Define product ownership

Purpose:

Finding the right person or combination of persons that can solve the complex task of defining the product to be built should be a key priority in every project. The good product ownership combines several important skills and ability:

  • To Understand market and user needs and transform these into great products
  • To keep an overview of the product and to work with the details in product features
  • To communicate with different stakeholders (customers, users, developers, marketing)
  • To prioritize and define a relevant scope within resource constraints

 

In many cases the product ownership needs to be split on multiple persons due to the volume of tasks and variety in tasks

 

Main responsibilities related to product ownership

  • Assess markets opportunities
  • Define a valuable product and create product vision
  • Define methods for collection and documentation of business needs and requirements
  • Define and prioritize scope
  • Define release criteria
  • Define/approve/contribute in detail to the product to be built
  • Provide input and handle issues during development
  • Ensure market and user orientation throughout product development
  • Perform delivery control (against acceptance criteria)

 

Central roles in product ownership

  • Product manager or product owner
  • Architect (e.g, technical or, user interface)

 

Other roles

  • Customer representative
  • Project manager
  • Test manager
  • Team lead
  • Team members