1. No ownership
Without ownership, the Product Owner can’t succeed in their job.
The Product Owner should be able to change direction and update the Product Backlog to optimize the chances to meet the Product Goal.
2. Saying ‘Yes’ to everything
This is a bad thing because the Product Owner should maximize the value of the product. People with power aren’t always right. Especially when the environment is complex with many unknowns.
3. Aiming to hit the velocity target
Don’t aim to fill the Sprint Backlog with as many items as you can to hit the velocity target. Teams should have room to breathe and think if they are still moving in the right direction, toward their Sprint Goal.
By striving for high utilization, you miss out to deliver results.
4. Detailed planning, no room for learning
A Product Owner can suggest a plan of approach during the Sprint Planning. But in complex environments, this has to be highly adaptable. It doesn’t make sense to create detailed plans that could be altered a day later when you learn something new.
5. Tell the team how to do their work
In complex environments, you can’t say upfront what is the best way to achieve the Sprint Goal. The Developers are responsible for how they will do the work to achieve their Sprint Goal. It is their accountability to uncover and implement the best possible solutions.
6. Focus on output instead of value
The failure to verify the outcome is catastrophic in complex environments, where assumptions are dangerous. It is mindblowing to see how many Product Owners work this way, helping to create a feature factory.
“Delivering features doesn’t mean you are delivering value, just like telling a joke doesn’t mean people will laugh.” —
7. Ask the team to bypass the Definition of Done
This is another anti-pattern that has its roots in misunderstanding what Scrum is about. In this case, it is the misconception that teams commit to delivering within a Sprint.
This practice shows a failure to understand that the Increment and Definition of Done serve empiricism. They help the team and stakeholders understand if assumptions were correct and serve to get new insights.
Sure, a team commits to meeting its Sprint Goal. But they may occasionally miss this goal. As long as this doesn’t happen every Sprint and as long as the team moves towards the Product Goal this should be ok. A team should feel safe to set Big Hairy Audacious Goals.
8. Neglecting the Sprint Review / Ignoring stakeholder feedback
Many Product Owners neglect the value of Sprint Reviews and stakeholder feedback. They view the Sprint Review as a demo or presentation to explain to stakeholders what the team achieved in the last Sprint. The stakeholders don’t get the opportunity to provide feedback. This makes the event a lost opportunity to learn, inspect and adapt.
9. Forgetting the big picture
Another misstep I have encountered is the failure to have a bigger picture in mind. These Product Owners only look one Sprint ahead. Whatever happens after that is up for grasp. Often I hear arguments like:
“We are working agile so we don’t plan beyond a Sprint.”
But you can only adapt and respond to change if there’s a direction, to begin with. And this is the direction toward the mutual goal, the Product Goal.
10. Managing a team backlog
Many Product Owners don't own a product at all. They own a team’s backlog. Multiple Product Owners are in this situation. Their task is to ensure their teams work on the highest priority items as cogs in a wheel.
Product Owners that have to work a team backlog are in fact Team Backlog Owners, not Product Owners.
Conclusion
The Product Owner is crucial to the success of the Scrum Team(s). She or he watches over the maximization of the value of the product. This is why a Scrum Team exists in the first place.
Product Owners should guide their team(s) and stakeholders on the journey of value creation. They should focus on the outcomes and goals. They should embrace learning.
They should focus on the WHAT and let the Developers focus on the HOW. They should avoid long-term planning and micro-managing. They should let creativity flourish.