1. Agile Product Owner Job Description

When come to Agile product owner job description , we need to understand that Product owner as a role then a title, your title can be varies from “Technical Project Manager”, “Program Manager” or even “Project Manger” but in reality your role is Product Owner in scrum, its not that it is required to have this title in scrum, but you would be doing lot of other activities not directly relating to scrum or agile, but whether or not your title is product owner , your role would be, if you are using agile in any of its own flavour.

If you are looking for detail Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities check our previous post.

Product owner is a demanding position, you need to understand the vision of a product from the point of view of customer, end user or stakeholders.

Some might think of product owner role as CEO of the project. It just way too aggravate the responsibility and authority of product owner, which doesn’t fit too well in agile context.

Main role or job description of Product Owner is to serve the end-user, customer or stakeholders of the product. Product owner along with its other job, do lot of market research, ROI, customer feedback analysis and anything in between to facility the customer and validate the hypothesis from stakeholders or customers. Moreover product owner roles is a bridge between customer and scrum team, those two end remain apart.

2. ROI for product owner

Return on investment for product owner doesn’t mean to be in the scope of direct revenue of product, but how the per hour spent on each of the user-story by a scrum team can be optimise, this is emphasise in agile manifesto as art of prioritisation

Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.

3. Product Owner role is not

Depending of the organisation and project you are working, here are some of the facts

3.1 Not sole responsible for business

Product owner don’t have business level decision authority in most of the organisation, that is done by business owner or others organisationals level . However product owner have the authority on how a certain requirement will be implemented and shipped.

3.2 Not a technical architect of product

Product owner need to understand the business domain or the feature/requirement in question, have good understand from a point of view of end-user. As a product owner you don’t need to understand the feature from the point of view of a developer.

3.3 Market segments

In most of the organisation go-to-market discussion is done at marketing or sales level, product owner job is to facilitate and make those goal achievable.

3.4 Single chocking neck

However owner in “Product Owner“ role has less ownership of business when comes to product in general, any product not functioning well in market doesn’t put PO in question, those problem and concern should be escalated elsewhere in organisation hierarchy.

4. Applying for job as a Product Owner

Lets find out about job description of production owner in various organisation.

We will be looking at some of the job advertisement for product owner. This will tell a lot about internal agile processes of the organisation. Either the organisation is looking for someone to help to mature or strengthen its agile process or fit well in highly competitive agile environment, in both cases you need to an experience product owner to apply for any job.

5. Product Owner Job Vacancies Advertisements

Lets look some of the product owner job advertisements.

Disclaimer: These job advertisement for Product Owner, are not in any priority order, they are randomly selected from different sectors. However these advertisement explained well the roles of Product Owner.

6. Cocal-Cola

6.1 Job description

Job Role: Principal Software Systems Analyst — Product Owner

This position is responsible for leading the Coca-Cola Freestyle teams’ execution and delivery of hardware/software releases with well-defined Freestyle customized software development life cycle process. This position understands and coordinates feature backlog for all releases for the platform — and their dependencies on each other. Leads the translation of software features into technical requirements (Features) and follow Agile Scrum based Software development. Define software release plan and scope with platform lead / BA / tech lead. This role serves as the single voice on SW releases into and out of Engineering & Innovation.

KEY RESULTS:

• Effective and groomed backlog

• Clear defined Acceptance Criteria per feature

• Effective Agile Processes (Scrum and Agile Hybrid) and Cross Functional communication

• Effective Operating Organization & talent development

• World Class Program & Project Execution

• Efficient Delivery of Services (Quality, Low cost)

• Efficient and Effective Solution Delivery Process

• Promote Continuous Improvement

Scope

Define Software release plan and scope with platform lead / BA / tech lead. This position will be single voice on SW releases into and out of E&I. Responsible for translating weekly Scrum report for broader audiences. Manage the backlog for sprint and release planning post-development start through QA. Define T shirt size w/ SW system lead. Responsible for leading software gate reviews from development onto QA — including informal handoff to QA.

This position will also raise risks / impediments to program team. Responsible for conversion of A spec into System Requirements Spec into user stories. Works with functional leads on staffing needs and resource management. Leads bug triage meetings …

7. Target

Job Role: Sr Product Owner, Item Integration & Legacy

JOIN US AS A SENIOR PRODUCT MANAGER

Similar Industry Titles and Key Words: Product Manager, Senior Product Manager

The Senior Product Manager represents the “voice of the customer” by maintaining and prioritizing the backlog to ensure that the team is working on stories that maximize business value and deliver necessary fixes and functionality to all customers. This Sr. Product Manager works on one of the largest, most complex products, and drives significant innovation.

Use your skills, experience and talents to be a part of groundbreaking thinking and visionary goals. As a Senior Product Manager, you’ll take the lead as you…

Draft key objectives, strategies and apply the data for a product to make business decisions.
Possess a fundamental understanding of end-to-end customer experience integration and dependencies.
Accountable for a created product(s), delivering in the product model and communicating the product needs with business partners.
Collaborate with stakeholders during the visioning and concept development of a product.
Lead, manage and collaborate with cross-functional teams, business partners and stakeholder management for a product(s).
Assess value, develop cases, and prioritize stories, epics and themes to ensure work focuses on those with maximum value that are aligned with product strategy.

8. ARM

Job Role: Product Owner — IP Tooling Platform

8.1 Job description

ARM is seeking highly motivated, experienced and enthusiastic Product Owner to guide the development of our Socrates IP tooling platform. In the Agile Scrum software development environment, the Product Owner is the project’s key stakeholder. The PO develops and maintains a vision for the product and is responsible for communicating that vision to the scrum team. The Product Owner is responsible for the product and product features from concept to EOL. The PO works with architects, product marketing and development teams to ensure that business, quality and functional goals are met with each product release. The PO is responsible for the design, usability, quality and delivery of a product or feature. The PO is the key decision maker on priorities and design decisions, and works to ensure that all stakeholders are aligned at each stage of the development lifecycle. The PO understands both the engineering and business side of the product release and is ultimately responsible for representing the end user’s needs.

Job Requirements

Responsibilities:

Collaborate with product architect and product marketing teams to translate business requirements into user stories for the development teams to implement
Develop and maintain an appropriately prioritized backlog of user stories for implementation
Work with project managers and technical leads to determine scope and priorities for product development cycles
Work with development teams to ensure that they understand the vision for the product and are designing great features for our partners
Develop appropriately detailed specifications for product features so that they are clearly understood by the development teams
Inspire and motivate the development teams to deliver innovative and exciting solutions with an appropriate sense of urgency
Act as an ambassador for the product internally and externally, and as the primary technical contact for queries related to the product
Work with key stakeholders across the company to ensure successful product releases