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Need ideas in helping a temporary Product Owner

Last post 07:12 am March 8, 2019 by Erez Morabia
3 replies
04:57 pm March 7, 2019

My team currently has no dedicated Product Owner.  We have the position posted and hope to fill it with someone.  In the interim, the role is being filled by one of the department managers.  This is very much a temporary thing, but the challenge is he is pulled in many directions, is stuck in many meetings, etc.  He is doing as good of a job as he can do given all the demands he has, but the team feels like they don't have a good overall vision of where we are going.  Sometimes, we have to scramble to get stories written and groomed.  There are just some challenges in those areas.  Our next team retro is tomorrow and one topic we will try to address is how the team and/or me (the SM) can help the PO do better at helping the team know what's coming.  Of course, we want to do this with as little conflict of interest as possible.

We are all struggling with good solutions.  Anybody have any ideas we can try or are we just stuck until we can hire a new FTE?

 

Thanks in advance!


08:16 pm March 7, 2019

Our next team retro is tomorrow and one topic we will try to address is how the team and/or me (the SM) can help the PO do better at helping the team know what's coming.  Of course, we want to do this with as little conflict of interest as possible.

The Scrum Guide says that the Product Owner may do his or her own work, or have the Development Team do it while still remaining accountable. Would you foresee a conflict of interest if this happened, and if so, why?

One thing to consider in the Retrospective is whether or not the current Product Owner can properly account for value to stakeholders. This is determined empirically, by release. If he can't, then starting another Sprint might not be justifiable. Raising this concern -- at least as a matter of transparency -- can be an important step in achieving a more product-focused organization.


11:19 pm March 7, 2019

Thanks, Ian.  That is actually a great reminder of what is stated in the Scrum Guide.  I should have returned to that first  :)  I'll definitely use that tomorrow and see how the conversation goes, but I have no problem if the team did a little more, if it helps everybody for the time being.


07:12 am March 8, 2019

Hi David, 

When my teams shifted into Scrum, I didn't have a dedicated owner. One of my engineering managers stepped into this role. Once he has done that, we agreed that he is PO as first priority and engineering manager as second priority. This is because we have realized the impact of a good and dedicated PO for the team and the organization.

Then, I have worked with him on his engineering manager activities and we saw how many of the meetings and activities are not necessary anymore in agile organization. For example, we removed some of the "status meetings" that weren't relevant anymore, but people kept doing that (why? because this is what they were doing is the last 10 years...).

So, on top of what Ian posted, I would suggest for someone to work with this engineering manager on his activities. You might be suprized at the end that he might turn into an excellent PO :) this what happened in my case.

And last thing, be open and have courage to raise your PO-availability issue in the retro (or even better - facilitate the discussion in way the team will raise that).

Good luck, 

Erez


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