Antti Horelli: Balancing Product Owner Responsibilities with Team Empowerment

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The Great Product Owner: Sharing Responsibility with the Team

The great Product Owner excels by being present and actively sharing knowledge with the team. While the PO role can be overwhelming due to its responsibility to abstract complexity from the team, the best POs find ways to share responsibilities appropriately. They understand that their role goes beyond making decisions and includes enabling the team to participate in the product discovery process.

The Bad Product Owner: The Absent Decision Maker

In this anti-pattern, the Product Owner was only available for planning and sprint reviews due to other commitments. This limited availability severely impacted the team's ability to make progress, especially given the complex nature of software development where requirements are discovered rather than pre-defined. The absence of business knowledge during development led to delays and misunderstandings, highlighting how critical continuous PO involvement is for team success.

For tips on how to help PO’s be more present, check out our Sprint PO Checklist which includes tips on how to lead that conversation and a clear set of questions to go through together with your PO. 

Self-reflection Question: How can you help ensure more presence and better collaboration between the Product Owner and the development team?

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About Antti Horelli 

Antti is an experienced Agile Coach from Finland, dedicated to empowering teams. With a systems-oriented, empathetic approach, he fosters collaboration and effective communication. With decades in IT, Antti transitioned from technical roles to methodology, where he passionately helps people and teams reach their full potential.

You can link with Antti Horelli on LinkedIn.