Photo Credit: https://unsplash.com/@punttim
This week’s newsletter takes a look at what happens when you split the responsibilities of product management and product ownership, and two models of accomplishing that split.
I chose to describe two models this week (each model still gets its own post) because they are very similar, but they have a key difference – where the person filling the role of product owner sits in the organization. This single difference is important because it indicates which model may be more appropriate for a given situation and it has a significant impact on the relationship between product manager (or business leader) and product owner.
The other posts I share explore the argument for splitting product management/product ownership up (compared to the thoughts last week that argued for keeping those responsibilities together in the same person.) All of these different posts arguing one way or another basically comes down to the conclusion that there is no right answer, and at the end of the day, it depends.
Kent J. McDonald
KBP.Media
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Product Ownership Model 2: Product Manager and Product Owner
In this product ownership model, product responsibilities are split between two people both from the business area, a product manager and product owner.
Product Ownership Model 3: Product Manager and Business Analyst
This model is very similar to Model 2 except that the person filling the product owner role is a business analyst in the IT organization. In this model, the product responsibilities are split between the product manager and business analyst.
Product Manager and Product Owner, the Dynamic Duo
The take on the relationship between PM and PO in this article is that Product Owner is a new role, and that it supplements the Product Manager. It does not split the responsibilities of the Product manager.
The Product Manager vs Product Owner
This post describes the PM and PO as the same person as the ideal model, but not feasible once the product gets to a certain size. In addition, it gives some sample responsibilities for each to describe how to split the responsibilities up to make the relationship work.
How Agile Distinguishes between product managers and product owners
While agile doesn’t “say” or “distinguish” anything, those who use agile frameworks tend to follow certain patterns, especially if they are religious adherents to Scrum. This post suggests that both roles are helpful, again going along the strategic and external facing / tactical and internal facing demarcation line.
Product Manager or Product Owner – What’s the Difference?
This post points out the issues surrounding combining the Product Manager and Product Owner roles and suggest that trust and delegation can be a good way to create a situation where there is both a Product Manager and a stakeholder acting as a product owner.
Duties of Product Manager vs Product Owner Responsibilities
This is a related post to the one I shared in the previous newsletter about Model 2. In this case the same author as that post compares duties of Product managers with the duties of Product Owners, but also calls out that the person filling the Product Owner role may be a Business Analyst in IT.