The Great Product Owner: Embracing Feedback and Adapting Over Time
Zvonimir shares his experience with a Product Owner who demonstrated exceptional growth over a two-year period. What made this PO stand out was their willingness to receive feedback from the team and adjust their behavior accordingly. When the team expressed difficulty accessing the PO for questions and early feedback, the PO responded by rearranging their schedule to sit near the team part-time. Zvone emphasizes how these incremental changes, driven by openness to feedback, transformed this person into an exemplary Product Owner. The key insight: great Product Owners honor past practices while embracing necessary changes for the future.
Self-reflection Question: How might your willingness (or reluctance) to accept feedback be affecting your development as a Product Owner?
The Bad Product Owner: The Reluctant Subject Matter Expert
In this segment, Zvonimir describes working with a Subject Matter Expert who was assigned the Product Owner role despite not wanting the responsibility. While this person excelled at documenting requirements from their extensive knowledge, they resisted taking on core PO duties. The organization assigned them the role but didn’t push for proper adoption of responsibilities. Consequently, the team and Scrum Master were forced to assume PO duties to fill the gap. Although this arrangement functioned temporarily thanks to the team’s capabilities and the SME’s knowledge, it created an unsustainable situation where role accountability was unclear.
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About Zvonimir Durcevic
Zvonimir has worked in agile product development since 2005, holding roles such as Scrum Master, Agile Coach, IT Project, and R&D Manager. He works with teams to co-create tailored solutions to increase engagement and improve customer focus and effectiveness, enabling accelerated value delivery and rapid adaptation to change.
You can link with Zvonimir Durcevic on LinkedIn.
Karen is a dedicated Scrum Master with a long experience driving agile transformations and fostering high-performing teams. She is passionate about continuous learning, and excels in aligning agile practices with organizational innovation.
Mateusz, is a Scrum Master at Heineken, and brings expertise from biotech and airline industries, excelling in Agile delivery and transformations. Skilled in Management 3.0, he fosters self-managed, innovative teams. Mateusz just launched a podcast on organizational transformation, Mateusz highlights how understanding team dynamics beyond the Scrum framework enhances collaboration and effectiveness.