Product owners, this one’s for you.

You drive the business goals for the products we work on. You champion the funding—sometimes, you’re the source of funding. You are probably a Subject Matter Expert in the industry/problem area that the product is targeting, and you got to that place by having done the job of the target user at some point in the past. You know everything there is to know about the product you want built—market segmentation, product placement, use cases, user types…probably right down to how the interface should work, what the color scheme should be, and what font you want to see in the labels.

You are your own worst enemy.

We have lots of different titles for you: product owner, business driver, product director, product planner, sometimes just “business” or “product”, Asshole in the Corner Office, S/He Who Looks for Trouble, Out of Touch Pri…ok, I’ll stop now.

Does any of the following sound familiar?

• When asked what, if any, research you are basing user assumptions on (a typical question for any creative brief at the outset of a project), you reply with “I know these things because I did this job for years and I know what the fuck I’m doing.”
• In a redesign situation, when asked about any known user pain points in the existing product, you say “Well, you have to get rid of Feature X because it’s broken and causes bugs so no one uses it anyway.”
• In a product integration project, when demo-ing existing functionality you frequently say, “We worked really hard on this and everyone likes it, so I can’t imagine it could be any better or done in a different way, but I guess if you have a suggestion…”
• In response to being asked to answer questions giving insight to the background of your project, you ask “Is this just busy work?”
• When talking about user or system administration needs, you respond “Well, the people who do that know what they’re doing because they’re IT guys, so admin stuff doesn’t matter...it doesn’t have to be easy to understand, just cram those screens full of stuff.”
• While talking about use cases, “I’ve already come up with all of the use cases, so no one else needs to spend time on that. I’ll just send you an e-mail.”
• When meeting with designers for the first time, “I’ve already mocked up the app in Excel, so I’ll send that to you to pretty up.”

If your face is getting warm and turning pink after reading that, it’s with good reason. If you’re getting a little angry right now, that’s fine with me, too.

Why? Because it’s hard to feel sorry for someone who, when given every opportunity to succeed by having (very expensive) user experience analysis and design resources available to them, is determined to forge ahead in a bullheaded attempt to have everything their own way.

You know all, therefore you listen to no one. You’ve seen all, therefore no one else’s experiences matter.

I do not discount the validity of the experience of the SME as product owner. I like having that kind of resource available to me if I have a quick question about a potential user behavior…after I’ve had to opportunity to do a little user research of my own, thanks. I like having someone I can run some high-level use cases by to make sure I’m on the right path. I like having someone to check taskflows against before I get too far down that path. And I like being able to corner you, pin you down, and take you through a cog walk on paper before I spend hours refining interface and interaction elements to take in front of your users. (Or maybe I just like cornering you and pinning you down.)

I know you’re invested in your products’ success. I know many of you think of your products as your babies. I know you probably think you’re doing the right thing by being dictatorial micro-managers when it comes to feature set and the user experience.

I also know that you are often the greatest obstacle to your own success.

Here’s a little secret: Everyone on the product team—analysts, designers, developers, project managers…*everyone*--is invested in the success of the product.

Also, you're not the only one at the table who knows what the fuck you're doing.

You can work with us, or you can position yourself against us. But I promise that working with the team will net you better results than holding yourself above the team.

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