Skills for Product Owners

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Product Owner Skills

Skills for Agile Product Owners

by Chris Daily

The line between As a product owner, you will be responsible for a product from conception to end of life. In order to accomplish this, there are important skills that product owners need in order to be successful.

In many cases, product owners will be asked about the technical skills as well as hard and soft skills they have that make them stand out as a candidate. This is an opportunity for product owners to sell their talents and experiences. Of course, product owners could provide a laundry list of important skills but this doesn't help answer the question of 'What do I have?'

This article looks at some common product owner skills and how product owners can build on those knowledge areas so they can lead the development of products from start through completion. It is important to note that these skill sets vary depending on whether you're a product owner for a product, digital product, or enterprise product.

Use this product management skills list as a great job-seeking tool to help you stand out from the rest of the product owners!

1.  Communication Skills

Product owners need excellent communication skills in order to interact with all levels of stakeholders and other product owners. And of course, they need strong written and oral communication skills in order to manage requirements, gather customer feedback, and conduct product reviews with internal teams like engineering, UX, marketing, etc. As well as external teams like salesforce, solution partners, community groups, etc. A successful product owner needs excellent communication skills so they can present information clearly and concisely which is key when presenting ideas internally or externally whether it's at a meeting with stakeholders, with a development team,d or at conferences talking to potential customers about their product features/ideas/vision, etc. Developing interpersonal skills are critical for a product owner.

2. Ability To Deal With Complexity

A successful product owner deals with many aspects of product development, which means that they will be dealing with a wide range of issues including technographic, product branding, product support, and product strategy. In order to help shape the product development roadmap and user story map, product owners need to have analytical skills able able to understand these complex issues quickly in order to make sound product decisions.

3. Business Acumen

This is a key product owner skill that ties in with being able to deal with complexity. Basic knowledge of the business environment is not enough. Product owners should know how the business operates and what the best product management practices are when it comes to product development. Product owners will often be dealing with multiple stakeholders both internal and external so they need strong business acumen to support their product decisions in a strategic way by leveraging metrics and market data from sources like customer research, competitive intelligence, etc. Strategic thinking product owners ensure the vision of products is in step with business goals. For example, product owners should be able to create a financial plan (based on market research) for product releases that they want to achieve in the future.

4. Leadership And Mentoring

A product owner is expected to lead from the front when it comes down to owning a product strategy for a particular product or feature. They also need good leadership skills to motivate product teams. And product owners are often expected to mentor another product owner within their organization.

5. Stakeholder Management

The product owner has to deal with internal and external stakeholders on a regular basis either one-on-one or in groups. A product owner needs excellent stakeholder management skills so they can influence the right group of people at the right time, build strong working relationships and run productive meetings where key product decisions are made.

6. Ability To Prioritize And Manage Complexity At The Same Time

A product owner not only works on complex problems, but they also take ownership for product requirements that come from different sources like internal or external marketing communication channels (for example email campaigns, landing pages, etc.), customer research reveals (from product/market fit interviews) and product strategy (for product definition). Plus product owners need to be able to make product decisions based on product data. This means that product owners need to use their prioritization skills to continually prioritize product requirements in order to meet deadlines while keeping an eye on the bigger picture.

7. Benchmarking And Best Practices

A product owner should know when it's appropriate to use best practices when developing products when it comes down to user experience, technology, etc. A product owner will also want to benchmark competitor or complementary products when making product development decisions.

8. Data Analysis And Metrics

At the end of the day, all good product management boils down to having a solid understanding of what is going on with a specific feature or a whole product by analyzing product data and market research. A product owner needs to be able to use their research skills and analytical skills to analyze market research, as well as product and product usage data in order to make product decisions (product roadmap, product communication, etc.)

9. Business Strategy

A product owner understands business strategy and how it's related to the product. The product owner understands customer needs and wants, aligns the product vision with the company direction, and can match them with market opportunities.

10. Project Management Skills

Project management skills are essential for anyone who wants to get into product management or is currently a product owner. Even if you plan on managing your own product development projects, having project management skills will help you manage the process better and also improve your soft skills, like communication, with an external engineering team, a design team, etc. Also, it might put you in a leadership position one day where product management skills can come in handy.

11. Understanding The Product Life Cycle

A product owner should understand the product life cycle and product management stages like defining product strategy, product definition, product development, product launch, etc. Using this understanding and their prioritization skills, the product owner prioritizes their work better and communicates proactively with internal or external teams to keep everyone on the same page when it comes down to communicating the next steps.

14. Leadership

Product skills like leadership, influence, and communication can take you far when you're working in product management. Even if you're not in a leadership position at the moment knowing about these product owner skills will definitely boost your chances of getting there one day or put you in a key decision-making role where this skill set is needed.

15. Ability To Explain Why Something Cannot Be Done Or Is A Bad Idea

"Simplicity: Maximizing the amount of work not done." A product owner will often encounter criticism from stakeholders but they need to know how to defend product decisions and product roadmaps. This product owner skill is essential for anyone who works in product management.

16. Ability To Work With Other Departments

A product owner needs to be able to work with other teams like an engineering team, a sales team, a design team, etc., they need good interpersonal skills so that information about the product development process can flow freely without any misunderstandings or errors due to lack of soft skills. The whole product development process depends on everyone's contribution so a product owner should know their role in this collaboration well enough.

17. Knowledge Of Product Management Toolset

There are many different products management tools out there that product s might use during the product development process (for example: Aha! by ProductPlan, JIRA Agile, Trello etc.). Product owners should know what product management tools are out there, how they work, and what kind of product features product planning tools have to help them during the product development process.

18. Ability To Present Your Point Of View

Product owner skills like presentation skills can come in handy when you need to communicate your product ideas with external stakeholders like investors or customers. Even if it's not mandatory for a product owner to be a great speaker or public speaker having good verbal communication skills will definitely help them get their point across clearly so that the intended message gets through consistently and without any misunderstandings.

19. Product Owner Skills

Product owner skills include defining and writing user stories, acceptance criteria, etc., which is essential for anyone who works in product management. Product owner skills will help product owners and product owners communicate with cross-functional teams, including engineering and design teams, to make sure they understand the product requirements and technical aspects, and deliver them as intended, without any misunderstandings or confusion since product owner skills like communication really come into play here.

20. Good Sense Of Humor

This might seem unrelated but having a good sense of humor can be an asset for product owners because not only is it a positive personality trait but it helps product owners deal with criticism from stakeholders more constructively which will help them get their point across better during product meetings or other kinds of product development-related discussions where communicating ideas accurately is key.

Let's Wrap Up

So there you have it, these are some of the critical product owner skills that a product owner needs to be successful in their product development roles. Having basic product management skills is not enough. A product owner needs to have a wide range of skills include: interpersonal skills, soft skills, hard skills, and technical skills.

Do you have the skills to be a product owner or a product owner? Do you want to learn more about being a product owner or product owner? Kickstart your career now.  Check out our course "The Product Mindset", and get your ICP-APO Product Owner certification from IC Agile.   Click here to learn more.

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