How I almost failed as a Product Owner
A beginner’s story of exploring the world of Product Ownership
Around one year back I was a Business Analyst in a project in Cambio Software Engineering and one day, then Product Owner of that project asked me, “Ganji, I am moving out of the project for my next allocations. Can you take up the PO role?”.
I was surprised! I had no idea what I was supposed to do, but, anyway I took it on. To be honest, I did not even know what Business Analysis was when I decided to be a BA. It worked out just fine. I might as well try out this PO role for some time. Embracing change! I said yes.
Just like that, I became a Product Owner.
Several months into this project, I was enjoying the role. It was a small team and comparatively a small scope. And one day our Unit Manager wanted to have a one on one meeting with me. I went in, a bit curious. Apparently, the Product Owner of a large product, in which I was working as a BA, was leaving, and she asked me “Ganji, can you take the role of the PO of this product for some time?”.
Aha, now I knew things were getting pretty serious even though the role on offer was a temporary role. She wanted me to be the PO of the biggest product and the biggest team in Cambio. I was really stepping into a new career path. I liked being a BA and a designer, but this was also exciting! Again, embracing change! I said yes.
Okay, now I am really and seriously a Product Owner.
But what should I do?
I Googled!
Aha, there was a lot of blogs, videos, articles. I looked up the role descriptions. Alright, I am supposed to take care of a backlog! Say ‘No’ to everything! Easy! It seemed like being a PO is no big deal!
I felt very powerful. I could tell people what to do. I could decide what should happen when. And I was the guardian of a long backlog and that too in the biggest product in Cambio when it comes to the size. And the team was HUGE! Exciting!
And there was a lot of bugs waiting to be fixed. I started prioritizing bugs so we would reduce the number of bugs. It felt like it was going well until I had a chat with my mentor, Yasith, over lunch. He asked me “Ganji, how is it going with the new role?” I said, “All cool. We are fixing bugs”. Then he asked, “Why?”.
Okay, why? Are you kidding me, lesser the bugs, better the product, right?
But this question kept me thinking. Why were we fixing bugs? Couldn’t we do something else instead?
I was blindly working on getting things done without understanding the meaning of the things we were supposed to do. Big mistake! To correct this I had a few discussions with Product Manager and Architects and I wanted to establish their vision within the squads.
Lesson 1: Establish the vision and make it concrete for the people working with the product
We started talking about the vision. We wanted to let everyone understand the meaning of every task that they do. Why are we fixing bugs? Why are we doing this change? This is bigger than managing the priority order in a Jira backlog.
Since our team was huge, it was a bit hard to have easy and effective verbal communication with all. I wanted to try out different ways of communicating the product vision to everyone working on the product. That was when I recalled a conversation that I had with our former Head of Design. He used this beautiful word, “Externalizing Designs”. It was about visualizing ideas and sharing it with everyone.
I did just that! I started drawing posters and putting them up on walls describing where the product was at and where we want it to be.
Time went on. Everything was going well.
I had three big squads working on my product. I was in total control. I was talking to people, asking for progress and telling them what to do and I wanted to be their go to person whenever they came across a problem. I felt that everything was relying on me and dependent on me. I was involved in design decisions and I was starting to tell everyone what to do.
It really felt good to be in control.
But I felt that my calendar was getting filled with meetings. At the end of the day I felt exhausted even though most of the time I had achieved nothing significant. I started to realize that there was something wrong in my way of working. I wanted to talk about this with someone and I turned to one of the new Product Area Owners in our Tribe for advice.
He asked “Ganji, do you need to get into details on everything that is happening on the product? What is the value that it adds?”
Aha! Do I really need to do that? I was thinking. Do I really add value to the product by knowing every detail about the things going on?
I looked at my team. I had 3 Product Area Owners who knew about the customers and their specialized product areas a lot more than I did. I had 3 Business Analysts and 2 UX Designers who understood the users’ needs and designed a lot better than I would have done. I had around 30 engineers who were experts in technology and knew how the product was built in and out. Why couldn’t I let these smart people do what is best for the product? Why couldn’t I show them direction and trust them to get things done?
Lesson number 2: Do not turn into a Control Freak! Show your team the direction and trust them to do what is best for the product!
I decided to step back and work on the vision with the product manager and set the overall goals and objectives and trust my team to make it happen. Everything was decentralized and most of the responsibilities were delegated. People made their own judgement and decisions and did what was best for the product aligning with the product vision.
The need for establishing the product vision and not to be a control freak were two big learning in my short career as a PO. I have been reading a few product related books and, in the book, “The Art of Innovation” by Tom Kelly, it says, “When facing a problem or when in doubt, talk to all the smart people you know”. I was doing exactly that! The biggest lesson I have learned during my career was to get help.
Lesson 3: Let go of your ego and get help!
If I look back at my very short career, it was all about trying things out, making mistakes and learning from them. And of course, sharing the learning with the people I care about. I will continue to do so.
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