The Product Owner is possibly the most misunderstood, or at least the the least understood, role in agile software projects. Just about everyone you talk to, whether a current practitioner of the role or just someone who works in agile projects, will give you a slightly (or greatly) different description of the role, its scope and its value. Go straight to the index of posts here.

The Complete Product Owner series is a course of posts that examine the breadth and depth of the Product Owner role.

The series is divided into four section areas:

Post Index

Act I: The Product

1. The Complete Product Owner (introduction)
2. The Product Definition
3. The Competitive Landscape
4. The Product Vision
5. Product goals
6. Prioritisation
7. Design sense: visual design, interaction design, instructional design
8. Understanding usage: analytics
9. Understanding consumer insights… feedback, user research, user testing
10. Innovation

Act II: The Business

1. Strategy, including the business model
2. Marketing & Communications
3. Business sense and entrepreneurial attitude
4. Customer/Account management

Act III: The Team

1. The day-to-day… meet the team, unblock things, answer questions, communicate to the team
2. Agile: understanding lean, scrum, etc
3. Leadership
4. Reviews and feedback
5. Personnel management

Act IV: You – the Product Owner

1. Presentation skills
2. Industry knowledge/awareness
3. Domain knowledge: software, if you make software. Widgets, if you make widgets. How is a widget produced? What things come together?
4. Project Management
5. Network building
6. Curiosity, courage, perseverance and passion