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[Product Owner] The tops and downs from life

Do Product Owners "Own" Their Own Product?

This is a question I've been asking myself for a long time, and I still can't answer it with a simple "yes or no." The classic answer, "it depends," could be well applied here.

I mean, my answer can vary from time to time, depending on the context I'm working in. The reason for this is that even though your position "claims" you are the sole owner of what you're building, at the end of the day, there is someone who is still pouring cash and probably has wills, plans, or even a vision that can change from one day to the next. This can also happen due to external changes or other factors you probably have no control over.

What I mean is that no one is safe from the good old "top-down directive," and this is something you will probably need to cope with one day or another.

Actually, in my point of view, the best way to deal with that is to always try to prevent these sudden requests from happening by bringing initiatives that actually matter to the company after analyzing its current situation. What I mean is that if your company is trying to reach new audiences and is still struggling with it, you probably shouldn't be trying to pitch a new filter feature on your platform that has nothing to do with that goal. This is true even if complaints about the absence of this feature can be easily found and have been filed by a few users over the last few months.

Of course, it's still the job of a product person to try to align what users want with what the company needs. However, something that only time and experience have taught me is that sometimes you need to step away from this way of thinking.

A piece of advice I once received and always pass on is the old saying, "Choose your battles wisely". This always gets me thinking about how much energy I should waste on specific topics or discussions I have a chance of losing or where I might not reach the desired outcome. The moment you start choosing your battles wisely is where the magic happens.