Mary Iqbal

When you modify Scrum, you’re usually hiding problems.

A fictional - but realistic "day in the life of a Product Owner" is provided below. Last night I couldn’t sleep. I was thinking about how to get a key stakeholder on board with my proposed approach for the product. This morning I met with them. The meeting went well. They smiled, nodded, and said they agreed with the plan. By the afternoon, I found out they were already taking actions behind the scenes to undermine it. Welcome to being a Product Owner. The Real Work After the stakeholder...

The Product Owner exists for one reason: to maximize value. That means creating and maintaining a clear vision, setting strategy, making tough prioritization decisions, and ensuring the team is always working on the most important things. This is real strategic work. It’s hard to do it well when the role is treated as a part-time side job. You have an entire team of developers working full-time to build the product. Doesn’t it make sense to have someone fully focused on deciding what should...