What is Product Owner by Proxy? I’m sure many of us have been there. You’re in a Sprint Planning meeting. Everything is humming along. Then, the team hits a snag. A developer asks a question regarding requirements, and the Product Owner spouts something to the effect of, “Well, I’m not quite sure what Jim (the Product Manager, Executive, or other authority-laden title) meant by that requirement. I don’t want to do anything that goes against his or her wishes. So, let’s put that one on hold until next Sprint. That will give me time to get an answer.”
If the above situation sounds familiar, you are the victim of Product Owner by Proxy (POP). POP is a situation that can occur when someone, or multiple people, at your organization don’t fully trust the Product Owner to make decisions. The result is the Product Owner is simply a stand-in for the actual Product Owner. POP is the sham child of another anti-pattern: The Absent Product Owner. In reality, the differences are mostly semantic. The reality is, in either situation, the true subject matter expert is absent.
This is a major failing in the system.
A Collection of Costs Due to Product Owner by Proxy
This error does not come without costs, either. I hesitate to call them hidden costs, as the title of this post so clearly labels them. To me, the costs are obvious. However, for clarity’s sake, costs come in the form of lost:
- Time
- Motivation & Morale
- Customers
- Opportunity for Empowerment & Self Management of the Team
Lost Time
Lost time rears its ugly head in many ways. First, there is the obvious lost time when it comes to getting answers. The moment words similar to “We will hold off on putting this into the Sprint, until we clarify the requirements” slide out of anyone’s mouth, precious time is pouring down the proverbial drain. Precious functionality is pushed off a Sprint at a time. Second, if the feature or fix happens to somehow drop into the Sprint without clarity (a separate issue relating to the lack of shared understanding being achieved), developers will waste needless time trying to find answers to questions during the Sprint, when the “clickity clack” of keyboards should be the norm.
Lost Motivation & Morale
These issues of lost time result in lost motivation & morale of the entire team, as well as stakeholders. The Product Owner will feel their hands are tied. They will sense the lack of trust and respect from everyone involved, including from their team members who will fail to see them as the actual authority on the product. The developers will feel like they are walking through quick sand, biting and clawing to get the semblance of a shared understanding. The stakeholder who is really playing the part of the Product Owner, but is not present, will feel as though the team is not working fast enough, because the decision loop is far too long. Finally, the Scrum Master will bang their head against the wall trying to fix the gap in communication, often without having the authority to change the situation.
Lost Customers
The lack of vision, clarity, and speed will inevitably end up in delayed features and long-standing bugs. The only thing that can follow this situation is the lack of trust in your product by those who matter most: the customers. Even from the outside looking in, the lack of organization will be apparent.
Lost Opportunity For Empowerment
Finally, those who believe they are enabling their teams to be self-managing, while doing nothing to improve the craziness that ensues due to POP, continue to fool themselves.
The Solution to Product Owner By Proxy
Far be it from me to present such an issue without an accompanying solution. I don’t claim to have all of the answers. However, below are some of the solutions you can work toward. As with everything, we may not be able to achieve a workable solution immediately. However, serious progress should be made in the way only iterative improvement can be made, a small step at a time. Here are the solutions I propose:
- Train the Product Owner up to be the true Subject Matter Expert (SME).
- Move the actual SME into the Product Owner role.
- Involve the actual SME in as many Scrum Events as possible.
Train the Product Owner
Training the Product Owner to be the true SME is, in my opinion, the superior option of the three. This process may take some time, and communication with the team as this occurs is vital. However, this leveling up process should largely be completed within the space of three to six months. The Product Owner should be THEE expert. Until this is the case, there will be a gap that will be filled by less-than-adequate anti-patterns.
Move the Subject Matter Expert
If the current Product Owner is not able to achieve mastery of the product, a signal more a function of the organizations hiring practices than the Product Owner’s lack in skill, the next best option is to place the SME into the role of Product Owner. They need to be a fully functioning, fully participating member of the team.
Involve the Subject Matter Expert
The third option to involve the SME in as many Scrum Events as possible is not really a great solution. It is for all of those out there who will analyze the situation and, due to lack of belief, fail to adopt one of the first two solutions. It is not the worst of the best solutions, it isn’t a solution at all. Still, there will be many who feel they can’t achieve true Product Ownership. This is for you. I realize this may be a very strong position. However, I have seen it attempted, and have seen it fail. My recommendation is to avoid it at all costs.
One Final Clarification
I do not mean to say that it is NEVER a good idea to wait to put something into a Sprint. There can be many reasons for this. If there is a general lack of shared understanding it is, in fact, best not to toss a half-baked situation to the developers. My example situation is just that, an example.
Conclusion
If you find yourself in the throws of a Product Owner by Proxy situation, my heart goes out to you. I hope my suggestions have been a help in framing the issues and solutions in your mind and perhaps a tool to convince others who may not see the dire effect of such a system.
What other costs and solutions have you seen?
Further Reading:
https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/what-proxy-product-owner-why-it-found-so-often
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