What is the Product Owner Career Path?
Do you want to grow as a product owner and take on new roles and responsibilities? There are several opportunities for you to pursue your dream career. The product owner’s career path consists of several jobs and roles that help you reach your destination.
If you are just starting and planning to grow yourself as a product development team owner, this detailed article will guide you in the right direction. You’ll learn the best roles and job titles that you can pursue in the product management cluster.
If you’re interested in learning more via video, then watch below. Otherwise, skip ahead.
Let’s get started.
Understanding the Product Owner Role
The product owner (PO) role might be confusing.
If you look at just a few examples of product owner open positions on LinkedIn, Glassdoor, and Indeed, you’ll notice a lot of differences in requirements, experience, skills, qualifications, and responsibilities.
Joshua Partogi explains in this video that a product owner is a role and not a job title. This means the role can be assigned to anyone who has the highest authority on the product and this could be the head of product, product manager, project manager, vice president of product, chief of product, and others.
So, whoever is at the highest level and owns the product (irrespective of job title), is a product owner. This makes PO the highest-level role in the company and the product management career path.
A PO is responsible for maximizing product value, he/she owns the product and is accountable for the final product, and everything related to it. He/she is responsible for completing the product and the role includes several tasks including:
- Product vision and defines product goals
- Backlog management and prioritization
- Communication and collaboration with key stakeholders
- Ensuring product backlog items are transparent and visible
- Communicating product backlog items to the scrum development team.
With these key responsibilities in mind, let’s explore the product owner career path.
What does a Product Owner’s Career Path Look Like?
Once you become a scrum product owner, you are in a decision-making position. You own a product at its full capacity so the career path ahead has more responsibilities and accountabilities.
Here is an overview of the career paths for product owners:
1. Senior Product Owner
Once you become a product owner, the most obvious career path is to become a senior product owner. Now, a senior PO isn’t a Scrum role so you’ll not find it in all types of organizations. Most large companies that work on large products and projects and usually split a product into different components and features create this role.
For example, a large company that’s working on a large product might split up the product into smaller manageable product parts. Each product component and/or feature has its scrum team and PO. This is how multiple scrum teams work on product features in a single large product.
In such a case, senior product owners manage all the product owners working on a single product. The senior PO will own the whole product and will be responsible for it.
Similarly, a senior PO role is needed when a company is working on multiple distinct products. There is a question in Scrum at Scale assessment related to such an instance:
Question: A multinational company, that has five major products, is using Scrum for product development. Which statements are the two best alternatives for how many Product Owners exist? (Choose 2.)
- As many as are needed to communicate expectations and requirements with Development Teams.
- One specific Product Owner is responsible for all five products. This Product Owner may delegate to others for specific value, capabilities, and functionality within each product.
- One and only one. The Product Owner may not delegate to others for specific value, capabilities, and functionality.
- One specific Product Owner is responsible for each product. This Product Owner may delegate to others for specific value, capabilities, and functionality within the product.
The correct answers are B and D, and this shows that a single PO can manage multiple products or a single PO can manage all the products and can delegate value and functionalities.
While a senior product owner might not have a role in small companies, large companies often have this role that is superior to PO.
If you’re interested in learning the skills to excel in a product owner role, then check out our product owner certification course.
2. Scrum Master
A scrum master is an advanced role that a PO can pursue. It is a defined role in the Scrum framework so it isn’t hard to find scrum master jobs. A scrum master has three main responsibilities:
- Scrum team management
- Working with the PO as an advisor and coach
- Managing organizational tasks such as stakeholder education and guidance.
According to the Scrum Guides, the scrum master is accountable for the scrum team’s effectiveness which is done through customer feedback and by helping the scrum team improve its practices. One of the key responsibilities of a scrum master is to help the product owner in finding techniques for product backlog management.
Ideally, a scrum master must have experience working as a product owner. You can’t become a scrum master if you have never worked as a PO. Why?
Because you must understand the PO’s role both theoretically and practically to advise and recommend a PO.
After spending a few good years as a PO, your best bet is to switch to a scrum master role where you’ll be in a position to assist, guide, and mentor a PO. Besides, you’ll be interacting with the key stakeholders at the strategic level which includes leading, planning, advising, and doing training programs at the organizational level.
3. Portfolio Owner
A portfolio owner or product portfolio manager is someone who owns and manages a group of related products. This is a role that you’ll often find with large organizations that work on multiple products, components, features, and platforms.
For example, Microsoft Office is a product portfolio that consists of Office products e.g. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and others. Each Office product has its product owner and then there is a portfolio owner who owns the full Office and is responsible for maximizing the value of the portfolio.
It is a natural transition from a product owner. After working as a product owner with multiple products in the same or different company, you’ll be in a nice position to manage marketing teams, a portfolio, and multiple product owners.
The typical tasks of a product portfolio development process manager include:
- Managing the portfolio
- Collaborating with product owners
- Maximizing the value of the portfolio
- Managing product strategies and product goals
- Collaborating with stakeholders
- Ensuring product portfolio aligns with market trends and user needs
Managing a portfolio is a challenging role since you have to deal with product owners as well as agile teams of all the products. You’ll be dealing with a group of products and it requires both technical and interpersonal skills.
4. Product Manager
Despite all the debate and differences between product managers vs. product owners, one thing is clear: The product manager has a higher title/role than a product owner.
A product manager is someone who drives and manages the long-term strategy of the product(s) and isn’t just focused on value maximization. The position is more strategic thinking and holistic. A product manager is responsible for:
- Customer development
- Product development and project management
- Marketing
- Product vision and strategy
- Marketing and sales
- Product roadmap
- Pricing, competitor analysis, and conducting market research
However, a product manager isn’t a scrum role so technically, he/she has to be someone to whom a scrum master and product owner report. Scrum is just one portion of the gigantic product management responsibilities and tasks.
The product manager role is more of a management role as compared to the technical PO role. You’ll be responsible for product development, marketing, vision, and strategic vision and objectives.
5. Product Director
A product director or director of product management is the role that manages and overlooks product managers in a company. In small organizations, you can become a product director right after the product owner or senior product owner. However, in larger organizations, you’ll have to become a product manager first and then a product director.
A product director is a senior management position that strategically manages all the products developed by the organization. Product managers report to the product director who then reports to the head of the product.
Here is a list of key tasks that a product director has to perform:
- Long-term product planning and strategy formulation
- Collaborate with seniors and subordinates
- Consulting and collaborating with stakeholders
- Product vision and proposal development and execution
- Product line lifecycle
- Marketing and consumer strategy
There will be only a single product director in an organization who oversees all the products. Since it is a leadership role, therefore, most of the time is spent on leading, planning, and controlling.
6. Head of Product
The head of product vice president of product or chief product officer is a higher management corporate role that is responsible for all the products in the organization. Depending on the size of the organization and the number of products that it owns, an organization can use different titles such as head of product, VP product, chief product officer, or a similar title.
It is the highest management level in an organization that a PO can aim for.
For small organizations, product managers or product owners directly report to the VP of product.
In large organizations that have product directors who report to the head of product.
In a fairly large organization that has multiple products, portfolios, and heads (e.g. Microsoft), a chief product officer overlooks everything in the product department and sits at the top position in the department.
So, if you are in a small organization, you’ll be managing and dealing with a few product managers directly. If you are in a large organization, you’ll be managing multiple product lines and directors who will be managing product managers.
As a chief product officer, you’ll be responsible for:
- Managing all the products
- Setting overall product strategic goals
- Product strategy, resource allocation, and recruitment
- Managing product owners, product managers, and product directors
- Mentoring and coaching
- Ensuring that overall product goals are met
7. Other Career Paths
Where do you go from chief product officer? Well, there are several other options once you reach the highest level in an organization:
- Chief executive officer is the most ideal job title that you can aim for once you have spent a decent time as product head.
- You can become an entrepreneur and start your own development company.
- Consultation and speaking are the best career paths if you don’t want to start your own company.
- If you have earned enough, you can become a venture capitalist. Or, you can simply become an angel investor and start funding software development companies based on your experience.
Final Remarks
The product owner’s career path is full of opportunities. There are tons of growth opportunities. You must give your 100% throughout your career to become a successful product owner and great leader.
It is essential to decide your career path right now when you are a product owner or a junior business analyst. Decide what you want to become after 10 years and then start acquiring appropriate skills and experience.
For example, if you are aiming to start your software development company after a few years. You must switch roles quickly. Try gaining experience throughout the product management hierarchy so that you know what to expect when you start your own company. Work with small companies where you can become a product manager and then head of product and acquire the necessary skills.
The product owner job is a great career choice. You need to plan early for career growth too.
FAQs
Here are answers to the questions about product ownership:
What is the next career step for a product owner?
The next career step for a product owner is often moving into a Senior Product Owner role. From there, they can advance to Product Manager or Senior Product Manager positions. Ultimately, they might progress to leadership roles such as Director of Product Management or VP of Product.
What is the path of a product owner?
The career path of a product owner typically starts with roles like Business Analyst or Junior Product Owner. They can then advance to Product Owner, Senior Product Owner, and eventually Product Manager. With experience, they may move into higher-level product leadership positions such as Director or VP of Product.
Is being a product owner a good career?
Yes, being a product owner is a good career for those interested in driving product development and collaborating with cross-functional teams. It offers opportunities for growth, high demand in various industries, and the potential for significant impact on the business strategy and success. The role also provides a solid foundation for advancing to senior product management and executive positions.
What are the 5 levels of product owner?
Here are the 5 levels of a product owner:
- Junior Product Owner
- Product Owner
- Senior Product Owner
- Lead Product Owner
- Chief Product Owner
If you are new to product ownership and are looking to break into your very first product owner role, we recommend taking our Product Owner Certification Course, where you will learn the fundamentals of product ownership, launch your product, and get on the fast track toward landing your first product job.
