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Familiarizing yourself with SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) can be really helpful, and we are sure to break the question of the product manager vs the product owner to evaluate the roles and functions of the respective personnel. Even though they resemble each other in a few ways, their responsibilities and problems they face are different. In this article, we will do a comparison of the SAFe Product Manager and Product Owner roles with the help, which can help you get a clearer picture of their differences and how they contribute to the agile success of the company.
What is SAFe?
Besides that, it is necessary to point out that SAFe has carried out countless activities. The Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) is a metanoia which companies worldwide are introducing to scale agile practices across multiple teams and gain more agility and alignment. SAFe creates an ecosystem where the organization can assign different postitions in the teams like Product Managers and Product Owners so that teams can provide high-quality products in the fastest way they can and not be misplaced.
What Does a SAFe Product Manager Do?
Their difference is firstly in the experience and authority, for the product manager is the one who can oversee all phases of the development of a solution or a product. The SAFe Product Manager owns the business strategy, vision, and roadmap for a particular product or solution and at the same time they are the ones that call the highest ranks and take greater tasks on them.
Key Responsibilities of a Product Manager:
Working with Stakeholders: They work closely with various parties such as customers, executives, and management to gain insights, understand the situation, and thereafter, decide and take action.
Prioritizing Features and Releases: They are strategists who can set realistic priorities for successful implementation cost and delivery of project features.
What Does a SAFe Product Owner Do?
Differently, the Product Owner role focuses more on the implementation side of product strategy on a daily basis. The they facilitate the flow of information within development teams to ensure the management of the product backlog is properly done, and that the product is being developed and serviced in alignment with the business goals.
Key Responsibilities of a Product Owner:
Managing the Product Backlog: The Product Owner is urged to create and maintain if the product backlog while making sure it aligns with the larger priorities n even with Product manager’s prioritization criteria.
Clarifying User Stories: They with development teams to clarify user stories to facilitate a mutual understanding of the requirements and hence ease their implementation by the teams.
Prioritizing Work for Development Teams: Product Owners consistently re-evaluate the backlog, so they can be sure that the most critical tasks are the ones that are done first.
Engaging with Development Teams: They serve as the transmissions officer between the development team and stakeholders, guaranteeing the teams have the needed information to create the needed product.
Key Differences Between SAFe Product Manager and Product Owner
Focus and Scope
Product Manager: Shifts the main part of his or her attention towards the product vision, strategy, and business outcomes. The bigger picture is their focus and they are mainly guiding the product goals with business profit.
Product Owner: Shifts the product backlog to the detailed execution of the product roadmap next. They make sure development teams are delivering the required amount for the product goals.
Responsibilities
Product Manager: Defining the product roadmap while interacting and discussing with the external stakeholders to be in a position to decide the strategies plan for the development of the said product through time.
Product Owner: Being the one responsible for the management of the product backlog and ensuring that work is prioritized first to be done and that the development teams provide the value incrementally.
Stakeholder Interaction
Product Manager: Builds relationships, gathers opinions and matches the vision of the product with the needs of the business together with other people, including but not limited to users or business leaders.
Product Owner: Mainly interacts with internal stakeholders specifically the development team to ensure that the product backlog is aligned with the user needs and the business priorities.
Strategic vs. Tactical
Product Manager: A strategic position in which he/she is also a long-term visionary and business consultant.
Product Owner: A concrete position that connotes the daily work that contributes to the product's long-term aims.
Conclusion
Although the SAFe Product Manager and the Product Owner are the two primary resources in agile product development, their functions are different. The Product Manager makes the key strategic decisions and looks at the big picture of products, driving stakeholder interactions while the Product Owner is the person to who it is the most, if not always, to make sure the team is working on the right tasks and delivering value to the customer.Why these varying roles don't pose a threat to organizations but instead, they are a contributing factor to their success as products? Organizations are at liberty to select a variety of roles for their products since all the roles mentioned above are linked to the core of the business. This results in a strong and productive collaboration between the two domains of product development and business strategy. On the other hand, SAFe framework will command Product Owners to consider the long term and expect Product Managers to delve at the short term.
FAQs
1.Can a Product Manager and Product Owner be the same person?
Even if they are different functions, in small outfits, an individual could handle both of them.
2.Which role has more influence in SAFe?
Product Manager is a more crucial role since they are the ones who are in charge of promoting the product and making major strategic decisions.
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