The Great Product Owner: Sharing Responsibility with the Team
The great Product Owner excels by being present and actively sharing knowledge with the team. While the PO role can be overwhelming due to its responsibility to abstract complexity from the team, the best POs find ways to share responsibilities appropriately. They understand that their role goes beyond making decisions and includes enabling the team to participate in the product discovery process.
The Bad Product Owner: The Absent Decision Maker
In this anti-pattern, the Product Owner was only available for planning and sprint reviews due to other commitments. This limited availability severely impacted the team’s ability to make progress, especially given the complex nature of software development where requirements are discovered rather than pre-defined. The absence of business knowledge during development led to delays and misunderstandings, highlighting how critical continuous PO involvement is for team success.
For tips on how to help PO’s be more present, check out our Sprint PO Checklist which includes tips on how to lead that conversation and a clear set of questions to go through together with your PO.
Self-reflection Question: How can you help ensure more presence and better collaboration between the Product Owner and the development team?
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About Antti Horelli
Antti is an experienced Agile Coach from Finland, dedicated to empowering teams. With a systems-oriented, empathetic approach, he fosters collaboration and effective communication. With decades in IT, Antti transitioned from technical roles to methodology, where he passionately helps people and teams reach their full potential.
You can link with Antti Horelli on LinkedIn.
Mike is a seasoned Agile coach and trainer with over 25 years of experience. He focuses on technical practices, workflow optimization, leadership coaching, and human behavior, including neuroscience and psychology. His expertise extends from technical implementation to fostering psychological safety.
Are you having trouble helping the team work well with their Product Owner? We’ve put together a course to help you work on the collaboration team-product owner. You can find it at
Karina Margole is an Agile Coach with over a decade of experience, based in the UK. She has ADHD and a passion for creating an environment where everyone can do their best work. Karina approaches her work with a holistic, systemic view while also paying attention to individuals on a personal level.
Kevin is the lead scrum master at Domestic and General, with 10 years’ experience in project management before moving into scrum mastery. He now heads up a team of scrum masters, whilst continuing to support his own squads. Kevin believes scrum masters need to focus on self-improvement to turbocharge their ability to better support teams and the wider business on the journey to effectiveness.
Stella is the Manager of the Continuous Improvement and Agility team at RedHat and Agile Faculty Lead at NSTAR Technologies. Dedicated to transforming organizations and individuals through an agile mindset, she believes there’s always room for improvement, even when things aren’t broken.