Chief Product Team 
Learn more about the Chief Product definition in this section and the related topics in the “Product” section.
Chief Product Definition
The Chief Product Owner is responsible for product strategy, roadmap, and release planning.
In addition, the Chief Product Owner is accountable for business value delivered through the portfolio of products they are responsible for. The Chief Product Owner is also accountable for the team that builds the product, which may be a cross-functional team of developers, testers, designers, and other experts.
Moreover, depending on the maturity of your organization, this team may even include experts in sales and marketing. The Chief Product Owner is part of a larger business management team that determines to fund these products.
The Chief Product Owner often owns the product backlog and may own other artifacts such as user stories or epics. They may also own the product roadmap. Some organizations have a cross-functional product management team for the portfolio, and the Chief Product Owner is a member of this product management team.
Moreover, the Chief Product Owner can be responsible for one or multiple products. Multiple products may result in the need to have multiple Chief Product Owners.
We now know the Chief Product definition. Let’s now check what are their skills.
Skills of a Chief Product Owner
1. Product Vision
The vision is a key to success. Without a product vision, the team may simply do the work that is asked of them with no drive to succeed. A vision can be a simple phrase, a paragraph, a story, a presentation, a picture, a video, or even the mission statement from the organization.
With this vision as a base, the team can set goals and create consistent terminology and standards for their work. The vision is owned by the Chief Product Owner and is used as a reference for all teams in the organization as well as customers and investors.
2. Product Strategy
The product strategy is the logical focus of the product development process that is necessary for success. The product strategy is based on the vision. Also, the product strategy is a statement of the product architecture, the team workflow, and the expected business value of the product.
The Chief Product Owner owns this document, but it may be reviewed by other key stakeholders. This document may also be used for financial planning. The product strategy is usually expressed in high-level terms that are part of the product vision.
3. Product Roadmap
The roadmap shows the direction of the product development process over time. It is an ordered set of features, enhancements, and fixes that are planned to be worked on over some time. A roadmap can be used to show more than just features or enhancements to a product. It can also show the evolution of the product architecture, the team workflow, or other critical elements of the product.
The roadmap is created by the Chief Product Owner and may be reviewed by other key stakeholders. Usually, it is ordered by priority for high-level items and ordered by release date for detailed items.
4. Release Planning
Release planning is used to create a list of user stories or epics that are needed to build a release of the product. The stories may be estimated by the number of story points along with an expected date for completion.
The Chief Product Owner develops this release plan and may delegate the creation of this plan to others on their team. So, the release plan is part of the product backlog and is owned by the Chief Product Owner.
5. Customer Collaboration
Customer collaboration is a necessary part of product development. The Chief Product Owner should be involved in customer conferences and other efforts to collaborate with customers. This collaboration should also be documented and be part of the product backlog. The Chief Product Owner should also have a good understanding of the needs of these customers and how their needs fit into the product strategy.
6. Product Empathy
The Chief Product Owner should have a deep understanding of the problem being solved by the product or feature being developed. This understanding should include how it fits into the larger picture of the business and how it will help solve a problem for a customer or user. To have this empathetic understanding, the Chief Product Owner should also be working closely with customers, users, and other stakeholders.
