I’ve worked with some very strong Agile Product Owners, others that needed a lot of help transitioning from BRD centric waterfall product management, and others that have strong backgrounds in other product roles (product strategy, management, or marketing) and are new to agile product development.

1. Doesn’t show up for demos
2. Never thanks the Team – always wants more
3. Blames the agile practice and the Team when things go wrong

Issues in Product Definition and Requirements

4. Anti – MVP. Does not define simple products. Focuses on the edge use cases and complexity
5. Defines solutions, can’t state the business problem
6. Thinks the Dev Team should only be consulted once the product is defined
7. Angered over missed requirements, but doesn’t read the stories
8. Still writes the BRD, then expects the Team to translate them to user stories
9. Under-invests in reviewing usage and performance data to determine product priorities
10. Lives outside the agile tool and process
12. Sets and communicates the release timeline without consulting the Team
13. I’ve delivered the product roadmap, please send me your project plan and costs
14. Drives teams to brainstorm solutions for feature/epics that are not formally prioritized

Difficulties Partnering with Technology Teams

14. Selects technologies (including SaaS) and expects the IT Team to implement them
15. Expects Spikes (stories for research and development) to succeed all the time
16. Under allocates time to tech debt, research, and documentation
17. Doesn’t formally prioritize and shifts priorities in the middle of sprints
18. Pushes the team to compromise on technical standards (security, data governance, IT Ops)
19. Holds teams accountable to early story estimates and circumvents estimation process
20. Attempts to micromanage and wants granular details on how stories are being allocated to team members