The Product Owner role

The Product Owner ensures the team builds what customers need while meeting business goals.

Core responsibilities of the Product Owner:

• Prioritizing the backlog based on value
• Representing customer needs to the team
• Making final feature decisions
• Clarifying requirements

Product Owners create clear user stories that developers can implement and remain available to answer questions that keep development moving forward. Unlike traditional product roles, they stay engaged throughout development — attending sprint ceremonies, reviewing work, and adjusting priorities as market conditions change.

Effective Product Owners balance delivering immediate value with long-term strategy. They focus on outcomes rather than specific features and use data to support decisions, requiring strong communication with both technical and business stakeholders.

Note the difference: while a product manager defines the product vision and strategy, a product owner focuses more on translating that vision into actionable tasks for the development team. However, in many organizations, the product owner role is often part of the product manager's responsibilities.