In February 2001, the Agile Manifesto was born because building working software was a nightmare for many companies. Something had to change, and the manifesto addressed that very well. Although the Agile Manifesto is still relevant to building working software, our current challenge is another. Today, many companies can build working software, but they fail to deliver value. My philosophy is:

Building features cannot ensure value.

Being Agile is not enough to deliver value.

Until teams can focus on producing value, useless software is the outcome.

I believe it’s time to create a Product Manifesto! We cannot keep building features…

Why do companies hire highly qualified professionals? The answer should be straightforward, but what happens, in reality, is complex. I’ve observed many talented people trapped in the business world from doing what they are capable of. The reasons are endless, but some common ones are:

• Unskilled managers limit talents by telling them what to do.
• Complex processes and bureaucracy impede talents from doing what should be done.
• Obsession for certainty blocks talents from discovering what could work better for the company’s business.
• Unwillingness to embrace the unknown leads to sub-optimal incremental improvements.

I feel like many companies trap people instead…

It’s impossible to ignore how well known Scrum is. For years, Scrum was the first choice among Agile frameworks for most companies worldwide; only a few would challenge it. But recently, something changed, organizations are losing trust in Scrum. After failing to get meaningful results, many places are replacing Scrum with SAFe, Kanban, or other frameworks.

Beyond unsatisfied organizations, experienced professionals are reluctant to work with Scrum. Many people even feel embarrassed to be called as a Product Owner or a Scrum Master. The market is shifting in a new direction, will there still be space for Scrum?

Companies want…

One of the most daunting tasks of any Product Owner is to prioritize the Product Backlog. Although the activity is crystal clear: put on the top what is more relevant, prioritizing is often a hassle due to endless factors. Yet, I challenge if ordering the Product Backlog is complex or if we make it that way.

“Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Prioritization often keeps Product Owners up at night. One of the reasons is expectation management. …

Since I started writing about the challenges of being a Product Owner, many people asked me one of the following questions:

• How can I get a job as a Product Owner?
• How can I develop myself to attract recruiters?
• What does it take to thrive as a Product Owner?

Although all of these questions are important, I missed one question. Nobody asked me what a Product Owner really does. From my experience, being a Product Owner can be pretty stressful because this role entails high expectations and many accountabilities.

One thing is wearing the hat of a Product Owner; succeeding…

Over the last years, a common question annoyed me, “Which is the best agile framework?” While it’s great that companies want to do agile, they forget to be agile. No agile framework is a silver bullet. Companies won’t get any good results until they are willing to reinvent how they work.

All agile frameworks will suck if companies are unwilling to change their mindset.

Why do companies often fail with agile? That’s simple to answer; when agile becomes a process, it’s just a replacement for the old implemented process.

It’s impossible to excel with any agile framework without going through…

It’s astounding how many misinterpretations of the Product Owner role you can find. All companies I know have a particular interpretation of this role, which leads to a different set of expectations, and that is where many problems arise.

I’ve worked as a Product Owner in many different places, and I was almost always surprised with ‘weird’ expectations. Although I thought I knew what to do in this role, expectations between the company and me were often misaligned. What I realized is that many people often land in similar traps as I already did. …

When you get a job as a Product Owner, the only certainty you have is facing anti-patterns. I wish it could be different, but it’s not. We don’t live in a perfect world. It doesn’t matter the framework you work with; misconceptions are awaiting you. Your success depends on how prepared you are to overcome the daunting challenges on your way.

Although challenges can make you scared, don’t worry, you’re in luck because you don’t need to figure out everything on your own. Many experts in product management are generous; you can find their most valuable insights for free. On…