The Product Owner as a role has 5 responsibilities:

1. Create a Vision and share it with the team.
2. Manage the Return-On-Investment ROI.
3. Prioritize the Product Backlog based on ROI
4. Define the Acceptance Criteria and accept the Product Increment.
5. Establish and maintain the Release Plan.

The Storywriter – She drives the Product Owner from the business point of view. She communicates a clear vision of the product and she defines its main characteristics. She also accepts the product at the end of a Sprint. She makes sure that the team works only on the most valuable Backlog Items. She has the same goal as the team. She is responsible for the return on investment.

All of this is discussed here in the blog over and over again, and I do not want to repeat myself here, but who is the Product Owner as a person? Lets create a face to our Role. I want to introduce you to Penelope. You will remember her from the christmas story I wrote last year.

Penelope is a money driven person. She is interested in doing business and she is a visionary person. She has tons of ideas every given moment. She studied at Harvard and she learned early in her business life, that she needs to work harder than most men to get the rewards she deserves.

She knows her product and she can talk about it at any given moment. She loves it. She is self motivated and she loves to have debates with her customers about what works and what doesn’t.  She does not think like a manager but rather like an entrepreneur. And she is interested in every detail.

She motivates all people because she is a wonderful storyteller.