Agile Product Owner Job Description, Duties, and Responsibilities

This post provides detailed information on the agile product owner job description, including the key duties, tasks, and responsibilities they commonly perform.

It also highlights the major requirements you may be expected to fulfill to be hired for the agile product owner role by most recruiters/employers.

What Does an Agile Product Owner Do?

Agile product owners are scrum development personnel responsible for determining the features of a product prior to its release.

They act as liaison between an organization’s development team and end users, with a job description that entails defining product features necessary to create value for customers and a providing company.

Agile product owners provide a clear description and outline of product features for easy comprehension by the development team.

They manage product backlog and backlog visibility in order to prioritize user stories for implementation.

They also set deadline for product development as well as release date for products.

As part of their responsibilities, product owners work with a scrum team comprising of scrum master and developers.

They collaborate with the marketing/sales department to obtain information useful in developing products that meet and exceed the requirements of customers.

They also conduct surveys and interact with product end users to identify highly desired product features or components.

Usually, agile product owners look out for product elements that provide value to customers and business benefits to an organization.

Their role also entails participating in scrum meetings to give feedback on sprint achievement, as well as to set sprint goals and relay new user stories.

They also split big user stories and establish acceptance criteria for each user story.

In performing their duties, product owners analyze and study market trends to identify changes in consumer taste requirements.

They communicate with other internal product owners to exchange ideas on necessary product features.

Their work description also involves experimenting with a product to come up with valuable results.

Agile product owners maintain feedback channels concerning product release and customer opinion.

They set up indicators to track the performance and value of products delivered to clients.

The creation of product roadmap and taking of strategic decisions is also part of the description of a product owner.

To be hired for the job of agile product owner requires having some training and certification as a scrum product owner.

Some of the major qualities you will need to have to succeed in this career include leadership, analytical, and interpersonal skills.

Agile Product Owner Job Description Example/Template

The work of an agile product owner entails various functions; here is a job description example that shows the typical tasks, duties, and responsibilities commonly associated with the role:

• Serve as a voice to project the expectations of customers on new or already existing products
• Highlight product features in a manner clearly understandable to the development team
• Manage and develop product backlog, as well as user stories backlog for implementation
• Conduct backlog grooming meetings with a team of product owners
• Attend sprint planning and demo meetings to give feedback on sprint achievement, as well as to scrum team
• Monitor the progress of product development, as well as plan for product release
• Contact customers and end users to obtain information on expected product features
• Provide reports to update management and stakeholders on product development operations
• Analyze customer opinions and feedback to determine features or components that will add good value to a product
• Participate in agile conferences and study relevant scrum material to update job knowledge/skill
• Constantly exchange ideas with product owners within an organization
• Assess product value stream to identify areas that require improvements
• Measure product performance as well as value delivered to clients in order to make adjustments where necessary
• Develop and implement action plans for building and sustaining demand for a product
• Ensure implemented product features add value to end users and increase company returns.

Requirements – Skills, Abilities, and Knowledge – for Agile Product Owner Role

If you are interested in working as an agile product owner, here are major requirements you will need to meet to be qualified for the job:

• Education and Training: To become an agile product owner, you require a Bachelor’s degree in Software engineering, business management or related disciplines. Training and certification as a professional scrum product owner (PSPO) or as a certified scrum product owner (CSPO) is also crucial for the position
• Leadership Skill: Product owners are able to direct and motivate the product development team of an organization
• Analytical Skill: They are able to conduct surveys to determine most appropriate feature to add to a new or existing product
• Interpersonal Skill: They are adept to working with user groups and scrum team to obtain and analyze user stories.

Conclusion

If you are in the process of hiring an agile product owner and need to create an effective work description that gets the best candidates for the position, then you can simply apply the sample job description provided in this post.

This post contains detailed information about the duties and responsibilities of a product owner, and so, you will be able to create a comprehensive work description that attracts only the qualified and competent candidates for the job.

This article also provides a learning resource for people interested in working as a product owner to have a good knowledge of what the role entails.