Sep 08 2008
The Tao of Scrum: a good online product owner
What does it mean to be a Scrum Product Owner?
The PO role in a Scrum project is important because it is up to the project owner to understand, from a business perspective, what is important. Bellow a few hints for On-Line Project Owners.
Clear understanding the diference between strategy and tatics. Meaning: understand where your company is headed and how your product fits in. You have to understand pretty well what your costumer’s demands are. This accounts knowing in details what your product needs to be as well as how it fits in the big piture.
A petty good understanding of On-Line Marketing. Meaning: Acquisition, Conversion and Retention. You may use a handful of tools to get there and this include (but are not restricted to): Web Analytics (Google, Analytics, Ominiture, Crazy Egg, etc.), POM (Google & Y!) and Auto-bid tools, Landing Page optimization, SEO and so on.
A good technical command. Meaning: it is ok not understand anything about the nuts and bolts of how software and the internet itself works. But it does help to be able to explain and discuss with the team in technical terms. You should try to bridge the gap between the marketing / business world to the techy world, oh boy, it feels good.
Willingness to listen. Meaning: It is not only about you talking. It is also about listening to what the team has to say. Maybe they will come up with pretty good ideas (they often do). I like to think it in terms of an exchange. Together you are more powerful.
They do not belong to you. Meaning: the Scrum Master is not a project manager noar is he at your serve. The team does not belong to you. Neither do you belong to them. When you understand that you don’t take your ideas as “your ideas”, but instead it’s everyone’s. Understand that your ideas might the best as well as they might suck too. This works the same for everyone.
Keep in touch. Meaning: Off course you have a meeting every sprint, but you can (should) be close to everyone trying to make sure peolpe understand your points. Comunication problems accounts for over 90% of trouble mankind has seen. (but don’t be a pain in the neck, please)
Don’t tell people what to do. Meaning: there is a difference between telling someone what to do and telling someone what needs to be done. If you are telling people what to do, you’re missing the whole point of SCRUM.
Read a lot. Meaning: read a lot, study and be prepared.