Interview Question and Answers for Product Owner

 

Prepare for your upcoming interview with our comprehensive guide on Product Owner interview questions and answers. Whether you are a prospective candidate aspiring to acquire a Product Owner position in a large organization or an existing Product Owner looking for better opportunities, this article is for you to improve your interview skills.

Here we are going to discuss the most important and common questions that cover various aspects of the Product Owner role. Let’s start!

1)      What is the difference between Product Owner and Business Analyst?

A Product Owner is responsible for translating the strategies into actionable tasks. He works closely with cross-functional teams to fulfil the requirements for the development of the product. Unlike a Product Owner, a Business Analyst on the other hand would be limited to the scope of work. Usually, he will be working on a particular section of the product.

2)      What are the skills that you must have to be a Product Owner?

As a part of an agile team, a Product Owner must have excellent communication skills to present his ideas and guidance to the team. He should be committed to his team and work. And also, they must be reliable and available for the team to work on the development process.

3)      How does the Product Owner filter the user stories before putting an idea in a backlog?

The Product Owner must analyse every idea that comes to him by creating a prototype and working on the pilot customers. And then based on the analysis, he should add the idea to the backlog.

4)      Mention some circumstances where implementing Scrum is not suggested.

Scrum is not suggested,

·       Where the requirements do not change.

·       When working with multiple teams.

·       When there is a need to respond quicker than the sprint allows.

5)      List out the properties of a sprint.

The sprint in a scrum methodology comes with certain properties such as it should be timeboxed. This helps the team to focus on closed boundaries to run any scrum event and it also helps in generating metrics. Next, the sprint should be protected from any changes. And it must run for 2 to 3 weeks long.

6)      Explain the MoSCow technique.

The MoSCow prioritization, which is also known as the MoSCow analysis is used for managing the requirements which state,

Mo - must have requirements

S – should have requirements

Co – could have requirements

W – won’t or would have requirements

 

7)      Can we use the Waterfall model over Scrum? If yes, when?

The Waterfall Model is suggested only when the requirements are not subjected to change until the completion of the project. It should be a predicted, simple, and well-defined one.

8)      What are the different ways of handling non-functional requirements?

Non-functional requirements are vital for the overall product development process. They can be handled based on the acceptance criteria, user stories in the backlog, and inclusion in DoD.

9)      Who is a SAFe Product Owner?

Unlike a Product Owner whose work is limited to the size of the project he works on; SAFe Product Owner has additional duties and supports two teams at the most to scale agility and Lean strategies across large enterprises. The vital part of their roles is to engage with other Product Owners within the Agile Release Train to improve processes.

10)  How does the Scrum Master assist a Product Owner?

The Scrum Master can assist a Product Owner in multiple ways:

·       The scrum master helps to understand agile principles and practices.

·       They help Product Managers to align the ideas in the product backlog

·       Also, they suggest effective techniques for product backlog management.

·       They help to facilitate the scrum events.

·       Helps understand the goals and scope of the project.

11)  What are the challenges faced by a Product Owner?

The product owner must overcome the following challenges:

·       Challenge prioritizing features

·       They often fail to understand the fundamentals of the product

·       Difficulty in transforming customer ideas into product deliverables

·       Planning the releases and sprints.

·       Dealing with stakeholders

·       Aligning the Scrum team with customer requirements

·       Providing timely feedback to the team.

12)  As a Product Owner, how will you deal with difficult customers?

Either the Product Owner can seek help from a sponsor or he must engage the uncooperative customer in regular meetings and discussions to explain the product development process.

13)  Does DevOps need a Product Owner?

Yes, DevOps also works around the product. To understand the requirements and vision of a product they must have a Product Owner to make them understand. They require a product owner who could make them comprehend the business needs to automate the delivery pipelines.

Apart from these questions, Product Owner Certifications can also help you land your first Product Owner position in the top most companies. These certification courses come with valuable insights that can enhance your interview performance.

About Advance Agility

We, at Advance Agility, are the new-age Agile Coaching, Consulting, and IT services company. We enable end-to-end Digital Transformation. Agile execution is integral to our being. We are doing SAFe implementation with small, medium, and large organizations across the globe.

Our vision is to be the leading Agile execution player globally. To keep adding value at every process stage. We are on a mission to empower our clients and move from concept to cash in the shortest sustainable lead time by adopting the human-centric approach to business agility. Embracing change is in our DNA.

Things that keep us apart are Quicker and Seamless execution with End to end gamut of services. Our Global presence and Stellar Track Record give us an edge over our competitors.

Connect with us at advanceagility.com to learn about SAFe and SAFe implementation. Write to us at contact@advanceagility.com for any agile training or consulting needs. We are always looking for competent agile trainers as well. So if you are the one or want to become one, do get in touch with us to that we can learn, grow and achieve together.