Mutual of Omaha Insurance started an Enterprise Business Agility Initiative with a goal to deliver value to customers quicker. Stable Teams were formed with cross functional staff (including a leadership triangle), a prioritized backlog, co-located, working together daily and practicing Agile. A key role on the triangle was the Product Owner (PO). The PO was traditionally a Senior Manager from Product Operations. However, the demand for co-locating and working together daily became a challenge for the PO’s. Mutual tried different PO alternatives including sharing duties, refining roles and providing PO assistants. Utilizing Business Analysts (BA) in this role was a creative solution that played upon the strengths and knowledge of the BA’s. The BA’s were also challenged to operate on a higher level as a PO but still rely on their core fundament competencies to make a successful transition to PO’s. Mutual’s Case Study will highlight retrospective challenges and best practices to create this successful PO model using Business Analysts.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the Product Owner role and what Business Analyst competencies align with these duties
• Understand the BA career ladder and what skills, experience and attributes are essential to transition to the PO role
• Review key challenges and lessons learned as the BA transitioned into the PO role
• Discussion on “Would the PO role be a good fit for you?”