Product Owner Essentials

This comprehensive two-day course emphasizes the essentials of the Product Owner role for organizations to deliver new or improved products and solutions that address customer needs, commercial demands, and market competition.

Most agile courses present the Product Owner (PO) role limited to the basic Scrum Guide definitions and activities whereas this course introduces the importance of shifting focus to a product mindset and product-oriented organization by strategically introducing and emphasizing the PO as an essential role in business value creation and product delivery.

Through interactive group workshops and class discussions supported by individual activities, participants get hands-on experience in communicating a customer-centric product vision, in effectively managing a prioritized product backlog containing well-defined and estimated product user stories in an established product roadmap and release planning.

Course Objectives

• Shifting focus from a project mindset to a product mindset
• Understanding the importance of the Product Owner role
• Communicating a value-driven customer-centric product vision
• Creating, prioritizing, and refining items in a Product Backlog
• Establishing, splitting, and estimating concise product user stories
• Defining a product roadmap realized by product release planning

Module 1: Product Focus

1. Project vs. Product Mindset
2. Minimum Viable Product (MVP)
3. Shifting Focus to Product-Orientation

Module 2: Product Owner (PO)

1. PO Introduction
2. PO Guidelines and Traits
3. PO Activities in Scrum Events

Module 3: Product Vision

1. Product Purpose and Vision
2. Customer-Centric Design Thinking
3. Value Proposition Canvas

Module 4: Product Backlog Management

1. Product Backlog Items (PBIs)
2. Product Backlog Prioritization
3. Product Backlog Refinement

Module 5: Product User Stories

1. User Story Components
2. User Story Splitting Techniques
3. User Story Estimating Techniques

Module 6: Product Roadmap and Release Planning

1. Product Roadmap
2. Product Release Planning
3. Definition of Done (DoD)

Individuals who will benefit from this course include Product Owners/Managers, business sponsors/analysts, IT Managers, Portfolio/Program/Project Managers, project team leaders/members, technical subject matter experts, and anyone interested in learning more about the important essentials of the Product Owner role.