Lead the development of core CodeMonk Platform by working with globally distributed teams.
Lead the execution of the delivery plan, articulating the impact of choices on KPI's.
Lead the Mobile App and Emerging Technology efforts.
Lead the planning product release plans and set expectation for delivery of new functionalities.
Learn
Learn and leverage AI / ML capabilities of existing tools and bring knowledge to products.
Leverage
Leverage UI / UX resources to fulfill Sr. Product Management asks.
Leverage technical delivery teams to create Proof-of-Concepts (POC) and prototypes when applicable.
Liaise
Liaise with the CEO to understand our business and core product strategy.
Log
Log and translate business objectives into User Stories.
Maintain
Maintain automated system protocols by writing and updating procedures.
Maintain constant relationship with external team to understand their requirements and align roadmap.
Maintain in-depth understanding of processes and capability needs for master data.
Maintain KPI's to measure impact of the digital advances.
Maintain relevant metrics that help the team see how they are doing.
Maintain trust and confidentiality at all times.
Make
Make a difference in health care through internally and externally facing digital products that.
Make an impact in the green energy / renewables sector.
Make trade-off decisions between what's possible vs.
Manage
Manage and report the project budget to the client and management team (budget from 5k to 500k).
Manage billing and profitability of projects.
Manage content of resources to ensure depth and breadth of curriculum coverage.
Manage dependencies in and across sprints and releases.
Manage expectations and remove business and roadmap impediments.
Manage inbound customer feature requests on the backlog and roadmap.
Manage ongoing client communications and share status updates with key stakeholders.
Manage product backlog, sprint planning, release planning and retrospectives.
Manage, refine and prioritise the product backlog for an Agile development team.
Manage relationships with community advisory team (s).
Manage resolution of urgent engineering issues while communicating changes to business stakeholders.
Manage technology vendor relationships.
Manage the AI Yardi Support team and their workloads.
Manage the entire mobile app digital product lifecycle.
Manage the workflow of projects and changes with the development teams.
Mentor
Mentor more junior members of the team.
Monitor
Monitor delivery progress and provide periodic updates to Senior Management.
Monitor product performance with reports and dashboards, and periodic stakeholder reviews.
Monitor supplier contracts.
Motivate
Motivate and encouragesthe team through transparency, collaboration, trust and fun.
Negotiate
Negotiate internally at senior levels regarding important issues within their own area.
Negotiate SOW and Master Agreements for relevant suppliers.
Organise
Organise the work flow for the engineering and QA team via Jira.
Oversee
Oversee all stages of the projects working with the creative team, marketing and development team.
Oversee and ensure the clear and effective delivery of products and services to the customer.
Oversee product teams support of the messaging, communication, and customer outreach as necessary.
Oversee all stages of product creation including design and development.
Own
Own all the product timelines from idea to creation.
Own relationship and coordination between Sr. Product Management and Tech writer (s).
Own the "bigger picture” and entire cycle of a legacy Mainframe migration program.
Own the product development process from inception through launch and iteration cycles.
Own the product roadmap for identified features.
Participate in
Participate and support facilitation and working groups.
Participate from concept / ideation and review through to development through to production release.
Participate in key sprint events (sprint planning, backlog refinement, and review / demos).
Participate in opportunities to develop both personally and professionally.
Participate in the decision to ship the product.
Participate in SCRUM ceremonies such as daily stand-up, sprint planning, release planning, etc.
Participate with the System Release Team in ongoing backlog preparation activities.
Perform
Perform demos to all stakeholders on a regular basis.
Perform EIAM SOC1 Controls.
Perform other related duties as required and assigned.
Perform strategic reviews of UX and designs, and 3rd party vendors.
Perform traditional business analyst responsibilities to bridge the gap between IT and The Business.
Plan
Plan and define project / client implementation scope and activity planning and sequencing.
Plan and work flexibly to meet deadlines.
Plan, prioritize and groom the product backlog.
Plan releases and upgrades.
Prepare
Prepare data for use cases by creating.
Prepare recommendations and provide advice on how to implement them.
Prioritize
Prioritize Ideas based on ROI and Conduct experimentation to validate hypothesis.
Prioritize backlog and supports the release / PI planning and sprint / iteration planning.
Prioritize the execution team's work so that it aligns with the stakeholder's business strategy.
Process
Process improvement capabilities (Lean, six sigma).
Produce
Produce product requirements.
Program
Program / Project Manager / Product Owner in a deadline-driven and fast-paced environment.
Provide
Provide analysis support to the test team.
Provide an environment where engineering innovation can thrive and team commitment flourishes.
Provide clarity on the what and why of customer / business needs.
Provide guidance and direction to Business Analyst.
Provide guidance and training to develop the teams.
Provide guidance on leveraging new technology.
Provide input and functions as a technical reviewer for the Annual Product Review.
Provide insight and share best practices to internal and external business partners.
Provide on-the-job training in service for the product owners of other teams.
Provide performance feedback to product team members' administrative leaders.
Provide post-release education via demos, release notes and other documentation.
Provide regular forecast of project and feature delivery based on empirical data.
Provide specialized consulting, analytical and technical support.
Provide the correct acceptance criteria to each user story.
Provide transparency around work in progress.
Provide vision and direction to the Agile Development Team and stakeholders throughout the project.
Report
Report on key metrics using data, and use data to build hypotheses on the most valuable path forward.
Represent
Represent business stakeholders in scrum reviews.
Represent the customer's needs and expectations for product deliverables.
Represent the Project to the larger Philips community.
Research
Research and analyze market opportunities of the Healthcare IT product.
Research and analyze market, the users, and any eliminating friction points in the experience.
Research and analyze market, users, and the roadmap for the product.
Research and apply regulations and governing standards to product requirements.
Research and provide competitive insights to the product strategy team.
Research and provide recommendations on new best practice standards.
Review
Review of test cases against user stories acceptance criteria.
Review product metrics & tech usage to improve product experience through data-driven decisions.
Simplify
Simplify the technical issues to the Product Owner.
Simulate
Simulate and test process systems improvements considering usability and industry standards.
Support
Support Agile SDLC by participating in Agile ceremonies and promoting Agile principles.
Support A.I. teams across multiple business areas by managing the pipeline of A.I. initiatives.
Support and drive resolution for key issues that arise in testing or production.
Support beta-testing, end-user testing, and validation by customers for new or revised solutions.
Support development execution - lead bi-weekly sprint meetings, daily status meetings.
Support ongoing product supply by ensuring robust and capable processes are in place and monitored.
Support organizational change and training.
Support other Product Owners where required.
Support System Integration testing and End to End testing with enterprise systems.
Support technology introductions and new product launches at global trade events & customer events.
Support the design of in scope Business Processes.
Support the go-to-market strategies with clear input on value, features and pricing strategies.
Support their Engineering's Integrations team.
Support the review and execution of test cases.
Take
Take a leadership role as the expert with respect to product delivery and services.
Take a user-centric approach to product development to deliver best-in-class UX.
Take insight and define actionable ideas from it, to create product development proposals.
Track
Track progress of sprints / releases to ensure product is delivered as promised.
Track record of being accountable and responsible for getting things done.
Understand
Understand Business and Technology needs.
Understand complex features / systems and how they apply to the product.
Understand current business processes and define future business processes.
Understand management of budgetary controls of multiple projects with outside vendor (s).
Understand how traditional relational databases are built.
Understand the software development and testing life-cycle.
Understand the financial impact of team and Product related decisions.
Validate
Validate the progress and provide feedback at the end of each iteration.
Validate User Stories and meet acceptance criteria.
Validate UX mockups, define product functionalities and prioritize business value.
Work with
Work with best-of-breed technologies.
Work with business stakeholders to define product vision, road-map and growth opportunities.
Work with key stakeholders across the Release Train to ensure successful Tech Debt / BAU releases.
Work with PM & architects to finalize feature designs.
Work with product leadership to help define business strategy and roadmaps.
Work with product lead or leadership to establish resource lists for project.
Work with QA engineers to create test plans.
Work with SMEs to request feedback about story grooming, functionality issues and software demos.
Work with stakeholders to coordinate deliverables.
Work with stakeholders to develop a product roadmap.
Work with team to establish regular cadence and manage capacity.
Work with the business unit marketing manager to develop product positioning strategies.
Work with the development team to write stories, plan, and manage sprint work.
Work with the Digital Product team to discuss enhancements or new features.
Work with the Product Manager and Agile team to define the scope included in a project.
Work with the Product Marketer to drive & monitor product and feature adoption.
Work with the relevant forums to prioritise deliverables.
Work with the Scrum Masters / Team coordinators to ensure cohesion in the team process.
Work with the Sr. Product Owner to ensure digital ecosystem is optimized.
Work with the team to produce and maintain the data science road map.
Write
Write good Acceptance Criteria and perform testing.
Write unit and UI tests to identify malfunctions.
Write well-defined User Stories / Use Cases and acceptance criteria.
Most In-demand Hard Skills
The following list describes the most required technical skills of a Product Owner:
Agile
Scrum
Business
Agile Environment
Business Analysis
Agile Methodology
Confluence
Software Development
Business Analyst
Design
Product Development
Excel
SQL
UX
Product Ownership
Kanban
Product
AWS
Cloud
Safe
User Stories
Technical Background
Product Manager
Management
Java
Analytics
Lean
Powerpoint
Finance
Cspo
Financial Services
Most In-demand Soft Skills
The following list describes the most required soft skills of a Product Owner:
Written and oral communication skills
Problem-solving attitude
Organizational capacity
Leadership
Analytical ability
Interpersonal skills
Attention to detail
Presentation
Collaborative
Team player
Time-management
Self-starter
Creative
Detail-oriented
Negotiation
Sharp analytical
Multi-task
Organized
Critical thinker
Curious
Bilingualism
Proactive
Teamwork
Flexible
Priority management
Self-motivated
Adaptable to changes
Rigueur
Initiative
