Here is a list of 7 concerns a Scrum Master could pose to a Product Owner to enhance in their position as a coach. Of course, depending on your situation, not every answer may be relevant. You’ll probably need to modify these answers or omit some of them because not all Product Owners (PO) have the same concept of success, operate in the same way, have the same Dev Teams, etc.
What organizations will engage with your product? Who are the primary stakeholders?
Knowing how to meet market demand, stakeholder needs, and overall being able to create a high-value product are all greatly hampered by not knowing who your stakeholders are! It can be two individuals the PO is personally acquainted with, or it might be a group of international target markets. The PO needs to be aware of whatever it is. The PO should exert all reasonable efforts to include important stakeholders in Sprint Reviews in order to maximise feedback and the likelihood of always focusing on the most important topics.
Additionally, you might inquire as to which stakeholders the PO is now concentrating on and why.
How can you tell if your work is up to standard?
Are there any metrics the PO needs to look at? What ties them together? Cash in the bank? extra users? Added leads? Fewer bugs (reported from systems in use)? The product only has high-value features, right? reducing the code base?
Anyone can shove items into a backlog and a product, endlessly creating something that might turn out to be valuable or useful (or not). A good PO must be able to validate their business assumptions, or at the very least, must have a notion of how to do so that can be put into effect.
What steps have you taken over the last five sprints to increase the chances that you will deliver a high-value product?
Do stakeholders have access to the Dev Team as needed? Is the PO regularly communicating with stakeholders? Does the PO serve as a matchmaker rather than a bottleneck between the Dev Team and stakeholders? How is the balance between the needs of many stakeholders achieved? How is profit and loss tracked by the PO? Does the PO make sure that stakeholder or user satisfaction is routinely assessed? Is there another way to estimate or evaluate the supplied value, or does the PO maintain a burn-up chart of “value points” delivered per Sprint?
What recent actions have you taken to improve the quality of the Development Team’s work?
The PO maximises both the product’s value and the work the Dev Team is doing. The likelihood that the Dev Team will produce a product that is “successful” and with little to no waste increases when the Dev Team invests in training them about the domain, the vision, clients, and/or users.
In a year, where do you want the product to be? What can you do to support the Scrum Team in achieving that objective? What’s the biggest reason you’re worried the product won’t be what you want it to be?
Is the PO completing or concentrating on the most crucial task(s)? Are they concentrating on the correct things among all the things the PO can do? (Like ordering PBIs, clarifying vision, involving the right people, making connections, learning about product perception in the market, etc.). Is the development team left to build what the clients don’t want? Should the PO collaborate with the Dev Team or stakeholders more or less closely?
What product features ought to be eliminated? How do you know they need to be taken out? How do you know if you can’t get rid of a feature?
The art of simplicity, which maximises the amount of effort not done, is crucial. Not only should features with a poor return on investment be removed, but it’s also crucial to avoid building items that are not necessary. The ability to determine which features are absolutely necessary and how minimal we can make them is essential for boosting product agility. However, another crucial ability for product agility is knowing which features must be eliminated.
Which areas of the software development process supporting this product do you bottleneck? How can you prevent the development of the product from being slowed down?
If “being accountable for” includes “perform the task,” then the PO is a bottleneck post by design (which is a misconception of the PO role, by the way). What tasks can you assign? How can you guide? Who else on the business side can you turn to for assistance? Where can you find assistance in excelling at X, Y, or Z? Are you serving as a mediator between the Dev Team and the stakeholders, or are you only serving as a bottleneck and proxy, transmitting messages back and forth (and inadvertently altering their meaning)?
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