🌶️Post: Top Traits of a Winner Product Owner

Well hello there aspiring product owner, let me guess... you are given a responsibility to maximize the value of a product but somehow you feel that you need to first understand what your new 'product owner' job role really is! If this is your case, cool. This 🌶️ is for you.

1. Strong Panorama of why the product is built in the first place

You got to foster a strong panorama as to how your product fits with other products from the company. That is, if you are assigned a product line from a large company such as Apple, Google or any other S&P 500 companies. These type of companies have so many product roll-outs, some fail and some flourish handsomely. Hence, knowing WHY is your product is proposed and/or approved for deployment is a vital question to entertain. Now that's a million dollar vision, Baby!

In a startup environment, however, a product owner could be the CEO, CTO, or a one-person business. They oversee the whole product lifecycle and this product may be the ONLY product to be delivered in the first 5 year span of the business.

If that is the case, the whole company revolves around YOU and your kinship in either flourishing the company or...flunkin' it marvelously. The person that comes in mind with such a mindset is Elon Musk. He owns the product...its vision, its position in the market and has a relentless drive to maximize its VALUE. If you want to see this in live-action, head over to Twitter right now. 🌶️

2. Deep knowledge of how viable, feasible, and desire is the said product

How deep the rabbit hole of your product are you...really? As a product owner, you are the business-facing person...no way around this. You are expected to deeply understand the product's technicalities & features, the market it serves, and the obstacles it is facing. You are responsible of making sure that the product development is in pristine condition! You are the center of your product's universe, embrace the heat! 🌶️

3. In-tune with customers' needs and expectations

Did you know that the best salespeople are the ones who master the market and customer knowledge x product, services and solution knowledge combo? Product owners are fundamentally a sales representative of the product amongst the developer team, the stakeholders, and the customers. Being in-tune to the customer's expectations and needs are a vital trait in ensuring that your product line survives then thrives in the long-run. It may sound cliche but sometimes firms, especially in the tech field, forget that Customer is always KING 👑. Their needs must be met first and foremost before any rowdy new research & development expenditure. Hope you got the hint here....uhm...meta metaverse.

4. Versatile communication adhering to different type of audiences

Fine-tuning how you communicate with different folks you are dealing with is cornerstone to your success as a product owner. Your lingo with customers, developer team, stakeholders, open audience in a trade fair are definitely not created equal. Let me not remind you the (multi)cultural aspect as well!

Back in the day, I use to struggle with this a lot. Coming from hardcore academia, I sounded like I was speaking jibberish most of the time. I failed to convey the message to key stakeholders, potential clients and newbie students in my field of expertise. I had to step back, re-examine my style of communicating and adapt accordingly. Now, if the space permits I would like to speak emojis for fun's sake! 😊🌶️

5. Decision-making prowess

Lead the ship, please! Confirmed by authorities, undecisiveness in a business venture is the number #1 killer of all time! Eradicate this nasty habit, and make well-informed decisions for the progress and bloom of your product. You know the product best, consulting your colleagues is advisable but should not be the only deciding factor. "Be firm in your vision yet adaptable in your methods." Jeff Bezos, thank you for saying that. That is the best reminder for our fellow product owners out there.

You got this, braveheart!

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'🌶️ Post' is a blog post series whereby knowledge is transmuted with memes and puns to spice up the learning process.... Sugar, spice and everything nice!

@itskatusop

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