We all know that the role of the Product Owner is absolutely critical to the success of the entire project. However, as service providers, we often have to accept what we get from the client’s side and try to do our best. In this session I will outline some painful mistakes of the PO and offer some solutions on how to deal with them. If your daily work includes communication with the clients’ PO, then I hope that you will find some useful insights in this session.

1. Biggest
challenges
of a Product
Owner
DrupalCamp Baltics 2022
14/10/2022
Agile Coach Merle Randlepp

2. 2
My story
Merle Randlepp
1994 - WWW is 5 years old
University of Tartu, programmer
>> analyst > project manager >
country manager > agile coach
Today
● Agile Trainings
● Helping development teams
● Helping Product Owners
● Writing the blog
“The most important things in
life are your relationships with
other people.”
www.linkedin.com/in
/merle-randlepp
agilecoach.ee

3. 3
Who sits
in the
driver's
seat?

4. 4
Expectations
from
Organization
Dev team
End users

5. 12
5
What is your experience?
menti.com
6447 0826
OR

6. 6
Live results

7. 7 biggest challenges
1. PO disregards stakeholders and end users feedback
2. PO says ‘Yes’ to everything
3. PO has no real ownership and mandate, it’s a name only
4. PO is distant from the development team
5. PO does not understand technical debt
6. PO tells the team how to do their work
7. PO forgets the big picture
7

8. 8
“Do you know what
your end users
want?”
“Of course!
How else!”
“And how do you
know it exactly?”
“Um… what do you
mean… I just know it”
#1

9. 9
DON’T ignore stakeholders and
end users feedback
DO regular and evidence based
feedback gathering
#1

10. Focus on feedback
10
Source: scruminc.com
#1

11. 11
“Yes, I want it all”
#2

12. 12
DON’T say “YES” to everything
DO prioritize constantly and
make right decisions based on
the feedback
#2

13. 13
Less is more Prioritize!
Always!
#2
Source: Henrik Kniberg

14. 14
“Hm, let me get
back to you on
that.”
#3

15. 15
DON’T be indecisive on making
decisions
DO take ownership and make
right decisions
#3

16. PO’s job is to decide WHAT to do
16
#3

17. 17
Dev: “We need to
ask PO about this”
PM: “Ok, I have a
session with PO on
the next week.
Then I will ask it.”
Dev:
#4

18. 18
DON’T be distant from the
development team
DO answer questions directly and
quickly OR give a mandate to
proxy PO
#4

19. PO involvement reduces context switching loss
19
#4

20. 20
“I really need this
feature ASAP.
Could you
postpone your
technical debt
tasks? ”
#5

21. 21
DON’T underestimate the impact
of technical debt
DO allocate enough time and
money for fighting against it
#5

22. Fixing cost will escalate quickly
22
#5

23. 23
“This is how
you should
do it.”
#6

24. 24
DON’T tell the team how to do
their work
DO give clear objectives and
product roadmap instead
#6

25. Self-organised teams are efficient
25
Source: Henrik Kniberg
#6

26. 26
“Just do
your work”
#7

27. 27
DON’T forget the big picture and
meaningfulness of work
DO share regularly a product
vision and how it will help people
#7

28. We all need meaningful work
28
#7

29. “
At the end of the day, your
job isn’t to get the
requirements right — your
job is to change the world.
– Jeff Patton
29

30. Q&A

31. 12
31
Thank you for your feedback!
menti.com
1818 2014
OR

32. 32
Live results - Feedback

33. Thank you!
33
Connect me anytime:
Merle Randlepp
￮ merle@agilecoach.ee
+372 56 21 1146
www.linkedin.com/in/merle-randlepp
agilecoach.ee