Challenges Faced by Product Owners and Effective Product Planning in Agile Teams

In many teams a great deal of effort is spent on agile transformation, using many methods and implementing practices, yet after several months the expected results are not achieved; the team atmosphere changes, agile roles are filled, and development efficiency improves, but something still feels missing.

The root cause is that the business side is not agile, meaning the so‑called PO ends up doing the work of a Business Analyst every day.

This does not imply that the BA role is inferior to the PO; each role should have its own focus and solve its own problems. In a small, well‑designed agile team a BA is usually unnecessary because the PO can fully assume the responsibilities, but in larger teams or special scenarios—such as complex, large‑scale products—a BA is needed to help with product planning, decomposition, and other tasks when the PO lacks sufficient capacity.

Another situation occurs when the PO has enough time but lacks authority; without decision‑making power the PO can only translate leadership ideas into requirements, which is essentially BA work.

The most important aspect is not the PO’s title but the PO’s function: the PO should steer product direction, conduct product planning, and manage priorities. If the PO spends every day on requirement splitting and documentation, even a large output cannot guarantee product value.

Two issues new POs need to watch out for

1. The PO and the team are partners, not a service relationship. Collaboration means the PO can make requests while also providing support, feedback, clear product roadmaps, understandable requirements, and post‑release performance data; likewise, the team can request assistance from the PO.

2. Product value is not limited to commercial value. While commercial value is essential for a company’s survival, long‑term success should stem from customer value—how often customers use the product, how good the experience is, and whether core problems are solved. Customer‑centric product planning creates market advantage, improves retention, and ultimately drives profit.

A third focus is ecosystem value: modern markets require cooperation with upstream/downstream partners and even competitors, and a product’s social impact contributes to its ecosystem value.

How should product planning be done?

For new POs, product planning can seem easy to describe but hard to execute. It requires multiple dimensions, methods, and tools.

First, understand the market by analyzing industry trends, customer needs, and competitor movements to identify strengths and weaknesses for business planning.

Second, conduct user research by setting clear research goals and using appropriate techniques such as questionnaires, interviews, and workshops to uncover pain points, analyze feedback, and prioritize requirements, which become key outputs for planning.

Third, define a clear product positioning using tools like the Business Model Canvas, considering target customers, partners, channels, and revenue models to establish a differentiated market stance.

Fourth, continuously adjust the plan based on operational metrics; product planning is not a one‑time activity but must evolve with market changes.

Finally, align operations with the product’s lifecycle: acquisition focus in the introduction phase, value delivery in growth, retention in maturity, and re‑activation strategies in decline, ensuring the product continues to deliver value throughout its life.

The article concludes that agile transformation cannot rely solely on the development side; business agility is the core driver of results, and the PO is the most critical role in this process, offering insights for agile teams and novice POs.

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