Introduction
A recent Scrum Alliance and Business Agility Institute Product Owners Skills, Career and Market Demand report states that “Despite a competitive job market, organizations face challenges in finding candidates with the right balance of technical knowledge, business acumen and strategic vision”
I have shared the link to this report in the comments. Some of their findings:
🔥 Organizations are increasingly recognizing the importance of the product owner role in driving product development and ensuring alignment with business objectives.
🔥 The demand for product owners remains high in technology, financial services and Professional Services organizations. These organizations are looking for product owners having business acumen, product leadership or technical skills.
🔥 Organizations receive between 40 and 100 applications for each product owner role, however many organizations struggle with finding candidates with the strategic thinking , data driven decision making and effective stakeholder engagement skills
🔥 While certifications such as the CSPO are important, practical experience in managing product backlogs, leading teams and engaging with stakeholders is crucial. Most organizations are struggling to find candidates who have the skills and the experience
🔥 There is a high volume of candidates but finding the right mix is challenging
Why is it challenging for Product Owners to acquire these skills?
The skills required by a product person is defined by the tale of the two continuous loops. In the left loop they come up with a breakthrough idea along with key objectives. They discover customer needs and define the value that the features of the product can deliver to meet the needs. Next they test their business idea and pivot based on what they find. In the book Pattern Breakers: Why some startups change the future Mike Maples Junior writes that 85% of profits that make up for his venture capital company Floodgate comes from Pivots, which means startups that started with one idea and then ended up course-correcting to something very different.
On the right side of the loop is the execution where the product person needs to deliver the product features, measure the usage and value delivered and adapt from what they learn. These require skills like product backlog management, technical skills, key analytical and operational skills and finally the ability to adapt from what they discover.
Historically organizations have hired a Product Manager for the strategic skills and a Project Manager for the execution skills. This changed dramatically when Agile frameworks like Scrum were introduced in the mid 1990s. These two roles had several challenges with collaboration, communication and decision making.
Emergence of Agile Frameworks
Scrum defined the role of the Product Owner. On purpose they defined the role to be a single person that is accountable for both the loops. They might need help from others in the team or organization to perform the individual tasks but remain accountable for them.
This new definition lead to more confusion and many organizations adopting Scrum kept the status quo while upgrading the project manager title or a business analyst title to product owner title. Of course this did not change the mindset and behaviors and the communication issues continued. Too many of the product managers / product owners that I work with at client organizations and students that come to my Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO®) workshop are looking to learn and sharpen the skills required to perform the work in the right side of the loop.
A recent newsletter by Strategy+Business by PWC highlights two drivers for enterprise agility to work
- Listen to your customers—and the function that advocates for them
- Tie your teams—and their daily work—to broader business objectives
These are strategic skills that a product leader should posses. I don’t really differentiate between product managers and a scrum product owner so I will be using the term product leader in this article and my subsequent articles.
The Scrum Alliance and Business Agility Institute report confirms that this mindset needs a pivot. The needs of the organization require the product owner they hire to be an entrepreneur that makes all decisions on their product. This means they need to acquire strategic and technical skills.
Skills That Enhance Career Opportunities
Whether you are product manager / product owner working in a large organization or you are in a startup, you are the entrepreneur that “Owns” the product. So what are the skills that product managers should posses or develop over time. The skills can be split into strategic skills and technical skills. So let’s explore the ones highlighted in the report with what and how you can acquire them
1. Uncovering breakthrough ideas for your product
So how do you come up with great ideas for your product. Three techniques that are highlighted in Mike’s Pattern Breakers book, The Innovation Games book by Luke Hohmann and Testing business ideas book by David Bland. I will cover them in detail in subsequent articles.
- Uncovering Inflection points to Inspire Game-Changing Product Insights: An inflection point is a change in technology, change in people’s attitudes and a change in regulations that product leaders can use to radically alter how people think, feel and act to create a radically different future.
- Imagine living in the Future: What are some trends you notice that will change how people will live in the future? Uber imagined a future where a car will take you from point A to B in a busy city without you having to hail or wait for a taxi. Something that can be ordered with a push of a button. There are so many stories similar that drove product features that have radically changed lives.
- Testing business ideas and pivoting: Pivoting to discover your business model is key for any product to thrive. As an example check out how Owlet Baby Monitors discovered their business model by pivoting several times https://vimeo.com/84423056
2. Connect product to business goals
To connect product to business goals there are three techniques that the product leader should learn. I will cover these in detail in subsequent articles
- Discover your customer needs: Customer discovery is a key skill that needs you to empathize with your customer needs and great techniques like Clayton Christensen Jobs To Be Done and Opportunity Solution Tree by Theresa Torres
- Create a Product Vision that aligns with your organization mission: An organization mission drives business goals. The product vision needs to be aligned with the mission. As an example Netflix’s product vision is to be the entertainment distribution giant. Techniques like the Product Box, Cover Story and others help learners in my class create a product vision.
- Create interim Product Goals that drive that vision: Product Goals drive what customer needs will be satisfied. As an example Netflix first product goal was to be a dvd rental mailing service, they then had a goal to be an online streaming service, their next goal was to add create movie and tv shows content that will drive more viewers, they are now generating gaming content and more. Their goals over time help them achieve the vision.
3. Making Strategic tradeoffs:
As a product leader you have to always make tradeoffs, how do you approach making these decisions and how do you justify your decision with stakeholders is a key skill. I will be going in detail in the below in subsequent articles.
- Tradeoffs to address changing market opportunities
- Tradeoffs to address Time to market and Regulatory changes
- Value, Pricing and Quality Tradeoffs
4. Product Marketing
Two books that have inspired me in developing product marketing skills 1. Uncopyable by Steve Miller and 2. Blue Ocean Shift by W Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne Some ideas that I will be exploring in subsequent articles
- Find your Moose: In Steve Miller’s words, not everyone is your customer, you need to identify and find the right customer (moose) for your product.
- Look what other organizations outside your industry do: Have you wondered how did Apple design the Apple Store experience? how did Topgolf design the customer experience that is so different than other golf activity providers?
- Orchestrate your customer experience: What do you feel when you visit a Disney amusement park? The customer experience is magical from the time you step in until the fireworks at the end. How is this different than visiting a Six Flags amusement park?
- Uncovering hidden pain points and finding non-customers: While Xbox and Playstation 360 consoles fought over superior graphics and CPU capability, versions of games that they monopolized and more, Nintendo focused on finding non-customers when they developed the Wii and they followed up the switch. They developed a unique niche in an overcrowded market instead of lowering their price.
5. Define OKRs that are business oriented
Did you know that establishing Objective and Key Results (OKRs) help you deliver a focused approach deliver on your product goals? In subsequent articles, I will share amazing ideas I have learnt from Radical Focus by Christina R Wodtke and stories of how I have successfully implemented them
6. Effective Stakeholder Management
As a product leader you are not an order taker, instead you are someone who facilitates key decisions and setting priorities bringing customers and stakeholders together. I will share several techniques that I learnt from Luma Institute that have helped me
7. Technical Skills
Knowing key technology trends and how they might improve or adversely affect your product is a key skill to master. I will be sharing several of my personal stories in subsequent articles.
Key Takeaways
A product leader needs to be adept at both the continuous loops and develop a mindset that unleashed breakthroughs in the product they offer. The industry is looking to hire product folks that have these strategic and technical skills. In this article I have shared key resources that you can explore further. In subsequent articles I will go deeper in each one of these skills sets and how you can develop them.
Share with me in the comments which skill is important for you and why?
