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The Product Owner is responsible for each Sprint's return on investment (ROI). The product owner must identify product features and translate them to a Product Backlog by deciding what should be prioritized for the Sprint. 

Also, the Product Owner continually refines and improves the prioritized items list to ensure the highest value for the business and minimize Sprint's costs. Maintaining control over the investment (total costs of the Sprint) and working to ensure maximum returns helps maximize ROI.

How does the Product Owner Manage the Responsibility?

A Product Owner will first need to determine the financial benefits likely to be generated by a specific Sprint. Here the total monetary benefits from all the items in the Product Backlog should be considered.

The benefits are then compared to the effort put in by the Scrum Team. If the benefits are larger than the efforts put in, there is a positive return on investment. In such instances, the Sprint is worth doing. But, if the effort is greater than the benefits accrued, the team is better off focusing on other things.

When the Product Owner can accurately estimate the business value of a Sprint – revenue generated, money saved, or increased customer retention. The team's actual costs can then be converted to monetary units. This is done by looking at actual expenses related to elements like salaries, equipment costs, and administrative overheads. 

A product owner will be responsible for financing and budgeting. They must understand how to allocate resources optimally and manage the backlog to ensure maximum value. Proper budget management also makes the team more productive and is vital for ensuring higher ROI for each Sprint. 

Note: The fully loaded costs of the team should be used to calculate the actual cost of running a sprint. All costs outside the team must also be considered if the team does not have clearly defined costs related to the specific Sprint.

Other Key Responsibilities of the Product Owner

A product owner plays one of the most crucial roles in Scrum. It is vital for anyone assigned the role to have a 360-degree view of everything. And besides being responsible for ROI, the person will also have other key responsibilities, including the following 4:

1. Defining Product Vision

A product owner must be a high-prospective individual who can visualize a Product Backlog before it is developed. This is only possible if they understand what customers want. They use this perspective to define the Product Vision before sharing it with the Scrum Team. Defining the vision ensures everybody on the team is on the same page so that things flow smoothly.

2. Product Backlog Management

The product owner is responsible for developing the to-do list. They then arrange the items in the list according to their priority levels. The business's overall strategy and its objective determine what is prioritized and what is not. And so the to-do list is dynamic as it keeps on changing as the business objective and strategy change based on the outcome of other Sprints. The product owner is responsible for updating the to-do list to reflect these changes. This requires updating the to-do list to remove what has already been executed or dropped and including new Sprints. They then share this with the team and all stakeholders to ensure everyone is on the same page for optimal project outcomes.

3. Planning and Anticipating Client Needs

The responsibility of planning and anticipating the client's needs also falls on the product owner. They use their range of knowledge on client's requirements and good communication skills to ensure the product is created to meet the specific needs of the target clients. They must focus enough energy on understanding clients' needs and use the information gathered to formulate a product that best fulfills them.

4. Product Progress Evaluation

Besides crafting product ideas based on client needs, the product owner is also responsible for evaluating the progress at every stage. They often need to decide whether the team should continue with the product development as it is, make changes and improvements as they progress, or abandon it and divert the team to other things. A product owner is tasked with ensuring the product development process remains in sync with the vision and that the team delivers the desired outcomes at each iteration.

Conclusion

A product owner will have full authority over the product. They are responsible for the return on investment and have to work to ensure optimal outcomes with higher returns and lower costs for a high ROI. Besides being responsible for ROI, the product owner has many other key responsibilities, from defining Product Vision to evaluating product progress. And so they will play a crucial role in the overall success of any Sprint.

References

1. https://www.tryscrum.com/blogs/who-is-responsible-for-roi-in-scrum/

2. https://premieragile.com/product-owner-responsibilities/

3. https://www.scruminc.com/product-owner/

4. https://cdn.berteig.com/how-to-apply-agile/scrum-rules-your-product-owner-knows-the-estimated-return-on-investment-of-a-sprint/

5. https://www.invensislearning.com/blog/agile-scrum-roles-and-responsibilities/

6. https://dzone.com/articles/is-product-owner-accountable-for-return-on-investm