Can I become a product owner?

4 min readOct 3, 2019

If you are working in a scrum team and you have seen the authority a product owner has then you might fancy becoming one.

Well, it is not that difficult as it looks like.

Let’s fist understand who has better chances to become a Product Owner; depending upon current Role.

We all know Scrum defines three key roles:

1. Scrum Master

2. Development Team

3. Product Owner

Even though scrum does not want us to separate roles inside a development team, but we all know that in real world we do have, Lead Developer, Business Analyst, UX-UI, Content, Subject Matter Expert etc.

Let’s discuss about which one of them i.e., Scrum Master or one member from Development Team has better chances to roll into a Product Owner position.

But before we jump into that. Don’t you want to know what Product Owner actually do?

Product Owner derive Product Vision with Business and Scrum Team.
Product Owner is a voice of customer in Scrum Team.
Product Owner represents Business Stakeholders.
Product Owner Create/Update/Manages Product Backlog with Scrum Team.
Product Owner looks after Development Team and answers any questions they have related/unrelated to any work item in product backlog.
Product Owner Sign-offs Sprint Backlog.
Product Owner Creates a Release Plan for Product.
Product Owner make sure only those features which add value for product customers should go into Product Backlog.
Product Owner takes care of maximising value and Return of investments.

any many more…

Do you think you can do everything listed above and will be happy in your life?

If the answer is Yes, then read below or you can just close the browser windows and go back to your dining table for your dinner.

Ok so you still here that means you believe you can do everything listed above. That’s great because according to Scrum Alliance Survey, 20% scrum products does not have product owners. And that is a problem.

Now product owners are not just born like that; one of us actually transforms into product owner’s role.

Let’s go back to our discussion about which one of them i.e., Scrum Master or one member from Development Team has better chances to roll into a Product Owner position.

I have personally worked with more than 25 Agile Scrum projects till date. Out of that experience I have ranked the roles which I think are best suited for Product Owner role in their future.

Rank 4# User Experience

The user experience SME in scrum team usually quite concerned about how users of the product will react while using it. His/her first priority is to make sure that users has the best experience.

Hence, it’s important for a UX person to understand the product inside out. Because that’s the way he can make sure that the product consumers are sticking around for long.

This is one of the crucial characteristic’s organisations need for a product owner.

If you want to get a Product Owner Certification with British Scrum Council, then please head to this link here.

Rank 3# Scrum Master (OLD)

If you have recently joined a new organisation or you have recently got a new scrum team than this does not applies to you. Because I have used an OLD next to the name of this role. The reason I have used it like that because I wanted to make sure that a scrum master who has been with a scrum team for quite long and has done significant amount of product releases will understand the product and the Scrum Team much better that someone who has recently joined into the team.

A Scrum Master usually come up with difficult people in the scrum team but also has good network outside the team.

After all, one of his/her job is to make sure get rid of any impediments isn’t it?

Scrum Master with great network in the organisation not just bring help quick but also know what the right direction is to go forward in terms of future product development.

Been working with the development team for a long gives him an edge which helps in prediction of future commitments.

This is one of the characteristics Organisations look into a Product Owner’s Role. Other that this one if Scrum Master has really good relationship with current product owner and has been working with him on Return on investment. Then it becomes easier for him to provide a properly analysed options to the business to make an informed decision.

Rank 2# Lead Developer

A lead developer in a development team has been into the deepest caves of the whole product development mountain range.

He/she already knows if we have technical debt waiting for us. And what we should be doing about it.

In another words its easier for a lead developer to analyse and tell us that how bad or good our current product is in terms of quality.

A lead developer with lots of experience with product and development team could be a good product owner subject to how technical is the product is. For example, is a product is SAAS based API’s whose consumers are mostly developers.

Then there is no harm in having someone from a technical background to lead a Scrum Team from a Product Owner’s perspective.

Note: This person needs to be very good with stakeholder management as well as communication skills.

Rank 1# Business Analyst

I have given business analyst rank one because this is the role quite close to product owner.

Business analyst work with product owners to define product backlog. He/she understand the current and future requirement and gather relevant specific requirements for any given feature/ user story.

Business analysts are also involved in lot of stakeholder management activities like; Business Requirement Documentation Management, Product Architecture Workshops, Show and Tells etc.

This makes them comfortable handling versatile requests from around the table.

There is another important characteristic business analyst possess.i.e., Being available to the team.

I have seen in various Scrum Team where Product Owner is not available with them and Business Analyst provide answers to the development team.

This enable them to gel up with development team with a deeper level of understanding.