Key skills of a Product Owner should be related to Communication, Commitment, Vision, Focus on functionality, Available and People skills. The following Performing Competencies are needed to do the Product Owner job well:
Subject matter expertise and sufficient market knowledge to understand customer wants and needs.
Manage product backlogs with priority decisions that mitigate risk and maximize value while showing steady progress towards forecast results
Manages backlog content consistent with priorities agreed to with key stakeholders
Provides a visible forecast and notifies stakeholders of any significant changes in effort or risk
Create Feature and User Stories that represent “vertical slices” of value
Collaborates effectively with Scrum Master and Scrum Development Team
Engage both team and stakeholders to collaborate in release planning
Inspires commitment by communicating a clear vision, direction, purpose, and goal for each release and sprint
Approachable and available to team members to answer detailed questions about requirements
Understand and represent the interests of customers and stakeholders such as customer service, sales, development management, and executives
Engages and solicits their feedback to validate priorities and compromises
Constructive Conflict Resolution
Demand / assure accountability
Effective planning and forecasting in spite of the inevitable uncertainty and unknowns
Understands and applies Agile and Scrum principles and practices
Balances new feature delivery with high-quality software while minimizing the creation of additional technical debt for sustainable software development.