Being a product owner is a tough job.
Product owners often carry a heavy burden because they have to get a succession of decisions exactly right.
And they usually need to do this while being extremely busy.
Everyone seems to need some of the product owners' time.
Fortunately, there are things a good scrum master can do to support an overly busy product owner.
And in this video, I'm going to share three of them with you.
Hi, i'm Mike Cohn.
I am the author of three best-selling books on Agile and Scrum.
One of the most useful ways a Scrum Master can help a product owner is by helping them make time for important work that could get pushed aside by the
day-to-day emergencies of work.
For example, suppose your productowner needs to write acceptance criteria for the user stories for their next sprint.
They hope to get it done on Monday.
Doesn't happen.
The hope you get done it on Tuesday.
It doesn't happened.
Wednesday, same thing.
This happens because items on a to-do list are promises to ourselves.
And we don't treat those promises as well as we treat promises to others.
Today, I had two meetings and seven things on my to-do list, such as making this video.
I made all the meetings because I didn't want to let others down.
But four items remain unstarted on My To-Do List.
If your product owner is struggling to fit certain work into their week, offer to schedule a time to meet with them to help do it.
Agree that tomorrow at 2 p.m., the two of you will meet to write the acceptance criteria for next Sprint's stories.
The product will almost certainly make time for that shared activity, whereas they probably wouldn't fit it in if it were just an item on their own personal
to-do list.
Another way you can help a Harried Product Owner is to convince team members that they can answer some questions for themselves.
Some team member fall into a trap of thinking that their Product owner needs to specify every last detail about every product backlog item.
It's not true.
Product owners need to specific the things about a backlog items that are so important that the item will be rejected without those things.
But there are many smaller details about how something is implemented that can best be decided by the team.
For example, imagine a system with a screen that could be sorted by various columns.
Now, the columns can be sort in ascending or descending order.
Which column and which order should be the default?
If the product owner has a strong preference, the Product Owner can absolutely state that preference and the team will need to sort in that order on that column.
But lacking a Strong Preference, a decision by the Team is likely to be just as good as one from the Project Owner.
As Scrum Master, help your team understand this.
And where the product owner has not already stated a strong opinion, encourage team members to make a decision.
They'll probably make the right decision, if not, the Product Owner can redirect the team as soon as they next see the products.
Sure, the team will occasionally have to backtrack and redo some work, but that will probably not be much, probably won't happen often,
and needs to be balanced against all the time saved by not having to discuss every small issue like that in advance.
A third way you can help your product owner is by being on the lookout for best practices.
You are more likely to be attuned to advances in how products are developed.
For example, as Scrum Master, you might have heard about story mapping or job stories shortly after each was introduced.
It could easily be years before such innovations come to the attention of a product donor.
Keep your eyes open for advances in product development, agile, and so on.
And bring time savers to the attention of your product owner.
What do you do to help a busy product donor?
Are there things you've done to your project owner manage all they're expected to do?
Please let me know in the comments.
I read and value each comment.
And if this video has been useful, click the Like button.
If you haven't already, Click Subscribe so you don't miss out on future tips to help you succeed with Agile.
Thank you for watching and I'll see you next time.