Product Owners Who Protect Focus and Enable Ownership | Deborah Colombari

Deborah Colombari: Product Owners Who Protect Focus and Enable Ownership

In this episode, we refer to INVEST criteria and Behavior Driven Development .

The Great Product Owner: Clear Outcomes, Strong Refinement, and Space for the Team

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes .

 

"He doesn't say how. That allows the team to own the solution." - Deborah Colombari

 

Deborah describes a great Product Owner who came from project management, but learned to work deeply with upstream discovery and refinement. This PO uses INVEST criteria, Behavior Driven Development-style acceptance criteria, and explicit policies so that developers understand what needs to be done and why. He writes down expected outcomes at the epic and feature level, not only at the story level. Because he does not have a developer background, he depends on the tech lead, and Deborah sees that as a strength when the collaboration works. The PO brings business outcomes and clarity. The team brings technical options and owns the solution. That split creates room for trust.

 

Self-reflection Question: Does your Product Owner make the outcome clear while still leaving the solution to the team?</sp