Ever worried that your non-technical background might prevent you from taking on technical roles? Or imagined that you would languish adding no value if you had to fulfil such a role?
Fear not, having just wrapped up a successful stint as a technical product owner, I have some tips to help you successfully ease into your transition. You might be surprised how fresh perspectives, even from beginners, can make a difference. A business-oriented mindset can help you uncover hidden client needs and craft comprehensive plans minimizing missed opportunities. Remember, regardless of your background, you can always bring unique value to the table.
Communicating value
Understand the technology
Identify key aspects
Effectively communicate their value to the technical teams
You don’t need to write code or become a technical architect overnight, just be sure to understand the fundamental concepts of the technology your product relies on. Familiarize yourself with the basic and most frequently used terms. In my case, they were CI/CD, pipelines, merge, commit, Jenkins, GitLab, etc. This foundational knowledge not only helped me communicate effectively with my team but also with key stakeholders. You can have better interactions and more meaningful conversations with your peers if you have a sound grasp of the basics.
Pro tip: Connect with your technical colleagues to get better suggestions and resources before getting bogged down with online research. Whenever you familiarize yourself with new technology, expand your knowledge by:
Becoming aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the technology
Where it stands versus its competitors
Features are your friend
Increase awareness of the features being developed to make informed decisions quickly. As a product owner, you will need to make decisions about prioritizing features based on the business requirements and stakeholder needs. Understand the purpose and impact of each feature of the overall product.
I used to organize one-on-one meetings with the relevant developers to understand the features, why these are being developed and their importance. This helped me to effectively translate technical jargon into clear and understandable language. Since stakeholder management was a vital part of my role, having such discussions with the development team equipped me better to have the right responses when queried by our stakeholders and sponsors during status updates and steering committee meetings.
Pro tip: Go through the feature description and acceptance criteria carefully. Ask as many questions as required to understand its purpose and impact. Imagine you are from the client’s side accepting these changes and then deciding on your course of action.
User-centric thinking
Always keep the customer at heart to deliver an amazing product.
A successful product meets the needs and expectations of its users. Even without technical expertise, you can contribute significantly by understanding your target audience.
After looking at each feature being developed, I used to ask myself questions a novice would ask before accepting the feature as done or striking it off the Kanban board. For example, let’s assume the feature is to create a flowchart which depicts how data will be handled before a specific piece of code is executed. I would ask the responsible developer(s) about basic stuff such as color coding, terminology, a legend to understand the flow chart, etc. Simply put, what would a stakeholder ask or would like to know more of if they look at this flowchart - whether or not they are tech savvy? This not only gave the development team a different lens to look at their work but also made the team completely ready in case such questions or clarification requests came from the stakeholders.
Yet another example: we organized stakeholder workshops before approaching a new deliverable to achieve consensus on what we hope to achieve with the project. We termed these as ‘inception workshops’ and the idea was to build a shared understanding of project vision and goals. Risks were evaluated, assumptions were removed and a collective understanding was established rapidly. We were able to save time and showcase our efficiency as a team to other third-party vendors and our clients.
Pro tip: Ask questions such as “Would I accept this if I was the end-user of the final product? Are there still avenues that can be explored to optimize the final deliverable?” Think not only about the task at hand but also about other parallel and dependent tasks if the current task will hinder or trigger any sort of preparation related to a specific deliverable now or in the future.
Augmenting the role
Building relationships with stakeholders is the key to success.
The technical industry evolves rapidly, so having a continuous learning mindset is crucial. You will be amazed at how easy life becomes when you can communicate and collaborate effectively with stakeholders and cross-functional teams (developers, designers, business analysts, testers, etc.). Try to understand what your client’s true business values are as these aren’t always explicitly articulated. It’s easier said than done. My suggestion - familiarize yourself with the stakeholders who are most impacted by these business outcomes and hold decision-making authority. Creating a stakeholder map is a very good start. I like it particularly because it is a living document which can be extended as you mature in your project environment.
Pro tip: Be comfortable and fluently communicate what you and your team have done and will do as you move forward in the project. Know your team and identify who are the best people to contact for various types of questions. You can also gain an advantage by networking with other third-party vendors regularly. This not only provides valuable insights but positions you as a trusted partner within the ecosystem.
Remember, the journey may be challenging, but the skills, expertise, and insights you bring from your background and experience are valuable assets in shaping innovative and user-centric products and services. By just developing a foundational understanding of technology, honing communication skills, and embracing a user-centric and collaborative mindset, you can lead successful product development teams.
Disclaimer: The statements and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Thoughtworks.
