The product owner is the person in charge of a software product from the company they are part of, a kind of “father”, a “parent” of IT solutions or software applications.
The key to building a great product lies in the hand of this product owner, because he fully understands the product with all of its features, but also its users and their role in its formation.
Here are the most important responsibilities of a software product owner:
Vision
The vision of a software application, for example, supports its owner in the description given to the developers team, in setting the target audience and the needs of the users in determining the essential features of the application and the value it creates for the producing company. A vision board is perfect for setting all these milestones.
Knowing the users
Obviously, a software product owner should be geered up with expertise in the industry and with a massive market-related baggage of the product concerned. Furthermore, as a product owner, you must fully understand the needs of the users and how the product will meet these needs and requirements.
Through the software development process, the product owner has to penetrate the minds of users to collect their feedback on the product and, at the same time, related to other similar products on the market. If your product does not meet users’ wishes, nor does it differ from what already is out there, how can you create it?
Decision power
As a product owner, you have the power and permission of all stakeholders to make the necessary decisions about the product, the direction in which it is necessary to straighten and prioritize the set of features.
The power to make the best decisions for the product, for the users and for the company – all this is in the product owner’s hand.
Collaborations
The best IT solutions and software applications are developed by teams. Any top team needs a leader. A product owner needs to collaborate with the software development team and guide it during the entire product creation process. Without collaboration and communication, decisions will remain at the discretion of team members, which could lead to misunderstandings or the creation of an agglomeration of unnecessary features for the final product.
Intuition of the future
It rarely happens that a software product is built from a single fire. As a rule, you’ll need a bunch of optimizations and feedback to develop a software application. The product template must be mega-focused on the current product development steps, but on the other hand, it should also insist on the priorities of the future cycles of the development process.
The role of a product owner requires a vast set of skills, this role gives you the opportunity to create something new and valuable for your users and your business.