Headhunter for Product Owner positions

The Product Owner (PO) role originates from the Scrum framework. This framework helps self-organised teams to organise their project work effectively and efficiently. However, the term is now also used in the context of agile organisations. Depending on the context, a PO is also called a project owner or service owner. The name implies that these responsibilities are either for a project or a service.

Product Owner Recruiting Process

CareerTeam helps your company in the challenging search for digital professionals and specialists in a highly competitive market. Our recruiters find experts for the position of Product Owner.

Using our performance-based executive search approach, we guarantee you a quick placement of highly qualified candidates who will take your company's agile development to the next level.  

Tasks of the product owner in agile development

In Scrum, product owners bear a great responsibility - after all, they are responsible for the respective product and its development. They push the project forward, define the characteristics of the product and communicate a clear vision for it. The most important tasks of the PO include the following:

• Developing & communicating a vision of the end product
• Managing & prioritising the product backlog (PBL)
• Representing customer and stakeholder interests
• Determining & ensuring return on investment (through prioritisation in the PBL)
• Monitoring development phases & progress
• Communicating and collaborating with the agile team (developers and scrum masters) 

Product Owner Skills

Product owners need both technical and social skills in their key position between the Scrum team, customers and stakeholders. The skills to be successful as a PO are changing due to the ongoing technological change. Therefore, they need to keep up to date and expand their skills regarding new trends and developments. 

The following skills are essential to succeed as a product owner, now and in the future:

Communication

The creation of the product backlog is a core task of the product owner, as we have already learned. The product backlog contains the tasks as so-called "user stories" that have to be implemented. POs must clearly communicate these user stories as well as the product goals.

The ability to communicate clearly is one of the most important requirements for product owners. After all, both the project and the product rise and fall with it. Because it is not only about maintaining and prioritising the backlog, but also about communicating the tasks to the Scrum team, the Scrum Master and the stakeholders. When product owners work on larger projects that involve several teams and departments, the importance of communication increases exponentially.

An effective communication for product owners includes the following aspects:

• Selecting a language that is easy for the recipient to understand
• Choosing the appropriate channel (verbal, email, video, etc.)
• Formulating clear messages and instructions
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In short, product owners need to be exceptionally good at communicating because that is what they do daily and often with much of people.

Analytical skills 

This skill is also a basic requirement for this position. POs need to gather and analyse information, solve complex problems and often make timely decisions to avoid being a bottleneck that slows down productivity. Managing and especially prioritising the backlog is a prime example of a task that requires analytical skills: identifying items to be prioritised based on their relevance, importance and relationship with other items in the backlog.

In addition, there are subcategories such as critical thinking, logical reasoning, data analysis, creativity and research. This blend of skills enables POs to find solutions to complex problems on time.

And if a problem is solved with these skills, this is also followed by effective communication to the development team and, if necessary, to the Scrum Master.

Analytical skills are in demand in many professions, especially in those of a technical nature. For product owners, they are key skills that will prove their worth every day.

Technical skills

POs need to have a range of technical skills:

• Scrum and agile software development methods
• Understanding and managing the product backlog
• Programming and design
• Software development
• UX knowledge and principles
• IT infrastructure
• Ability to use apps and software solutions

Product owners need to be technically savvy, so they understand development and design processes. The same applies to software development. This is the only way they are able to manage the tasks of the backlog and prioritise them accordingly.

Decision-Making

Every day, product owners have to make decisions. Often even several critical decisions a day. Since they are responsible for the success of the project, they determine which customer requests and features will be included in the final product. And how these decisions are communicated to the development team.

This ability, along with excellent communication, is one of the most important that a product owner must have. Decisiveness due to the analytical ability to solve problems makes the difference between mediocre and exquisite product owners.

Experts in project management

It is essential to understand that product owners are not product managers. Nevertheless, they need to have impeccable project management skills. Generally speaking, product managers are more strategically oriented and product owners are more tactically oriented.

The aim of project management is the achievement of the project goals and the fulfilment of the project requirements in a complete and effective way.

Project management is divided into five phases:

• Phase 1: Project initiation
• Phase 2: Project planning
• Phase 3: Project implementation
• Phase 4: Project monitoring and control
• Phase 5: Project completion

Product owners execute all these phases together with the Scrum team. As they are responsible for the product, the project management determines the success or failure of the product. 

Pan-European network

As recruiting experts for the digital economy, CareerTeam offers end-to-end recruiting production outsourcing (RPO). That includes, among other things, the entire hiring process, cultural fit, employer branding and also active sourcing.

We operate across Europe and our network has grown to over 600,000 contacts. Thanks to our modern algorithm, we find suitable candidates in the shortest possible time and also identify the "hidden candidates" with high potential for your position. Would you like to learn more about our scope of service? We would be happy to show you our comprehensive solutions in human resources.