Online team tools
EN
Wat is een Product Owner?

What is a Product Owner? The complete explanation

In the Agile working method Scrum, there are three different roles: Scrum Master, Developer and Product Owner. And in this article, we zoom in on the latter role and tell you much more about it.

It is good to know that these three roles are equally important in effective collaboration. Indeed, the interplay between these three roles is essential in a process that is flown with Scrum.

What is a Product Owner?

It literally means “Product Owner. And this also comes close to the content of the position. In a Scrum team, the Product Owner is the value creator. In other words, the person with a specific vision. You could say that he or she sets the course in a Scrum team.

He or she ensures that the wishes of stakeholders and/or customers are translated. Product Owners are mainly actively engaged in:

  • Monitoring the vision;
  • Managing stakeholders;
  • Team focus;
  • Managing the Product Backlog.
Scrum Academy Trainings

What is a Product Owner? A role in the Scrum framework and a pivot between all kinds of stakeholders: stakeholders, customers, the developers and the Scrum Master.

Also, the Product Owner is working on the Product Backlog. This is a list of tasks the team still needs to do. And in it, he or she also has some important tasks. He or she must identify the items on the Product Backlog….

  • … be clearly defined;
  • … make it understandable to everyone;
  • … rank and prioritize;
What-Is-A-Product-Owner

The Product Owner is always one person, who converts interests into Product Backlog items. Next, the Product Owner determines which of these are important. These are then picked up first by the Scrum team. And can external stakeholders still exert direct influence? No. Because both the own organization and ‘externals’ respect that the Product Owner makes choices. Otherwise there is not enough room to perform the task. And the Product Backlog makes the process transparent to everyone. So you can see at any time what items still need to be done and what is important to do for now.

Do you want to know what the difference is with a Scrum Master? Then read this article (2 minutes) and you’ll know exactly what the differences are between these two Scrum roles.