Common Problems: Divided or Absent Product Ownership

Clear and empowered product ownership is critical to success in Agile.

However, it is common to find situations where the role of the Product Owner (PO) is absent, diluted or divided, which creates significant problems.

It may be that the person designated as PO has no real decision-making authority, acting only as an intermediary for stakeholders or management.

Alternatively, there may be multiple POs for the same product, with potentially conflicting views or unclear responsibilities.

Both situations undermine the team's ability to prioritize effectively, maintain a consistent approach and deliver value efficiently.

Addressing these ownership issues is often a crucial step in an agile transformation.

Negative Impact on Decisions and Quality

Lack of clear and unified product ownership has several negative impacts:

Communication Problems and Delays: If the designated PO does not have authority, decision making slows down as it requires constant consultation with others, creating bottlenecks and frustration.

Suboptimal Decisions: Stakeholders or managers making the final decisions may not have a deep understanding of the product or the user, leading to incorrect priorities or ill-conceived functionality.

Lack of Responsibility (No One Owns): With shared ownership, a diffusion of responsibility can arise where no one truly feels ownership of the product as a whole.

This can lead to a lack of risk-taking or neglect of important aspects.

Quality Neglect and Technical Debt: When multiple POs compete for team resources to implement their functionality, long-term investments in product quality (technical debt, infrastructure) are often neglected, as no one takes overall responsibility for technical health.

Solution Strategies (Clarify Roles, 80/20 Rule, Epic Ownership)

To address these problems, several strategies can be applied:

Clarify and Empower the Single PO: The ideal solution is to have a single PO with the actual authority to make product decisions. This often requires conversations with management to redefine the role and ensure its empowerment, establishing that stakeholders propose, but the PO decides.

If Multiple POs are Inevitable:

• Define Clear Areas of Responsibility: assign specific domains or product areas to each PO to avoid overlap and conflict. Ensure that someone (ideally both) is explicitly responsible for technical quality.
• Clear Ownership of Epics (in Jira): Assigning ownership of Epics