
Ask HN: What does it mean to be a product owner? - jeanlucas
More than the obvious wikipedia definition, what really is a product owner? What skills should one work on to be a successful product owner?
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this2shallPass
Varies, but generally a product owner is focused on taking the strategy and
translating it down into actionable tasks. They work across teams and roles to
make sure the team is executing properly. It tends to be more tactical than
strategic. They don't have to know how to sell or market products well, or how
to get those products into the market successfully. On paper (a narrower scrum
view) they are responsible from sprint planning, to daily stand ups, to
review, to retrospective. Not the larger backlog prior to sprint planning, and
not what happens after some software is accepted as done / to be shipped.

Some links: [https://www.productplan.com/product-manager-vs-product-
owner...](https://www.productplan.com/product-manager-vs-product-owner/)
[https://blog.aha.io/the-product-manager-vs-product-
owner/](https://blog.aha.io/the-product-manager-vs-product-owner/)
[https://blog.aha.io/product-manager-vs-product-owner-vs-
proj...](https://blog.aha.io/product-manager-vs-product-owner-vs-project-
manager/) [https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-
owner/](https://www.productplan.com/glossary/product-owner/)
[https://blog.aha.io/the-product-vs-project-vs-program-
manage...](https://blog.aha.io/the-product-vs-project-vs-program-manager-role-
confusion/)
[https://www.mironov.com/?s=product+owner](https://www.mironov.com/?s=product+owner)

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xadam
Google in their interviews for product owners are testing for such skills: \-
creativity (ability to looks from different angle) \- estimation (possibility
to estimate something with minimal information, e.g. "how many gas stations
there are in Germany?") \- communication (ability clearly articulate what's in
your brain and set bigger tasks in smaller pieces) \- knowledge on subject
(technical skills in Google's case, they have one coding session with product
owners during their interview)

