Specifically, the product owner:

• clearly articulates and communicates the product vision or goal. The scrum team, which includes the people building the product or service, understand what they are building and why.
• prioritizes the backlog by ordering all items against each other. There is not two “#1s” or ten. The backlog items are ordered as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, … 40 … and so on. They make decisions about what is more or less important.
• creates transparency around the product backlog and the product backlog items, so that it is visible and available to everyone involved.

While these ideas are often what people aim for or espouse to, the scrum product owner does them. Without transparency of work, clear decisions on priorities, and clarity of goal, we can’t expect teams to be engaged and deliver. The scrum product owner understands this and is accountable to provide these to the scrum team and organization.

Throughout the course, you will have an opportunity to engage in practical, reality-based work with small groups. Explore what the product owner is accountable for in the scrum framework, learn new ways to engage customers to understand what they truly need, and create product backlog items and refine them. You will have the opportunity to dig into the tough questions about project vs product thinking and create dialogue in your organization about the problem of too much work in process.

This course is designed for anyone who

• Wants a clear, no-nonsense understanding of what the scrum product owner does and how they do it in practice.
• Is frustrated by traditional project expectations when they are supposed to be using an agile approach – they don’t seem to align.
• Needs to bring new ideas, tools, and practices to their organization and scrum teams that will help everyone focus and deliver.
• Enjoys learning, challenging themselves, and has an interest in finding ways to improve.

Learning Objectives

Who Should Attend

This course should be attended by anyone who wants to understand what the product owner role is and how the product owner does their job.

• Product Owners, Product Managers, Business Analysts, QA Testers
• Agile Coaches, Scrum Masters
• Scrum team members, agile team members
•  Managers, directors, and others tasked with helping teams succeed with scrum and agile (very hard to do if you do not understand it)
• Anyone outside of software or IT: Our product owner training covers topics and examples that are applicable to those outside of software. We also offer training specifically geared to product management and product ownership outside of software. Ask us about this version of the course when you contact us.

Certification Requirements

The course meets the learning objectives for the Scrum Alliance Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO^®) Certification Training. This class is one of the requirements to receive the CSPO certification. To qualify, you must:

1. Complete the class prework.
2. Attend and participate in the entire CSPO class.
3. There is not a CSPO exam at this time (it is under development). Until the exam is released, only #1 and #2 above are required to receive the CSPO Certification.

What to Expect

We take training and learning seriously. We respect the investment of both time and money that you are making to advance your skills. As such, we use the latest training approaches and techniques. We also bring energy and fun to ensure you have the best possible experience and learn as much as possible. In this course, you can expect:

• Brain-friendly training to dramatically increase learning and retention (instructors are Certified Training from the Back of the Room Trainers).
• Opportunities throughout the course to focus on your real-world situations.
• In-depth engagement with your instructors and fellow attendees. If you are looking for a dry lecture (we use zero slides), this class is NOT for you!
• Interactive, fun, and experiential learning — increasing safety and retention — laughing helps learning.
• Challenging work with others that focuses on your real organizational issues.

Virtual Training:

• Our training is currently happening virtually in most cases. We use extremely interactive tools, learning canvases, and methods to boost the fun and learning. If you are looking for in-person training at your location, please contact us to discuss options.
• We have specifically designed all of our training for live-instructor, virtually led classes. We know there are (still) virtual training skeptics. Some have tried virtual training and just watched piles of videos or listened as people clicked through slides (we never use slides).
• We work through in-depth and fun (really) exercises throughout the course in small groups.
• But don’t just take our word for it – we are 100% glad to take you through a live lesson and show you how we teach. If it works for you, great! We can see about moving forward. If not, we can point you to someone that is a better fit based on your needs – no joke!
• Additionally, we send every student (direct to their home or shipping location) a color, in-depth course workbook and materials. We considered just sending some electronic files, but we have had way too many students reach out to thank us for something “real” in a virtual world.

Details

Next Steps