Career Path of a Scrum Product Owner

The Scrum Product Owner career path is highly lucrative. The job of a Product Owner entails not only acting as the connection between the production team and the stakeholders but also overlooking the entire production process, understanding client needs, creating the plan for the product, and dealing with any backlogs in production.

Product Owners are usually the business representatives in Agile projects. As the Scrum framework is becoming more and more popular amongst organizations, the career path of Product Owners is also becoming more coveted.

If you are a scrum Product Owner looking to grow and follow a lucrative career path, then this article can help you. You can also enroll for our Agile and Scrum Training certification course. It will help you understand how to follow your dream career as a PO and what you can expect from these career paths in the long run.

Career Path of a Scrum Product Owner

A scrum product owner has the dual capability of foresight and the decision-making power to make a project successful. A Scrum Product Owner will work on the product for its entire life-cycle and hence will have an idea of how things need to be prioritized, managed and executed. This decision-making and communicating power capability can be obtained by undergoing Scrum Product Owner training and the experience will enable the candidate to access a wide range of career opportunities. Listed below are some of the great career paths that await a Scrum product owner. 

The decision-making process and foresight are two of the most important skills of a Scrum Product Owner. There are also many things that can affect the career path of a Product Owner. For example, market trends, the economy, and the organization you work for are only some things that will affect your career. 

That is why it is important for Product Owners to choose their career paths wisely. There are many Agile Product Owner jobs that you can opt for, and there are many opportunities for growth in the field. It is important to remember which factors can be controlled and influenced and which ones you need to adjust to.

There are multiple stages to a Product Owner’s career. And depending on how you work and adapt to projects based on clients’ needs, you will not only be promoted but also gain new skills such as leadership, communication, decision-making, and more.

Usually, the career path Product Owner is as follows,

1. Junior PO 
2. PO 
3. Senior PO 
4. Portfolio Owner
5. Product Director
6. Chief Product Officer

But depending on which career path you choose, you will also be able to change your career progression. A Scrum Product Owner can choose between many career paths, such as a Business Analyst, Head of Product, Project Manager, and many more. In this article, we will discuss some of the most lucrative job profiles for a Product Owner.

Business Analyst 

Product Owners match the requirements for a Business Analyst role perfectly.

Roles

The job of a Business Analyst is to act as a connection between the business and IT departments. With the suitable analytical skills to control the business requirements and great decision-making skills to match, Product Owners can easily follow this career path successfully after they become Junior PO.

Experience, Roles & Responsibilities

The basic role of a Business Analyst is to use available data to ascertain the ways in which a business organization will be able to function better. They collect and analyze data to come up with solutions to underlying problems that can improve an organization’s processes and systems.

Their job also includes making stakeholders understand how new strategies and technologies and overseeing these technologies being implemented successfully. They also make sure that the tech and development teams understand the requirements of end users and implement them properly. A Product Owner is, thus, perfect for this role.

Salary

The average salary of a Business Analyst Product Owner in the US is about $99,163 per annum. The average starting pay for the same role is about $86,395.

How to Become a Business Analyst 

As a Product Owner, becoming a Business Analyst is not very difficult as even though their responsibilities may vary, they still work in similar Agile teams. In a traditional framework, you will need a bachelor’s degree to become a Business Analyst.

What’s next

In an Agile framework, a Business Analyst Product Owner can also become a PMO Director, Business Architect, Product Manager, Project Manager, Program Manager, Vice President, Chief Information Officer, etc. As a Business Analyst Product Owner, you can open many doors in front of you.

Project Manager 

Becoming a Project Manager is probably the most similar career path to a Product Owner and Business Analyst, as their main job is to plan and manage project development. However, even though they are similar, they are not the same. If you are working in a Scrum framework, a Project Manager can have a very similar role to a Scrum Master.

Roles

A Project Manager is the leader of any project; thus, their responsibilities may vary based on the field, organization, and project. But all in all, a Project Manager oversees the planning and developing process of projects. They are in charge of controlling the direction of the development so that the result can exceed the expectations of the clients.

Experience, Roles & Responsibilities

Monitoring the projects and assigning deadlines to tasks are also some common roles for Project Managers. They are also responsible for solving internal and external issues and properly budgeting the project. At the end of the day, they also have to check the team's performance and eliminate any quality issues. 

Even though they do not have a defined guideline for their responsibilities, Project Managers are the leaders that make sure the projects meet their goals successfully. Not only do they handle the internal workings of a project, but they also act as a mediator between multiple teams that are working together.

But usually, in a Scrum Framework, a Product Owner holds greater authority than a Product Manager as projects are shorter-lived than products that they result in. But they also carry great responsibility, and a Product Owner can manage both roles internally.

Salary

If you are a Scrum Master Project Manager, then your expected average salary in the US will be about $107,901 per annum, while a normal Project Manager will make about $90,882.

How to Become a Project Manager

You can become a Project Manager if you are a Product Owner quit easily, as the two roles have a lot in common in an Agile framework. In a Scrum framework, a Product Owner will outrank a Project Manager. You can also join training programs or get certifications to become a successful Project Manager.

What’s next

From a Product Owner Project Manager, you can also become a Product Manager, a Portfolio Owner, a Director of Products, and much more. You can always build your career depending on your goals within an organization.

Director of Product 

When we are talking about jobs for Product Owners, we have to talk about the position of a Director of Product. Also known as a Product Director and Director of Product Management, the roles of a Director or Product including, but are not limited to, controlling the direction of products and overlooking all the product managers in an organization.

Roles 

The role of a Director of Product includes collaborating with the organization’s heads and subordinates to direct the flow of products through proper strategy and planning. They also need to develop a vision for new products and consult with stakeholders to ensure the proposal is executed flawlessly.

Experience, Roles & Responsibilities

One of the main responsibilities of a Product Director is to make sure all the planned products line up with the goals of the company as well as the requirements of the clients. As a Director of Products, you will need to lead a strategic team that will help you evaluate new ideas, prioritize product features, and help you create and organize strategies for different teams in the organization.

As a Product Director, you will also have to evaluate the results of products and make necessary changes with your subordinates' help to ensure everything is on track for the upcoming products.

Salary

The average salary of a Director of Product Management in the USA is about $1,83,741 per annum.

How to Become the Director of Product

If you are a Product Owner in a company, it can take you anywhere from 10-20 years of hard work to finally become a Director of Products. There are a lot of steps in between. But one of the main steps is to become a product manager. In larger organizations, often only people who have worked as Product Managers for a long time are promoted to Director of Product Management.

What’s next

If you are a Director of Products Management in a company, then it can take you 3-7 years of gaining experience in that role to get promoted to Chief Product Officer. From there, you can also become a Chief Operations Officer, Chief Information Officer, or even Chief Executive Officer.

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How do Scrum Product Owners get Promoted?

The roles of a Product Owner may be a little confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, you can slowly become a Senior Product Owner, then a Portfolio Owner, a Project Manager (in most companies), a Director of Products Management, and finally a Chief Product Officer. We have already talked about the directions your career can take from there.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips that can help you get promoted quickie from a Junior Product Owner:

1. Decide your career path from the beginning. If you at least have the next 10 years of your career planned out as you become a Product Owner, then you can take the necessary steps to work towards achieving your goals.
2. You need to switch roles and acquire more skills in the product management division of your organization if you want to get promoted quickly. 
3. Try to take up more leadership roles in your company and acquire more skills in the meantime to make your resume more attractive.

Skills Required 

Here is a list of some of the soft and hard skills for a Product Owner that can help you quickly climb the corporate ladder and achieve your goals.

• ​Soft Skills
  • Project management skills
  • Communication skills
  • Collaborative skills
  • Analytical skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Decision-making skills
  • Conflict resolution skills
• Hard Skills
  • Design UX
  • Coding
  • Software development
  • The architecture of product development
  • Knowledge of apps and tools for product development

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How Long Does it Take to Get Promoted to Senior Level?

If you start out in a company as a Junior Product Owner, then it can take you anywhere from 1-3 years to become a Product Owner and then 3-5 years to become a Senior Product Owner. If you plan to further your career in this field in your early twenties, you can become a Senior Product Owner by the time you enter your early thirties.

Conclusion

Products Owners are in very high demand in fields like IT, healthcare, and many more. You can always find a good job with a respectable salary, even as a Junior Product Owner (Estimated starting salary is about $76,072, and average base pay for the same role is about $82,520 per annum). If you have at least ten years of career planning in this field, then now is the perfect time to start working towards your goal. You can also upskill yourself at various stages with different certifications to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies.