Product owner job description.
Hiring a product owner or exploring a transition into agile delivery? This product owner job description outlines tasks like backlog management, sprint planning, and stakeholder engagement. It also includes required skills, long-term growth potential, and average salary ranges in the UK.
What does a product owner do?
A product owner acts as the voice of the customer within agile delivery teams. They own the product backlog, prioritise work based on value, and ensure development teams build the right features at the right time.
Their responsibilities include writing user stories, managing sprint planning, accepting deliverables, and aligning stakeholders. They collaborate closely with product managers, scrum masters, and engineering teams.
In smaller teams, the product owner may also define strategy. In scaled agile organisations, they focus on tactical execution, ensuring that day-to-day delivery aligns with broader business goals.
Key responsibilities of a product owner.
Product owners manage the product backlog and ensure delivery teams build the right features. Their responsibilities often include:
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Owning the product backlog and refining user stories
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Prioritising work based on value and business objectives
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Collaborating with development teams during sprint planning
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Reviewing and accepting completed work against defined criteria
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Gathering feedback from stakeholders and end users
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Supporting product managers with roadmap execution
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Clarifying requirements and removing delivery blockers
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Participating in daily stand-ups, demos, and retrospectives
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Ensuring the team delivers customer value consistently
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Communicating sprint goals and backlog progress
This role blends delivery focus with stakeholder management and team alignment.
Skills and requirements for a product owner.
Product owners bridge business goals and execution in agile teams. Employers typically look for:
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2–5 years of experience in agile product or delivery roles
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Experience writing and prioritising user stories and acceptance criteria
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Strong understanding of backlog management and sprint ceremonies
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Skilled in working with cross-functional teams
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Familiarity with Jira, Confluence, or similar tools
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Ability to collaborate closely with UX and engineering teams
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Confident facilitating reviews, retrospectives, and stand-ups
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Comfortable aligning product increments with stakeholder goals
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Attention to detail and delivery ownership
Most product owners maintain agile alignment with strategic intent.
Average salary for a product owner.
In the UK, the average salary for a product owner typically ranges from £55,000 to £75,000, based on agile delivery, backlog prioritisation, and business alignment.
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Mid-level product owners typically earn between £55,000 and £65,000
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Senior product owners managing complex platforms or B2B solutions may earn between £66,000 and £75,000
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Scrum or SAFe certifications can help boost earning potential
Salaries are strongest in Agile-led teams, particularly within healthtech, ecommerce, and platform products.
Career progression for a product owner.
A product owner is responsible for managing the product backlog and ensuring the development team builds the right features. Often operating within agile teams, this role leads into senior product and strategy-focused positions. A typical progression includes:
Business analyst / Associate product owner
Supports backlog management, captures user stories, and collaborates with stakeholders.
Product owner
Prioritises features, refines requirements, and acts as the voice of the customer within the scrum team.
Senior product owner / Agile lead
Manages larger product scopes, multiple squads, or more complex systems. Aligns delivery with roadmap.
Product manager / Product lead
Expands into strategic ownership of product direction, success metrics, and user outcomes.
Head of product / Director of product delivery
Leads the entire product delivery process across multiple teams and business units.
salary guide
Our UK operations salary guide.
Product owners translate business goals into actionable user stories. Salary should reflect technical fluency, agile delivery experience, and product lifecycle knowledge.
Use the UK operations salary guide to benchmark product roles, track changes from 2024, and prepare for future salary expectations through 2026.
FAQS
Product owner FAQs.
Usually embedded within agile delivery teams — often reporting into a product manager or product lead. Their day-to-day revolves around backlog refinement, sprint planning, and user story definition, often working closely with engineering and QA.
The role is becoming more hybrid. In some teams, POs take on strategic input and prioritisation, while in others they act more like delivery managers. Many UK businesses are redefining the PO role to fit their agile maturity level.
Clarity. They must define user stories that engineers can execute without ambiguity, and stay available to unblock decisions. Strong POs know when to push for refinement — and when to ship with iteration in mind.
Expect scenario-based questions: how you handled story conflict, scope creep, or sprint overruns. Hiring managers want to hear how you’ve managed stakeholders under time or resource pressure.
Progression can lead to product manager, delivery lead, or agile coach — especially if the PO has been exposed to customer needs, roadmap shaping, and stakeholder alignment.
