Have you ever found yourself stuck in a cycle of building features, only to have customers keep asking for ‘just one more’? It’s a common problem for product owners, but what if there was a way to build only what truly matters to users? In this article, we’ll explore the traits of successful product owners and how organizations can empower them to become product CEOs.
Many product owners act as scribes for their main stakeholders or business owners. They simply write down what they hear, rather than thinking about product vision and market fit. This often stems from a lack of fundamental understanding of both the product and the technology driving it. To be an effective product owner, you need to be both a product expert and have a basic understanding of the technology used to build it. Technological progress often drives product development and creates new opportunities and challenges for the product owner.
Challenge stakeholders about their needs
Product owners should not be afraid to challenge stakeholders about their needs. Stakeholders and business owners often have a complete vision of what they want, but struggle to think in terms of MVP (Minimum Viable Product). If a product owner is not empowered to make their own product decisions, they may spend months working on a single feature before launching it to production. And often, it is never good enough for the business owner. “Just one more feature before we can use it” is something you will hear often in these cases.
Think about the quickest way to validate ideas
A product owner should always be thinking about the quickest way to validate ideas. Distilling customer visions into their smallest parts that can be validated quickly is a product owner superpower that will help them gain insights into what their users actually need, rather than what they (or their representatives) think they need. But to do so, means actively challenging your customers and stakeholders on their beliefs.
For a product owner to do this, they will have to have a large amount of autonomy. They must be trusted by their organization. They should feel empowered to make their own decisions, and challenge their most important stakeholders.
A product owner should be the CEO of their product. They should be able to take full responsibility. To be an entrepreneur. To innovate and to steer away from the obvious path.
Enter Aligned Autonomy
To empower product owners to become the CEOs of their products, it is crucial for organizations to implement aligned autonomy. Aligned autonomy is a framework that allows product owners to make autonomous decisions in line with the overall vision of the company. To establish aligned autonomy, the company must have a clear vision of what kind of company they want to be, who their main customers are, and what they want to build for them. This vision should be communicated to all stakeholders and employees within the organization, so that everyone is working towards the same goals.
To implement aligned autonomy successfully, it is vital that the C-level and management buy into this idea and actively support it. The C-level should celebrate experiments and initiative. They should also celebrate the inevitable failures as the way to learn. Everyone should be empowered to make decisions.
But in order to ensure that those decisions are made in line with the company vision and strategy, management should be very clear about their goals, their vision and communicate early and often about them. Everyone in the company should know what they are working towards.
It is like the famous anecdote of Kennedy visiting NASA for the first time. During his tour of the facility, he met a janitor who was carrying a broom down the hallway. The President then casually asked the janitor what he did for NASA, and the janitor replied, “I’m helping put a man on the moon.
Everyone should know what the company is working towards, so they can make informed decisions on how they can best help achieve that goal.
Introducing aligned autonomy can have a profound impact on the entire organization, as it changes the way decisions are made and empowers employees to take ownership of their work. By implementing aligned autonomy, organizations can create a culture of trust and collaboration, where product owners have the support they need to make informed decisions that benefit both the company and the customers.
In summary, aligned autonomy is a crucial framework for empowering product owners to become the CEOs of their products. To implement aligned autonomy successfully, organizations must have a clear vision, communicate it effectively, and provide clear guardrails. The C-level and management play a key role in introducing aligned autonomy and must actively support and communicate its importance to all employees.