What Does a Website Product Owner Do?

Product owners are an integral part of every scrum team. They work alongside the agile scrum teams and perform a set of responsibilities to transform the outcomes into what the team desires to achieve.  

So, what does a website product owner do? The website product owners manage the digital experiences across a number of channels and address customers' needs to create valuable results for a company. 

Digitalization is our future; still, many people don't know the responsibilities of a website product owner and confuse them with a product manager. From providing product visions to ensuring a consistent online user experience, a product owner has got a lot on their plate. 

Let's get better insights into the job responsibilities of a website product owner. 

What Is a Website Product Owner?  

The website or digital product owner is the person who looks after every digital aspect of your company to improve the website'ss overall experience and design. They work with a product development team and manage the product backlog to help it achieve the desired goal.  

Their main goal is to streamline the internal digital processes of a company, optimize the required tools, and ensure that users have an enhanced experience when they visit their website. The primary purpose is to transform the customers' needs into a product. 

Simply, a product owner is a person who knows everything about a product. This includes knowing: 

• Future of the product 

• Effectiveness of the product 

• Direction of the product 

• Possible results 

• Techniques to motivate the team to believe in the product's success. 

Because of their thorough product knowledge, product owners serve as a connector between the stakeholders and the developers to coordinate the abilities of a development team. 

Product Owner Roles and Responsibilities 

The key roles and responsibilities of product owners vary according to the company's environment. However, these are the basic digital product owners roles and responsibilities: 

Product Vision 

The product owner provides the blueprint for a product. They know what the product is and how it can benefit the customers. Product owners develop this vision based on two important instruments: Product Roadmap and Product Pipeline. 

The product roadmap is basically the plan that highlights the business' objectives and goals, along with the technologies required to achieve them. On the other hand, the product pipeline is the list of products developed and sold by a company in different Scrum production stages.  

As a result, the resulting product vision stays in line with the customers' needs and the companies' success. 

Product Backlog 

The product owner manages the backlog that a product development team desires to accomplish. They identify and explain problematic product backlog items to help the product development team understand and find solutions for them.  

Throughout the entire process, the product owner answers the question: "What adds more value to the company with less effort?" 

User Stories 

Website product owners identify and share customer insights with product managers to develop a strategy that addresses the user's concern and boosts your business goals.  

They dig deeper into the users' behaviours and perception about a product or your company and then write documents to developers regarding: 

• The customers' needs about a new feature  

• The expectations for the feature 

The product owner usually uses different screenshots, usage examples, and mockups to explain things the simplest way. 

Sprint and Release Planning 

"Sprint and Release" is a major concern for the product development team. The product owners decide the features that must be performed in the upcoming development cycle (sprint) and which can be done later.  

They also ensure that the features stay fully functional in the product's latest stable version (release). 

Collaboration With the Product Development Team  

The product owners participate in work meetings with developers (scrum meetings), discussions of new customer stories for the sprint and release planning, and follow-up meetings that identify what went good and wrong. 

Apart from that, they also connect developers and stakeholders throughout the entire product development process. 

The Difference Between a Product Owner and Product Manager 

In almost all SaaS companies, the product owner and product manager work together to develop and improve products. Moreover, they both collaborate with company stakeholders to introduce new features.  

However, there are several differences between product owners and product managers. 

Connection With the Product 

The product owner maximizes the outcomes of a product development team by keeping one goal in their mind - translating the customers' needs into a product vision.  

On the other hand, product managers work closely with design teams and ensure that the expectations of the product owners are met.  

Main Focus 

The primary focus of the product owners is on the product. They provide vision and direction for a product, identify common roadblocks, list down backlog items, and prioritize them based on the product development team's objectives. 

Product managers focus on the people designing and building the vision into a product. They explain to the team members what the project is, what they want to achieve, and when they must finish it.  

The product manager closely works with these members to overcome any unexpected problems arising in product development. 

Key Responsibilities  

The responsibilities of a product owner don't end with the product's visions. Instead, they also have to ensure the quality of the product is according to the original idea.  

Once they become satisfied, the product is approved to enter the market.  

Product managers, on the other hand, manage the logistics of the product strategy and facilitate the development process. They assign responsibilities to the team members, define the steps involved, and determine the deadline for the project.  

Interaction with Different Stakeholders 

Product owners serve as a bridge between a company's stakeholders and the product development teams. They ensure that the product idea gets approved by both ends.  

Product managers work with more internal entities than product owners. For example, they facilitate the engineering teams in writing code for the new product or feature. They also help them meet deadlines.  

Additionally, product managers also work with user experience teams to enhance customer interaction with the company's website. They also closely collaborate with marketing and sales teams to best position the product in the market. 

How to Get Started as a Product Owner? 

Fortunately, several product owner courses help you get certified in the field. Keep in mind to watch out for the widely-recognized courses so that you can start your career as soon as possible. 

Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) Course  

Owned by Scrum Alliance, the CSPO course is the most recognized in the industry at the moment. According to Indeed, 39% of 513 job seekers said that the CSPO course helped them earn more money.  

The best part is that you can also get a membership in Scrum Alliance with this course. As a member of the Scrum Alliance community, you will have access to every career-related help you need.  

For instance, enrolling in a more advanced course, needing a product owner improvement tool, and requiring access to experts and "how-to" tutorials. As an active Certified Scrum Product Owner, you will have easy access to all such things.  

All in all, the Scrum Alliance CSPO course not only assists you in kickstarting your career but also helps you succeed in getting a job done.  

The SAFe Product Owner and SAFe Product Manager (POPM)  

The SAFe course, developed by Scaled Agile, Inc, covers the tactical responsibilities of product owners and product managers.  

This course will help you learn how to adopt a customer-centric approach and become a good product owner. Moreover, it will also guide you about the product development skills required to become a product manager.  

By the end of this course, you will know how to work effectively in different environments with distributed teams. 

The Takeaway site

Product owners and product managers work closely with each other to maximize the outcome of the product development team.  

While product owners focus on translating *the customers' needs into a blueprint, the product managers target the people working in the team to transform it into a product. 

The website product owners ensure that your company provides a consistent and smooth experience to all the users visiting your website.