Product Owner Job Description

What is the job description of a Product Owner? What are the duties and responsibilities of a Product Owner? What does a Product Owner do?

Job description of a Product Owner

Product Owner is an IT professional responsible for setting, prioritizing, and evaluating the work generated by a software Scrum team in order to ensure impeccable features and functionality of the product.

This Product Owner job description example includes the list of most important Product Owner duties and responsibilities as shown below. It can be modified to fit the specific Product Owner profile you're trying to fill as a recruiter or job seeker.

Product Owner Duties and Responsibilities

Product Owner job description should contain a variety of functions and roles including:

  • Take the lead of scrum teams as the Product Owner
  • Providing vision and direction to the Agile development team and stakeholders throughout the project and create requirements 
  • Ensure that the team always has an adequate amount of prior prepared tasks to work on
  • Plan and prioritize product feature backlog and development for the product
  • Define product vision, road-map and growth opportunities 
  • Assess value, develop cases, and prioritize stories, epics and themes to ensure work focuses on those with maximum value that are aligned with product strategy
  • Provide an active role in mitigating impediments impacting successful team completion of Release/Sprint Goals
  • Research and analyze market, the users, and the roadmap for the product
  • Follow our competitors and the industry 
  • Keep abreast with Agile/Scrum best practices and new trends
  • Provide backlog management, iteration planning, and elaboration of the user stories
  • Work closely with Product Management to create and maintain a product backlog according to business value or ROI
  • Lead the planning product release plans and set the expectation for delivery of new   functionalities

Product Owner Requirements / Skills / Qualifications

Product Owner job description should include these common skills and qualifications:

  • MA in Computer Science, Engineering or similar relevant field
  • Previous working experience as a Product Owner for [X] year(s)
  • In-depth knowledge of Agile process and principles 
  • Sharp analytical and problem-solving skills
  • Creative thinker with a vision
  • Outstanding communication, presentation and leadership skills
  • Excellent organizational and time management skills
  • Attention to details

As a hiring manager, recruiting an ideal Product Owner starts with crafting a good job description. Use this Product Owner job description template to save yourself time and help you attract the most qualified candidates. Feel free to revise it to meet your specific needs.

Job seekers interviewing for the role of a Product Owner may also reference it in preparation for the interview.