Leadership skills of a product owner

1. Product Owner
“The collaborative facilitator”
Frederik Vannieuwenhuyse
@vfrederik
http://value-first.be

2. @vfrederik
Outline
Collaborative
facilitator
Product owner
role &
responsibilities
Product owner
skills
Product owner
anti-patterns
Host leadership

3. @vfrederik
Product
owner
role
&
responsibilities

4. @vfrederik
What’s the product owner main concern?
Write good user stories
Talk to customers, end-users & get feedback
Discuss the meaning of MVP with stakeholders
Prepare the “demo”
Create the backlog for the next sprint

5. @vfrederik
– The Scrum Guide -
“The Product Owner is responsible for
maximising the value of the product resulting
from work of the Development Team.”
“The Product Owner is the sole person
responsible for managing the Product Backlog.”
https://www.scrumguides.org/

6. @vfrederik
Product Owner
https://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-owner-guide/
*Extreme Programming talks about “the customer”

7. @vfrederik
Product Owner

8. @vfrederik
Product Owner
https://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-owner-guide/

9. @vfrederik
Product Owner
https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/romans-product-management-framework/

10. @vfrederik
Responsible for overall product success!
Make end-users (paying customers) happy / satisfied!
Make (all involved) people AWESOME!
VALUE / HAPPINESS MAXIMISER
http://www.barryovereem.com/wp-content/uploads/Product-Owner1.jpg

11. @vfrederik

12. @vfrederik
Product Owner anti-patterns
https://age-of-product.com/wp-content/uploads/Webinar-Product-Owner-Anti-Patterns-Hands-on-Agile.jpeg
Ticket monkey

13. @vfrederik
What’s
needed
for
great
product
ownership?

14. @vfrederik
Product Owner
https://www.romanpichler.com/tools/product-owner-guide/

15. @vfrederik
Product Owner skills
Visual by Charles-Louis De Maere

16. @vfrederik
Host leadership
Visual by Charles-Louis De Maere

17. @vfrederik
Host leadership
Courtesy of Pierluigi Pugliese

18. @vfrederik
P.O. Host leadership examples (1/5)
Inviter & On the stage or Among the people
-> invite people to join an initiative, seek for
sponsorship within an organisation
Space Creator + On the Stage for example is
what we do when we explain to our audience
the purpose
-> sprint review, product backlog refinement,
explaining the product vision

19. @vfrederik
P.O. Host leadership examples (2/5)
Connector + Among the People
-> connecting stakeholders
-> connecting dev team with (possible) end-
users
Co-Participator + In the Kitchen
-> preparing a meeting, workshop, …

20. @vfrederik
P.O. Host leadership examples (3/5)
Space Creator + On the Stage
-> Present your product in a way that
inspires the developers
-> compliment / appreciate the work done
Space Creator + On the Balcony
-> observing end-users when trying out the
product/service
-> be available as product owner during
the sprint

21. @vfrederik
P.O. Host leadership examples (4/5)
Gatekeeper + On the Balcony
-> during the sprint watching what the
team is doing
Gatekeeper + On the Stage
-> interfere when needed, when taking
product decisions (reflected in product
backlog, when needed during the sprint)

22. @vfrederik
P.O. Host leadership examples (5/5)
Co-participator + Among the people
-> facilitate a product backlog
refinement meeting
-> facilitate common understanding about
product, product vision, roadmap,
prioritisation decisions, etc
-> facilitate decision making, etc.

23. @vfrederik
Host leadership examples
Many other combinations of positions &
roles are possible
This is a model for flexible contextual
leadership!

24. @vfrederik
Product Owner as collaborative facilitator
I read the mind of my business owners / stakeholders
I die without (end-user) feedback
I facilitate decision-making based on empiricism
I facilitate common understanding
I live and breath with my team
I rule through my product backlog
I am the product guru
I don’t do everything on my own!

25. @vfrederik
I am the superman of LISTENING and EMPATHIC ENGAGEMENT
I am the master of facilitating ruthless prioritisation for value
+++ product knowledge +++ customer knowledge +++