5 Product Owner anti-patterns to escape from
The role of the product owner comes with a lot of responsibility and things you supposed to do. However, there are also things that you shouldn’t do. This post brings attention to 5 Product Owner anti-patterns that you should avoid as they either harm your product or your team.
Not being able to make decisions
This is probably the number one anti-pattern for a product owner. As the product owner, it is your responsibility to make decisions that will move your product forward. This includes making tough calls and sometimes disappointing stakeholders. If you are not able to make decisions, you will quickly find yourself bogged down in analysis paralysis and your team will lose confidence in you.
Making decisions without consulting stakeholders
Linked to not being able to make decisions, another mistake that product owners often make is making decisions without consulting with key stakeholders. This can lead to decisions that are not in line with what stakeholders want or need, which can have a negative impact on the product. As I’ve often seen that on stakeholder group doesn’t always get the attion that is actually deserves, I want to highlight that stakeholder group in particular: your team!
Focusing on features instead of outcomes
While it is important to deliver features that meet the needs of your stakeholders, you should not lose sight of the bigger picture which is delivering value to them. Focusing on features instead of outcomes can lead to building things that don’t matter or worse, building the wrong thing. As a product owner, it is important to keep the focus on what matters most to your stakeholders and ensure that your team is aligned with this as well.
Micromanaging the team
The product owner should not micromanage the team. Doing so will only slow down the team and it can stifle creativity and innovation. Additionally, it can also lead to frustration on the part of the team members, who then feel that their work is being constantly supervised and that they do not have any control over their own work.
Instead provide clear goals and objectives for the team to work towards, but do not dictate how they should achieve those goals. Trust your team members to do their job and only step in if absolutely necessary. Allow them to experiment and come up with creative solutions to problems. And finally, provide feedback regularly so that they know what you are looking for and how they are performing.
The Product Owner as a bottleneck
One common anti-pattern is when the product owner becomes a bottleneck. This can happen when the product owner is not able to make decisions quickly or is not available often enough. When this happens, the team’s progress slows down significantly and tasks keep piling up. This can be very frustrating for the team and might even lead to them becoming demotivated. Additionally, it also means that they are not able to answer any questions that the team might have which could lead to confusion.
Therefore find ways to make yourself available as often as possible and try to be engaged in your role by attending all meetings, asking questions, providing feedback etc. Work on creating clear and concise specs with your team so that everyone understands what needs to be done.
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To wrap up these 5 product owner anti-patterns I want to emphasis once again how important it is to avoid them. This will help you to create a better product, improve your relationships to your stakeholders and finally helps you to be a better product owner.
If you want to learn more about product management, I recommend the following resources:
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