In this post, I will share the definition of product owner and some relevant information for this role. I am looking forward to welcoming you

1. Definition

For those who don't actually know about the definition of Product Owner (PO). He/She is one of many roles on the scrum team responsible for product development. In another way, a product owner also seems to be a Mini-CEO in the scrum team, because he/she will be the key person to make a final decision on which to build first. or How to build this feature?

To understand more clearly about the product owner guy, let's imagine in the concert, we have several important roles that contribute to the success and experience of the audience from Conductor, Orchestra, music producer, sound and lighting technical or event management and every one of them have their self responsible for making concert go great. For example:

With the Orchestra, The orchestra consists of various instrumentalists such as violinists, cellists, flutists, percussionists, etc. Together, they create melodies, harmonies, and rhythms, adding depth and richness to the performance.

Or with sound and lighting technicians, these experts play a crucial role in setting up professional sound and lighting systems for the concert.

And now, Do you curious about who is the product owner in the Orchestra concert? Yeah, he is the Conductor, the person who conducts and leads the entire performance. The conductor plays a vital role in guiding the musicians, shaping the musical space, and creating an excellent experience for the audience.

2. Responsibility in a scrum team

In a scrum team, we have various roles and responsibilities for each position, with no exception for the product owner. When you are being a product owner in a scrum team, there are several main responsibilities that need to handle, I will separate these into every stage of product development for easier understanding.

Before the product has been kicked-off, the product owner needs to determine very clearly the company vision by frequently exchanging information with the CEO. The output for this stage is the product roadmap. I mean, if you are a product owner, you need to understand very clearly the company vision and based on this information, create a product roadmap that meets the requirement for business vision. Then, we need to break down the product roadmap into some milestones. Every milestone will provide a specific value to your business or make user satisfaction. Then, after determining the milestone, we continue to break it down 1 more time into a specific sprint with a specific goal. Now, it's time to change to the next stage.

The developing process is the next stage. In this stage, the product owner will conduct various agile ceremonies like sprint planning, daily scrum, sprint review, or retrospectives. Furthermore, documents for business requirements and design wireframes can not be missed in this stage. So, in time your developer is coding a new feature, the product owner will collaborate with the QC member to prepare a test scenario which used after finishing every function and multiple subtasks. LOL

The releasing stage is the next stage in the product development process, it will happen once the function is OK ( I mean it works right and provides the same value as the business requirement) and the product owner will be free in this stage. Sorry, just kidding to help you relax. You still be in charge of the stage by writing the user manual for releasing the feature. But in some cases, I saw the guy who wrote this document as QC instead of PO (By the way, it depends on company culture or responsible when organizing team structure and responsible). Once everything is ready including features, documents, and marketing resources. We will have a product announcement for our users via email or social media as well.

Come to the final stage (Maintenance stage), after releasing the product to the user. We need to "prepare mentally" to get feedback from lovely users and collect them to classify for another sprint (Maybe in sprint grooming)

3. Conclusion

With the above information, I hope you gain some valuable information and have a more clear perspective on the product owner's role and responsibility. In the next topic, I will continue to share more about the product owner position in Software VietNam company. Hope to bring more value to the community.

P/s: The main reason for this post is wrote with the English version is I just want to practice my writing skill. Now, I am just a newbie in using the English language, so if there is any mistake in this post. Hope to receive to contribute to making it better.