As I reflect on the immersive learning experience of the Product Owner (PO) role, I can’t help but feel that it’s a perfect fit for the eight-week programme. Why? Because there’s a significant disconnect between how we teach the breadth of what a product owner is and does, and what people are actually trying to achieve in their organisations.
Understanding the Product Owner Role
When we talk about the product owner, we’re essentially discussing an agile product manager. This role encompasses all the tools and techniques of product management, but it also requires a shift in mindset. The journey of a product owner can be likened to moving from being a mere scribe—the lowest form of product ownership—to becoming a mini CEO or entrepreneur of the product.
- Ownership: At the pinnacle of this totem pole, the product owner has full fiscal and commercial accountability for their product within the organisation. This level of ownership allows them to engage with various aspects of the business that they may not have had access to previously.
Expanding Responsibilities
As product owners, we need to consider how we can integrate marketing, sales, and even contract negotiations into our roles. For instance, if you’re drafting contracts with customers, your involvement is crucial. The way you write those contracts can significantly impact how the work is delivered.
- Control and Influence: While you may not have direct control over branding and marketing—especially in larger organisations—you can still influence these areas. Your voice should be respected at the table, and your insights valued.
The Immersive Learning Experience
This immersive class is designed to bridge the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application. It allows participants to connect the dots between what we discuss in class and what they need to implement in their organisations.
- Empirical Learning: The iterative and incremental nature of this experience encourages you to bring empiricism into your practice. You can try out new strategies in your organisation and return to share your findings with your peers.
Imagine a group of product owners who have all attempted the same activity in their respective organisations. They can come back and share their experiences, offering help and advice based on real-world applications.
- Collaborative Insights: For example, if one participant works at a bank and successfully navigates a conversation with their compliance director, they can share that insight with others facing similar challenges. This collaborative exchange of ideas can lead to innovative solutions and improved practices across the board.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the immersive learning experience for product owners is not just about acquiring knowledge; it’s about fostering a community of practice where we can learn from one another. By engaging in these conversations and sharing our experiences, we can elevate our roles and become more effective in our organisations.
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So the question is, why is the PSP all a great fit for the eight-week immersive learning experience? I think it’s a great fit because there’s even more than, I think even more than all of the other classes, there’s a huge disconnect between how we teach and explain the breadth of what the product owner is and does and people are actually trying to do it in their organisations.
We’re talking about the product owner as an agile product manager, right? So it’s still product management, all the tools and techniques of product management, but then we’re bringing in this idea of the product owner moving from a scribe, right? That’s the lowest form of product owner, through a journey towards a mini CEO or entrepreneur of that product. Like they’re the top of that product totem; they totally own the product, full fiscal and commercial accountability for this product within their organisation.
Then they’re able to focus on other things that maybe they didn’t have access to at a different level, so things like how do you bring in marketing, how do you bring in sales, how do you bring in contracts? Right, if you’ve got to write contracts with customers, the product owner needs to be involved in that because how you write the contract matters to how you actually deliver the work. And they’re in control, effectively delivering the work or deciding what order we’re going to do things in, right?
So that immersive class allows us to create better connections between those activities that we’re going to talk about in the class and the stuff that they need to do in their organisation, and perhaps how they have conversations about how they do that stuff, right? How do they, if they can’t directly control that thing, which is quite often the case, right? If you’re in a bigger organisation, the chances of you controlling branding and marketing is probably pretty low, right? But perhaps you could influence it. Maybe you can be part of those conversations, then your voice becomes respected at that table as well, so that they’re going to be more involving you, looking at you, “What do you think?” as well, because you’ve had some great insight on that topic.
And you need to be credible in all of those spaces. You need to be credible in that conversation about legal and the conversation about marketing contracts, all of those things, so that you can have that engagement. This iterative and incremental immersive experience is going to help you bring empiricism into that story, right? We can talk about stuff, we can talk about stuff till we’re blue in the face, but you can go actually try that thing in your organisation and then come back and say, “Well, that didn’t work,” right? Then we can have a conversation as a group, which is great because you’ll have a bunch of product owners there, right, who’ve all tried the same thing.
Right, they’ve all gone off and tried the same activity in their organisation or different parts of the same organisation, and they can come back with help and advice. They can provide the help and advice, “I tried it, my organisation is also a bank,” right? Or the same bank, and we were able to do this because we had this conversation with our compliance director, and they were able to say, “Yes, we can do it that way.” That’s different from the way we were doing it before.
“Oh, awesome! I’ll go have that conversation with my compliance person and see if we can’t come to the same conclusion,” right? That sharing and collaborating of ideas is going to be exponentially increased as part of the immersive learning experience for the product owner.
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