Whether you are developing a site or a Mobile app, whether your project is in Ionic or in React Native, you will always need to choose the Product Owner who will lead the agile project.

The Product Owner is a natural person with business knowledge, he has a good vision of the problem that the application will solve. Its role is to share its vision of the product with developers, it will give them the visibility they need so that they can develop quickly. A good Product Owner is essential for the success of the project. But what is a “good” Product Owner? It is a PO that combines 3 characteristics:

There is only ONE Product Owner

The PO is the only one to pilot the project, to make decisions and the sole interlocutor of the developers. This may seem obvious at first glance, but there are many projects where the powers of the Product Owner are shared between several people. For example, it is not uncommon for a PO to want to have a feature validated by one of his colleagues because he is the one who will use it on a daily basis, or because “it is his domain”.

The result? The person who validates was not present when the User Story was written, will not validate the feature because an element is missing that was not intended but that they need. Or that's planned on another User Story. Or that the OP voluntarily decided not to include in the project. In summary, the developers will have lost an hour going back and forth. This is just one example, the confusion and stress caused by not following this rule costs a project entire days of development.

A good Product Owner has decision-making power

Having a Product Owner who is the only one to make decisions implies that he has the power to do so. The whole point of working in Agile is to allow the customer to make decisions underway of project. Proposals from developers, user tests, product demonstrations to your company, all these actions are sources of new ideas for the project, suggestions that will make the product evolve from one week to the next.

Faced with these feedback, the PO must be able to decide and give a clear direction to the project. If for each question from developers or user feedback, he needs two weeks to make a decision because he must consult his N+2 or convince any committee, the very interest in doing agile collapses. This does not mean that the project is not compatible with the agile method, simply that the Product Owner is not the right one.

A good Product Owner is available

Our Product Owner manages the project alone. OK Our Product Owner can make decisions. Awesome. Does he have time for it? In an agile project, the investment of the PO is a key element. To be very clear, a PO who devotes the necessary time to the product will end up with a better quality product with more features. Quite simply.

Why?

• A PO that does not validate the functionalities developed on a daily basis will give feedback several days later, when the developers have started new tasks and will waste time going back to old User Stories.
• A poorly prioritized list of features to be developed leads to ineffective ceremonies, and therefore sprints with poorly written tickets and developers lost in the tasks to be developed.
• Because a Product Owner who takes time to answer developer questions necessarily delays them in their work

This is why the choice of the Product Owner is key to the success of your project, he will be the best asset for the tool developed to allow you to achieve your goals!