The document discusses challenges with the Product Owner (PO) role in Scrum and Agile processes. It questions whether the single PO model is effective given the amount of information and responsibilities. It also questions what happens between understanding customer needs and generating the product vision and backlog. Additionally, it argues that Agile methods sometimes marginalize understanding the business and customer needs upstream of product development. The document advocates for more learning and direct customer interaction rather than relying solely on the PO as a single point of contact. It poses several questions about how organizations implement the PO role and manage product strategy.

1. Provocation to the PO
challenge
Marko Taipale
for Agile Coaching and Consulting Circle

2. Who is the PO?

3. Emptying the table
• “PO is not a role, nor a function but a
problem” - a coach
• Every method has a “trash bin” - in Scrum
it is the PO
• No Scrum Master is able to coach the PO

4. Some of the challenges
• Single PO model does not work => too
much to handle, information bottleneck
• PO group is ambigious (is it a group of POs
or a group of PO’s delegates?) -> Orgs have
plenty of these - and they do not work
• What happens in between the Customer -
Vision or Vision - Product Backlog?

5. We marginalize the Biz
• Cost of Delay / ROI calculus
• Business Model Generation
• Customer Development
• Problem/Solution and Product/Market fit
• Difference in customer driven and spec
driven?

6. PO “tools”
• Story maps - matter of workshopping once
you know what, how and why
• Product backlog - matter of typing once
you know what, how and why
• User stories - temporary/stored? Contains
“how” or not? Not enough?
• Our tools are not covering the upstream

7. We emphasize learning
• ... but promote single point of contact to
customer?
• ... but promote proxy or hearsay to the real
information?
• ... rely on product vision (which is a guess?)

8. Product vision is a guess
• Steve Blank: “Vision = guess. There are no
facts inside your building, only assumptions”
• Agile coach: “PO should have the product
vision and sit next to the team”

9. Questions
• Is P/L and BL management supposed to be
“single guy” - impl. pattern contradicts
• PO group.. what is it for you?
• How about product champion (Chief
Engineer like, any experiences?)
• Are PMs really removed in agile orgs?
• Is PO just a repair kit that one should not
implement (unless he needs a firewall)?