Should the Product Owner role be performed by a Product Manager? According to Paweł Huryn yes. However, there is no one size fits all in software organizations. Oftentimes an engineering leader fills in the Product Owner role and I've seen that working great. Each organization is different and there is no one framework that will work for a tiny startup, huge enterprise, in-person teams, offshore teams, dev agencies etc. As organizations grow, the definition of each role becomes narrower and things that one person did in a small organization requires a whole team because it is too much scope for a single person. The key is to ensure that no matter what the scope of a given job is, the person performing it has all the context they need to own their part, collaborate well with others on the team, and be empowered to make good decisions within their scope. Whoever performs the Product Owner role should have the business and the technical context and whether this is a technical PM or business oriented engineer depends on the organization itself. Who performs the Product Owner role in your organization?
Actionable Insights and Resources for PMs | The Product Compass Newsletter | Join 90K+ PMs
In 2025, we need to end this madness. Product Owner is not a job title. When you split the roles: - Product Manager talks to the business and customers. - Product Owner (“backlog administrator”) works with developers and documents “the requirements.” I consider this one of the worst anti-patterns in Product Management. A typical argument is that combining two roles is "too much work for a single person." That might happen if you spend days attending useless meetings or writing detailed instructions. But if you empower others, prioritize work, and focus on value without BS, things go smoothly. I agree with Marty Cagan, who wrote that to succeed as a Product Manager, you need: - Direct access to users and customers - Direct access to business stakeholders - Direct access to engineers and designer Without proxies. Product Owner included. The only valid setup is that the Product Manager and Product Owner are the same person with the end-to-end responsibility. In particular, it’s essential that the Product Manager, Product Designer, and at least one Engineer perform Product Discovery together. Finally, if you work in Scrum, as PSPO III, I’d like to emphasize that Product Owner is just accountability, and Product Manager is a job title. The Product Owner’s accountability is best fulfilled by an experienced Product Manager. Do you agree? Disagree? Let me know in the comments. - Enjoy this? ♻️ Repost to help PMs avoid this anti-pattern. Want a hi-res PDF of this picture? 📌 Download 30+ high-res PM infographics, like this one, by subscribing here: https://lnkd.in/d5bHGj5j
