The Product Owner is one of the three roles in Scrum. The main tasks of a Product Owner are to

• maximize the value of the product resulting from work of the development team and to
• manage the product backlog

These are the main tasks of a PO, so how does he or she work?

• The Product Owner OWNS the product
• He has a clear vision of the product
• The PO represents the customer, he/she is also in charge for the stakeholder management
• The PO is the only person managing the Product Backlog. He or she makes sure that the BL is
  • clear to everyone involved → it is essential that BLI are described in a very clear way
  • prioritized → everyone involved knows what the next steps are and what is most important
  • visible & transparent → everyone involved has access to the BL
• These tasks don’t have necessarily to be done by the PO, but in any case, he is accountable for the Backlog.
• Like the Scrum Master, the PO is also a servant leader.

How does the Product Owner enable High Performance Teams?

The Product Owner enables High Performance Teams by:

• communication a clear mission
• sharing his knowledge about the product, the customer and the use cases with the team
• effectively managing the Backlog:
  • BLI are expressed very clear, so that the dev team understands the content and the goal of the BLIs
  • the BL is prioritized, so the next steps are very clear for the dev team and they know which items are most important
  • the BL is visible and transparent
• by working closely together with the dev team. He/she is present and available for questions