The Role of

the Product
Owner

Roman Pichler
@romanpichler
romanpichler.com
 About Roman
• Product management consultant and trainer
– More than 10 years experience in teaching product managers and product
owners and helping companies establish an effective product management
function
– Specialised in agile and in lean practices
ROMAN PICHLER

STRATEGIZE
• Business owner and product manager Product Strategy and Product Roadmap
Practices for the Digital Age

– I try to walk my own talk

My books

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 There is a lot of
confusion about the
product owner role.
Let’s take things
back to basics.
 Product Owner:
An individual who owns the product
on behalf of the organization.

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

What is a product?
 A Value-Creating Entity

Users and Product Company

Customers

Addresses a problem or Generates revenue, helps sell

provides a benefit to a another product or a service,
group of people. or serves another business goal.

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Product, Feature, Component

Feature
A product capability
people can interact
with. Component

Product A component is
a building block
Creates value for a group
of the product.
of people and the
company.

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Ownership Scope

Product Owner

Feature Owner

Component
Owner
© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd
What does “own” mean?
 Ownership Depth

Vision

Strategy

“Big”
Product Owner
Tactics
“Small”
Product Owner

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Responsible for tactical product decisions.

Prioritise and manage Work with the development

the product backlog. team and ScrumMaster.

Small
Write user stories. Product Owner Attend Scrum
meetings.
Perform release
planning.

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Responsible for strategic and tactical product decisions.

Develop the product Create a financial forecast and

strategy. tracks product performance.

Manage the Big Manage the

product roadmap. Product Owner stakeholders.

Carry out all tactical duties,

such as managing the backlog.

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Can one person be
the product owner?
 Scaling and the Product Life Cycle

Business Benefits Extension

Single Product Shared Ownership

Owner

Time

Launch End of Life

Product-
Market Fit

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Scaling Option 1

Overall product decisions

Product strategy, product roadmap,
product backlog, stakeholder
Product Owner management

Feature and component

decisions
Describing, validating, and prioritising
Feature Feature Component features and components; working with
Owner Owner Owner the dev teams

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Scaling Option 2

Product A Product Owner

Unbundle or
Create Variants
Product Owner Product A

Product B Product Owner

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Scaling Option 3

Strategic product decisions

Product strategy, product roadmap,
stakeholder management, financial
Product Manager or forecast
Chief Product Owner

Tactical product decisions

Product backlog management, epics
and user stories, collaboration with the
Product Owner development team

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Option When to Use It

Single product owner Before product-market fit

Product and feature owners To facilitate growth

Product variants and To help the product grow or

unbundling extend its life cycle

Strategic and tactical When the product is mature

product owners

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

Let’s recap.
 There is no one right way to apply the
product owner role.
It depends on the asset the individual owns,
the level of the ownership, and the product’s
life cycle stage.

© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd

 Thank You!

Learn more about product ownership and

product management:
www.romanpichler.com

I look forward to your feedback and questions:

info@romanpichler.com
@romanpichler
© 2016 Pichler Consulting Ltd