By Andrew Park | 2024-08-23
In my experience, the role of Product Owner, as defined by Scrum, was originally created to give prominence to a single individual who would manage the product backlog and ensure development efforts aligned with the customer’s needs. Scrum, as an Agile framework, deliberately chose the term “Product Owner” to emphasize this person’s authority and responsibility over the product’s success. The intention was to create a single point of accountability within the development team. However, with each passing year, the effectiveness of this role diminishes as software products become increasingly complex. What worked well 20 years ago is now proving insufficient in the face of modern product development challenges.
Marty Cagan, a well-respected voice in product management, asserts that “a product owner is only 10% of what a product manager should be.” While I would personally give a higher percentage than Cagan’s 10%, I agree that the Product Owner role is only a fraction of what a Product Manager handles and remains insufficient for most modern software development efforts.
The Product Owner role typically focuses on tactical aspects of product management—managing the backlog, facilitating sprint planning, and prioritizing user stories. These responsibilities are important, but they are only a small subset of the broader responsibilities required to lead a product successfully. Product Managers, on the other hand, are responsible for much more: defining the product vision, long-term strategy, customer and market research, and leading cross-functional teams to ensure product success.
To better understand this distinction, it’s important to compare the roles and responsibilities of Product Managers and Product Owners. The responsibilities of a Product Manager can be broken down into those that are fully covered, partially covered, or not covered by a Product Owner:
Responsibilities of a Product Manager covered by a Product Owner:
1. Collaboration with Technical Teams: Product Owners work closely with developers and technical teams to define and prioritize the product backlog. This responsibility overlaps significantly between the two roles, but it is only one of many aspects that Product Managers handle.
Responsibilities of a Product Manager partially covered by a Product Owner:
1. Setting Product Vision and Strategy: While Product Owners focus on immediate product goals and backlog items, they do not define the overarching long-term strategy, a crucial element managed by Product Managers.
2. Market Analysis: Product Owners may conduct basic or short-term market analysis to guide immediate feature development, but they do not engage in deep strategic market research, which Product Managers handle to shape product direction and ensure competitive advantage.
3. User Experience (UX) Oversight: Product Owners influence UX decisions related to specific features or stories but do not lead the overall UX strategy, which is often managed by Product Managers in coordination with designers.
4. Customer and End-User Engagement: While Product Owners gather user feedback for current product improvements, they are not responsible for long-term customer relationship management, which is crucial for shaping the product’s success in the market.
5. Sales and Marketing Collaboration: Product Owners may interact with sales and marketing to align features with customer needs but are not involved in broader go-to-market (GTM) strategies or product launches.
6. Project and Resource Management: Product Owners manage the product backlog and sprint goals but are not responsible for overall project timelines or cross-functional resource coordination, which Product Managers handle.
Responsibilities of a Product Manager not covered by a Product Owner:
1. Long-Term Product Vision and Strategy: Product Owners do not handle long-term strategic planning or aligning product vision with business goals. This is a core responsibility of Product Managers.
2. Comprehensive Market Analysis: Product Owners are not responsible for in-depth market research or making strategic market decisions, which are essential for a Product Manager to ensure the product remains competitive.
3. High-Level UX Strategy: Product Owners do not oversee the broader user experience direction for the product, an area led by Product Managers.
4. Financial and Budget Management: Product Owners are not involved in financial forecasting, budgeting, or ensuring product profitability—key areas managed by Product Managers to ensure the product meets business expectations.
5. Compliance and Legal Coordination: Product Owners do not manage compliance, legal, or intellectual property issues, which Product Managers often handle in collaboration with legal teams.
6. Strategic Initiatives with Customer Success: Product Owners do not lead long-term initiatives with customer success teams to enhance adoption or loyalty, while Product Managers often drive these efforts.
7. Delegation of Routine Tasks: Product Owners do not delegate tasks at a high level to other product management team members. In contrast, Product Managers delegate routine tasks to ensure focus on higher-level strategic issues.
8. Leadership and Team Development: Product Owners are not responsible for managing or developing a team of Product Managers or overseeing product management across multiple teams. Product Managers, especially in larger organizations, often handle leadership and team development.
Conclusion
The role of Product Owner must evolve to meet the growing demands of modern software development. When Scrum first gained traction 20 years ago, the Product Owner role was much more viable in the relatively simpler landscape of software development. But as products have become more complex and integrated into sophisticated ecosystems, the limitations of the Product Owner role have become more pronounced. The responsibilities that Product Owners typically cover are largely tactical and fall short of addressing the comprehensive needs of a successful product. Product Owners need to realize that they must grow beyond their current role if they want to truly lead products in today’s complex environment.
As products become more integrated and sophisticated, the Product Owner role needs to be reimagined. To stay relevant and impactful, Product Owners must upskill and expand their capabilities to cover more aspects of the Product Management role, including strategic planning, market analysis, and leadership responsibilities. This shift is not only necessary for the success of the product but also for their own career growth.
Advice to Company Leaders:
One practical step that leaders of companies can take is to consider reassigning Product Owners to become part of the Product Management team, rather than reporting to the technical organization. By aligning Product Owners with Product Managers, they can learn from colleagues who possess the broader skills needed to succeed at a higher strategic level. This mentorship is invaluable, as it allows Product Owners to gain exposure to responsibilities they are currently missing, such as long-term visioning, market analysis, and financial planning. This transition will not only help Product Owners develop the skills they need but also ensure the company is building more cohesive and effective product leadership teams capable of driving both short-term and long-term product success.