Product Ownership

1. Product Vision

   The Product Owner is the chief spokesperson for the product vision and works closely with business stakeholders to define and continuously focus that vision on user value. A succinct statement of that value becomes the North Star for the product, a key metric to guide feature and technical decision-making.    

   The product vision generally reflects topics such as: 

   • User segments, their needs and how the product will help them. 
   • The specific pain points to be solved with the product. 
   • Existing alternatives and how they compare to the product. 
   • Unique or “unfair” advantages delivered by the product.  
2. Product Roadmap (macro)

   Translating a product vision into reality requires a roadmap that guides the development team first to initial launch (achieving what’s often called a Minimum Viable Product, or MVP) and onward toward additional functionalities and features to be created down the line.  

   The product owner manages this Product Roadmap as a continuously evolving "macro plan” that aligns all stakeholders around short-term and long-term goals.  

   On a day-to-day basis, the product roadmap represents a shared source of truth regarding the direction, priorities, progress and forecast for product iteration.

3. Product Backlog

   The product backlog represents an ordered list of items (features, changes and bugs) needed to achieve the product goal and characterizes the “single source of work” to be completed by the team.

   The Product Owner collaborates with stakeholders to elicit, refine and prioritize backlog items, an emergent process which continues along the entire product life cycle. Products no longer require a backlog only when they are retired.

   The backlog should be refined “just enough” such that items at the top – those to be worked in the next 2-3 sprints – are fully elaborated, while items below may be less refined and may require significant work to be made “ready.”

4. Formalized Sprint Goal and Conclusion

   To guide the development team along the product roadmap, the Product Owner proposes a goal for each sprint, identifying and preparing the most valuable items to be delivered. At the end of the sprint, the Product Owner inspects the “increment” and adjusts the roadmap accordingly.