What is the role of the product owner in SAFe?
A product owner tends to have an exclusive focus on the team environment within the SAFe or Scaled Agile Framework.
The product owner is also part of the wider product management team, so they do integrate with those elements of the business and they are aware of what is happening outside of the team environment.
Their focus lies in developing the best possible product possible.
- Defining and articulating the product vision.
- Defining and articulating the product goal.
- Defining and articulating a team purpose that inspires everyone on the team.
- Identifying what the most important features or elements of the product are.
- Collaborating with customers and product stakeholders to identify value.
- Collaborating with developers to build the most valuable product or features.
And so forth.
The product owner will be prioritizing work, in alignment with other key players in the Agile Release Train, to coordinate efforts and make sure that the team are delivering products or features that meet key customer needs and requirements.
All work is valuable, but having a clear priority about which items deliver the highest value, at the most valuable time for customers, is a key component of being a successful product owner.
A focus on value.
A product owner helps ensure that the team don’t get caught up in delivering story points and work items, that would be a strong emphasis on efficiency rather than effectiveness.
The product owner is charged with ensuring that value is being created by prioritising and aligning work items with a direct, important customer need or requirement. Aligning the team’s efforts with organizational and customer strategies.
A strong product owner will also seek ways to measure the effectiveness of the team. Validate whether the work that is being produced meets or exceeds customer expectations. Measure how effectively and efficiently value flows throughout the customer journey.
Continuous Discovery and Exploration.
The product owner isn’t a go-between the customer and the developers.
They play an active role in helping customers, product stakeholders, and the Agile Release Train explore what might be the most valuable item to create, or the most valuable step to take, or what the future needs of the customer’s customer may be.
Strong product discovery and opportunity exploration skills are developed in the product owner role.
They need to have a finger on the market pulse, a deep understanding of the customer environment, and the ability to help customers identify what their future requirements will be.
Create rapid, effective feedback loops.
A product owner will work closely with the product stakeholders and customers to ensure that rapid feedback loops are in place.
We want to make sure that we are always working on the most compelling problem or building the most valuable solution for the customer, and having a rapid and frequent feedback loop helps the Agile Release Train achieve that objective.
There are formal feedback reviews within SAFe, such as the System Demo, but the product owner will work closely with customers and product stakeholders to ensure that work and intentions are transparent, visible, and in alignment with what customers most value.
If the team require more insight into a problem, clarification around a specific issue, or want to discuss a potential pivot with a customer, the product owner plays a strong facilitation and engagement role in that process.
Constant and effective communications channels are built into the SAFe framework and draw deeply on the agile values and principles for inspiration. Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation, and People and Interactions over Processes and Tools.
So, in a nutshell, that is the role of the product owner within a SAFe environment.
About Value Glide
Value Glide are a SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) consultancy, coaching practice, and training specialist who work with organizations to align business objectives with customer needs and wants.
As deeply experienced agile coaches and practitioners, our team are invested in continuous learning through each client engagement and use the data and evidence we gather from each implementation to inform our training, coaching, and consulting services.
In a nutshell, empirical process control or empiricism.
If you are thinking of adopting agile within your organization and have identified SAFe as a great agile framework to adopt, implement and improve your business agility, visit our SAFe Quickstart ART Launch program page or view our SAFe Consulting Services page.
If you have identified a need for an agile coach and SAFe coach to help your organization adopt and implement SAFe, visit our SAFe Coaching Services page.
If you want to know more about SAFe and how to lead SAFe, visit our SAFE Training page for a host of options, from Leading SAFe to a SAFe Release Train Engineer course.
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