Until they realize that:
They have to occasionally say NO to some powerful stakeholders;
They have to make decisions; short term vs. long term; tactical vs. strategic; now vs. later;
They have to peer into the future and anticipate customer needs;
They have to aggregate opinions from multiple, sometimes very powerful and unique, voices;
They have to trust their teams;
They can’t tell the team how to architect or design their products;
They have to consider other Product Owners work in their plans and strategies; working together;
They have to continuously re-target towards their goals, making adjustments based on the realities of team capacity and actual progress;
They have to forecast for AND with their teams;
They have to be concerned about quality and focus on building it into rather than testing it into their products;
They have to invest in the technical aspects of their products as much as the functional aspects;
They ultimately are accountable and responsible for their team’s results;
They don’t always know what the customer wants; and shhhh…neither do their customers;
They will never have sufficient time to perform all aspects of the job, forcing them to collaborate and partner with others;
They need to frequently take business risks, often with everyone second guessing every decision they’ve made;
They win with their teams, but they alone are often blamed when things don’t turn out as planned.
Wrapping Up
As an homage to the level of difficulty associated with this wonderful role, I wanted to share some of the challenges that Product Owners face.
Why?
So that organizations and teams try to be more empathetic and supportive of their Product Owners. The "good ones" deserve it and they ROCK!
Stay agile my friends,
Bob.