What Does a Product Owner Do?

Sandeep GokhaleSandeep Gokhale
7 min read

Product Owner

In the Software world and while working on a Product/Project, have you ever thought who decides:

  1. What should be done first and what is next and what will go later ? (Now, Next and Later Framework)

  2. How user needs translate into development tasks

  3. Your team is building the right thing

Yes, that is the Product Owner. Product Owner is one such role that acts as a bridge between Business Vision and Technical Execution. Yes, Its that simple.

A Product Owner (PO) is a key role in Agile development frameworks (particularly Scrum), who serves as the primary liaison between stakeholders and the development team. Think of them as the product's advocate, strategist, and decision-maker all rolled into one.

The Product Owner owns the product vision and is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the collaborate of the development team. POs are strategic thinkers who understand both market needs and technical constraints.

The keywords being:

  1. Own

  2. Vision

  3. Responsible for Maximizing product’s value

  4. Collaboration

What Does a Product Owner Actually Do?

According to me, A brilliant Product Owner wears these four hats:

  1. Vision

  2. Extreme Ownership

  3. Prioritization

  4. Collaboration & Communication

Do note that what a PO does could differ based on company, culture and team size.

Now, Let’s dive deeper.

  1. Vision

As a PO, Its very important that they clearly know the “WHY“. Without this, you are already looking towards failure. The next question could be, who will help the PO understand the “WHY“ ? The answer is every stake holder. Here are few stake holders:

  1. Clients

  2. End Users

  3. Tech team & Quality

  4. Sales & Marketing

Having a clear understanding of the the Domain, doing market research around what is being built and taking data backed decisions are key areas of focus for a PO.

  1. Extreme Ownership

I intentionally have added the word “Extreme“ to the ownership. Let’s look at the difference.

  • Ownership - My responsibility are completed. Bye for now.

  • Extreme Ownership - My responsibility are completed. Now let me ensure the same with others too.

A Product Owner is the front face for the Client and End Users. They will be taking the requirements and will be responsible for getting the delivery done.

  1. Prioritization

Prioritization is one of those make or break things in work (as well as in life). There are always multiple features to be implemented right away. PO will decide which one will go quickly and which can wait. This decision will be taken based on

  1. Maximum Impact

  2. Maximum Utilization

  3. Urgency (Complaint to Regulations, Bug Fixes etc..)

  4. Effort involved

  5. Gut Feeling (Yes, we are all humans, still.)

Prioritization is one of the tricky things a PO is need to do. It’s mostly super fun and also hard/frustrating at times. There are multiple frameworks a PO could use to prioritize tasks. More on this later.

  1. Collaboration & Communication

A PO will need to be brilliant at Collaboration and Communication. A PO will need to speak with multiple stakeholders, convince some of them that “this“ is the “right” thing “to do” and “now” by effectively communicating the same via multiple mediums and ensure all stakeholders (clients, users, Tech, Quality etc..) are on the same page and facing the same direction. Not as easy as it looks but that is the where the challenge is.

This is achieved with:

  1. Understanding requirements from Stake holders.

  2. Creating User Stories(tasks), Prioritizing them.

  3. Helping Tech & Quality teams understand these user stories

  4. Resolve any doubts/clarifications they have.

  5. Keep refining/updating the backlog (A Prioritized list of things to do).

  6. Take the Demo from Tech.

  7. Give the demo to Users/Clients/Leads.

  8. Actively participate in all Sprint Ceremonies

  9. Yeah, its a long list when it comes to collab and comm.

A PO ensures no one is guessing or assuming and everyone is on the same page.

Frameworks for Prioritization

While there are so many frameworks for prioritization, for a beginner PO, I would suggest to understand and “implement” MoSCoW and RICE. Let’s look at these two now.

  1. MoSCoW

Use this while working on the backlog (= a prioritized list of things to do). Assume there are pipeline of features/tasks (say 5 of them) that should be picked up by the development team next. Rather than just inky, pinky, ponky-ing it, apply the MoSCoW framework for an efffective way to get the priority right.

The acronym MoSCoW stands for:

  • Must Have → Critical for the release (without it, the product fails its goal).

  • Should Have → Important, but critical right now.

  • Could Have → Nice-to-have features, add if time/resources allow.

  • Won’t Have (this time) → Agreed to exclude from this release but may revisit later.

Why it works for beginners:

  • Straightforward and visual.

  • Encourages clear conversations with stakeholders about priorities.

  • Prevents everything from being “high priority.”

  1. RICE

Rice is another framework I love. RICE brings in “numbers” into play and at times could be more useful if MoSCoW becomes tricky/conflicting.

The acronym RICE stands for:

  • Reach → How many users will be affected? (e.g., 1,000 users/month).

  • Impact → How much will it improve things for each user? (1 = minimal, 3 = massive)

  • Confidence → How sure are you about your estimates? (0–100%)

  • Effort → How long will it take?

At some companies there could be few variations to how the weights are assigned (Massive = 100, Minimal = 10) but those things will not matter.

Why it works for beginners:

  • Makes prioritization objective instead of opinion-based.

  • Helps balance value vs. effort.

  • Data driven thinking.

The Formula

$$\text{RICE Score} = \frac{Reach \times Impact \times Confidence} {\begin{array}{c}Effort\end{array}}$$

Give this a try, it’s very simple!

Other notable frameworks

  1. ICE

  2. Now-Next-Later

  3. HEART

  4. WSJF

  5. Value/Effort etc.

Skills required for Product Owner

Below are key skills that could make a PO very effective.

  1. Empathy

  2. Curiosity.

  3. Attention to detail.

  4. Extreme Focus on the goal.

  5. Design Thinking.

  6. Decision Making.

  7. Risk Management.

Tips for a Beginner Product Owner

Here are some practical beginner tips for a beginner Product Owner

  1. Communicate (Wins, Risks..) well, keep every stakeholder on the same page.

  2. Understand the WHY of the problem being solved.

  3. Be Clear with your thoughts and what you need.

  4. Be available when the team needs you.

  5. Prepare, Prepare, Prepare.

  6. Focus on solution, not the Technology.

  7. Understand Tech Team and also the stakeholders.

  8. Write well and detailed.

  9. Learn how to say “No”, back it with “reason“ and do it politely.

And of course, always keep learning!

Beginner Product Owner Mistakes

  1. Not focusing on Value being generated.

  2. Not Prioritizing but guessing.

  3. Not knowing the team and their strengths.

  4. Unable to answer queries.

  5. Writing vague/conflicting user stories.

  6. Micro managing the Tech team.

  7. Not being firm on the need.

  8. Accept developers work without testing.

  9. Not sharing risks with stake holders.

And most importantly, a PO should not take major prioritization decisions without stake holder involvement.

Summary

As Product Owners, the journey is all about continuously learning, staying curious, and balancing user needs, business goals, and team dynamics. Mistakes are natural, but learning from them early on prevents frustration.

The real progress happens when a PO learns to simplify, clarify, and focus on delivering value one sprint at a time. A great Product Owner take care of the product vision, inspire confidence in the team, and create impact for users.

Wanna be a PO? Your friends will be:

  1. Prioritization.

  2. Empathy.

  3. Clarity.

  4. Discipline

Golder Rule:

  1. Keep your eyes on the goal.

  2. Work closely with stakeholders.

  3. And don’t forget to have fun

Let's Connect

Hi, I’m Sandeep Gokhale, and I'm passionate about building high-performing teams at my company, Techvito and I write about Technology, People, Processes and some more fun stuff.

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Me and my team are here and more than ready to help you make it happen.

Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn and Twitter.

Until Next time!

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Sandeep Gokhale
Sandeep Gokhale