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Home > Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast > Business Analyst to Product Owner—More Than a Title Change | Joelle Tegwen
Podcast: Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast
Episode:

Business Analyst to Product Owner—More Than a Title Change | Joelle Tegwen
Category: News & Politics
Duration: 00:15:04
Publish Date: 2025-07-18 10:05:00
Description: Joelle Tegwen: Business Analyst to Product Owner—More Than a Title Change

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

The Great Product Owner: The Collaborative Visionary

Joelle worked with an exceptional Product Owner at a medical company who was leading their team into a new way of working. This PO understood both the vision piece of the work and the importance of experimentation, recognizing that the team was responsible for figuring out how to solve the problems they were trying to tackle. Working within a Large Scale Scrum framework, they demonstrated patience while collaborating with skilled team members to improve how they worked together. Rather than complaining to the team about performance issues, this PO collaborated directly with the Scrum Master to address challenges. Most importantly, they maintained crystal clear focus on customer value, ensuring every decision and direction connected back to what would truly benefit the end user.

The Bad Product Owner: The JIRA Manager

Joelle describes the problematic pattern of Business Analysts who receive a title change to Product Owner without understanding the fundamental shift in role and responsibilities. These individuals continue to see themselves as scribes rather than visionaries, treating their primary job as managing JIRA instead of setting a vision for where the product should go. They typically lack understanding of meaningful metrics and rely on gut-feel prioritization rather than data-driven decisions. Most critically, they fail to communicate about problems to solve or establish a clear North Star for the team. Joelle recommends providing these POs with structured formats for Epics and features that start with hypothesis, problem, and measures, helping them think at higher levels than just user story management.

Self-reflection Question: Whether you're a Product Owner or work closely with one, how might you help elevate the conversation from task management to vision and problem-solving?

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