Rethinking the Product Owner Role: Can Scrum Teams Share PO Responsibilities?

Preface

In the 2020 Scrum Guide, the Product Owner (PO) role can be performed by a team member. Mike Cohn predicted in 2019 that a dedicated PO might become unnecessary and explained his reasoning.

Scrum Roles Overview

Scrum defines three formal roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, and Developers (team members). Roles such as tester, developer, analyst, or designer are all considered Developers and share the same responsibility of delivering a potentially releasable increment each Sprint.

Expert Roles in Scrum

The Product Owner and Scrum Master are considered expert roles, distinct from Developers. They do not directly create the increment during the Sprint, though they may provide assistance.

Why These Roles Are Unique

The article questions what makes the PO and Scrum Master unique enough to remain separate roles rather than being rotated among team members, noting that many teams already rotate Scrum Master duties while most retain a dedicated PO.

An Interesting Future

It envisions a future where the PO role disappears and product decisions are collectively owned by the whole team, similar to how testing is a shared responsibility.

Prerequisites for This Approach

For this model to work, developers must move beyond the “code monkey” mindset and embrace full‑stack, passionate involvement, while Product Owners must relinquish exclusive decision‑making authority, allowing the team to share responsibilities.

The "Wailing Chicken" Story

The term “wailing chicken” (the wringable neck) is a humorous nickname for the PO, illustrating the tension when team members cannot modify the Product Backlog and must vent their frustration.

Who Will Remain in the Team

Aside from the PO, other roles will continue as they are today. Although the Scrum Guide states the PO must be a dedicated role, the author argues that product ownership can be a shared team responsibility.

Natural Process

The author opposes anything that fragments the team and predicts that, over the coming years, collective decision‑making will naturally extend to product ownership, with stakeholders participating collaboratively rather than through a single PO.

Event Notice

The article concludes with a promotion for the #IDCF DevOps Hackathon, a 36‑hour event in Beijing on September 17‑18, 2022, inviting both corporate and individual participants.