Succeeding as a Product Owner

Defining Coherent Products

Great Product Owners understand the stakeholder landscape and help teams and stakeholders identify the outcomes that provide the greatest return for the company, product, or project vision.

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Great Product Owners master these skills

You’ll learn them all in Defining Coherent Products and why they’re important. You can also review your core skills or develop your product backlog skills in our other programs.

Set a vision

To help the team know what’s most important as they build out a product backlog and ensure that everyone is going in the right direction.

Identify stakeholders

To identify different classes and types of stakeholders to ensure you get the right input for your efforts.

Quantify goals

To ensure you are building the right things for the right people and to prevent misaligned efforts.

Use landing zones

To express and quantify success attributes so that your team knows what success means.

Use UX proof points

To consider the end-to-end lifecycle of your system so that you don’t miss critical requirements for learning about, buying, installing, and retiring your solution.

Create user scenarios

To give everyone a better understanding of how your customers and users will interact with your product and clarify what is most important.

See a sample schedule.

Topics at a glance

Before your program starts

Find your Product Owner strengths/weaknesses
Meet with your mentor and review

Starting with a vision

What are we building and why?
Survey of visioning techniques
Mastering visioning techniques

Understanding the stakeholder landscape

Techniques for finding stakeholders
10 specific approaches for writing good user stories
A cradle-to-grave perspective
Identifying and characterizing stakeholders

Quantifying value

Value-based decision making
Describing measurable goals
Using Landing Zones to define success

Exploring stakeholder needs

Exploring stakeholder needs with task analysis and scenarios
Using “The 5 Whys” to understand stakeholder problems
How to use UX proof points

Sample Learning Program

Expand each section below using the toggles to see all the details. This is one possible shape this Learning Program can take. For private offerings, we’ll work with you to customize the program for your learners’ needs.

Prework

Getting to know you

Getting to know you is how our program adapts to your needs. Here’s what to expect at the start:

Details

You’ll complete a Product Ownership assessment to help us and you learn where your PO strengths are and where there’s room for improvement.
You’ll meet with your mentor and fellow members of your cohort to review the assessment and to identify targeted areas for learning.

Weeks 1-4

Core skills development & mentoring

In two hours of interactive learning plus mentoring each week, you’ll learn the advanced, big-picture skills that make a Product Owner great.

See all the topics covered

Week 1: Starting with a vision

Skills development

What are we building and why?
Survey of visioning techniques
Mastering visioning techniques

Mentoring

Your mentor will share expertise on (and answer your questions about) establishing or refining a vision. As a reminder: throughout your Learning Program, mentoring will be shaped in response to your needs, skills, and requests.

Assigned work

Read Construx’s “Vision” practice paper.
Create or refine the existing vision for your project, program, upcoming PI, or similar and send to your Construx mentor for review.

Week 2: Understanding the stakeholder landscape

Skills development

Techniques for finding stakeholders
Ten specific approaches for writing good user stories
A cradle-to-grave perspective
Identifying and characterizing stakeholders

Mentoring

You’ll work with your mentor on identifying and characterizing the stakeholder landscape.

Assigned work

Create or refine the existing stakeholder list, map, or similar and send to your Construx mentor for review.

Week 3: Quantifying value

Skills development

Value-based decision making
Describing measurable goals
Using Landing Zones to define success

Mentoring

You’ll work with your mentor on quantifying value by using target ranges and landing zones.

Assigned work

Read Construx’s “Landing Zones” white paper.
Quantify at least one stakeholder value, and send to your Construx mentor for review.

Week 4: Exploring stakeholder needs

Skills development

Exploring stakeholder needs with task analysis and scenarios
Using “The 5 Whys” to understand stakeholder problems
How to use UX proof points

Mentoring

Your mentor will provide guidance on how to understand users’ needs in a variety of ways.

Assigned work

Use one technique on existing Features/Epics to expand their description, and send to your Construx mentor for review.

Weeks 5-12

Continued mentoring

You’ll apply your new skills independently and meet with your mentor every other week to work through your real-world challenges and keep improving. Throughout this time, you’ll be sharing artifacts with your mentor.

Details

Week 5: Apply what you’ve learned

Use the skills you learned in Weeks 1–4. For your Week 6 mentoring session, keep a list of questions you’d like to ask and send your mentor a set of artifacts/deliverables/work items.

Common artifacts to send to Construx for review during this Learning Program include

Epics/Features and their associated user stories
Story maps
Impact maps
Epics/Features or Goals with target ranges

Week 6: Application mentoring

Mentoring session to discuss your questions and the artifacts/deliverables/work items you shared in Week 5.

Week 7: Apply what you’ve learned

Continue to use the skills you learned in Weeks 1–6. For your Week 8 mentoring session, keep a list of questions you’d like to ask and send your mentor a set of artifacts/deliverables/work items.

Week 8: Application mentoring

Mentoring session to discuss your questions and the artifacts/deliverables/work items you shared in Week 7.

Week 9: Apply what you’ve learned

Continue to use the skills you learned in Weeks 1–8. For your Week 10 mentoring session, keep a list of questions you’d like to ask and send your mentor a set of artifacts/deliverables/work items.

You’ll also retake the Learning Program’s assessment to determine how your skill set has grown.

Week 10: Application mentoring

Mentoring session to discuss your artifacts/deliverables/work items you shared in Week 9, and the new results of your assessment.

Week 11: Apply what you’ve learned

During this week, prepare your final set of questions for your mentor and choose any working materials you’d like feedback on in Week 12.

Week 12: Application mentoring

This is your final mentoring session. Your mentor can help with any remaining questions or concerns you have and can give you feedback on any working materials you shared in Week 11.

Ongoing

Reach out when you need to

We’re here to help. You don’t need to wait until a scheduled mentoring session to ask a question—reach out at any time!

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Why are our Learning Programs so effective?

We interviewed more than 400 software leaders around the world and what did they request?

Customized, minimally disruptive virtual sessions that focus on real-world results through a balanced mix of coursework, self-study, and expert mentoring.

Always customized

Built to address the specific areas where your team needs to improve.

Immediate application

Focused on real-world skills you can apply directly to your work.

Personal mentoring

Active mentoring helps you apply your new skills to your actual challenges.

Easy virtual access

More active learning with easier logistics—no sitting in a classroom all day!

Incremental learning

Sessions are short and spread out so that they don’t eat your schedule and break your flow.

Free bonus content

Your Learning Program comes with full access to our library of online courses.

Grow and thrive as a Product Owner

Product Owner Foundations

Gain the skills you need to be a great Product Owner–whether you’re considering the role, you’re new to the role, or you just need a refresher.

Learn more »

Optimizing Your Product Backlog

Learn to use impact mapping, story mapping, and prioritization techniques to ensure that your user stories deliver optimum value, and understand how to quantify success and share that with the team.

Learn more »

Defining Coherent Products

Great Product Owners understand the stakeholder landscape and help teams and stakeholders identify the outcomes that provide the greatest return for the company, product, or project vision.

Learn more »

Ready to give yourself or your team state-of-the-art learning?

Get in touch, and we’ll get right back to you!