Certification — The action or process of providing someone or something with an official document attesting to a status or level of achievement.
Aspiring Product Owners often wonder whether they should pursue a Scrum Product Owner certification. If yes, then which one? The market is flooded with numerous options, leading to certification inflation, and many online resources are available to help individuals pass various Product Owner certifications. Before delving further into the subject, let me explore the ‘why’ part of it.
Why does one aspire to be PSPO, CSPO or SAFE certified? I can see the following reasons:
- To gain a complete understanding of product ownership.
- To be shortlisted for product positions in the open job market.
- To secure an internal promotion within the organisation.
I found the certification materials to be of limited use, especially regarding their practical application of concepts in the workplace.
Product owner certifications often provide an incomplete picture
Since the Product Owner is a Scrum role defined by the Scrum framework, these Scrum Product Owner certifications are primarily focused on the tactical aspects of product management, i.e., product development or execution. They don’t cover the product or customer discovery aspect, which involves customer and market research, as well as interaction with Sales, Marketing, etc.
A Scrum Team is a group of people who work together to complete projects and deliver products using the Scrum framework. Scrum teams are typically composed of a Product Owner, a Scrum Master, and a development team.
Without proper product discovery, one can not build a product that customers love. So, the assumption is that someone (a product Manager) will do the discovery work for you and create the initial product backlog. The Scrum Product Owner will then own the product backlog, prioritise the user stories, and start working with the development team on the product development using either XP, Scrum, or Kanban frameworks.
Silicon Valley product guru Marty Cagan also expressed his concerns in one of his blogs:
Many people attend brief and straightforward CSPO training and, understandably, consider themselves product owners upon completing it. There’s nothing wrong with that if they just realise that this prepares them only for the Agile rituals the Product Owner has to perform, but for many, that’s not what happened. For many product owners, this actually means they were trained as product managers.
Over the years, these certifications have become lucrative opportunities for generating income. Each year, a new certification is introduced. You may have noticed that most certifications recommend attending a two-day paid training workshop.
The training fees vary depending on the location of the training, even if it’s online; costs are determined by the trainer’s geographical location. If you pass one certification, you can move on to the next one in the series. The journey seems to have no end.
What is the best way for aspiring product professionals to progress in their careers?
- Try to focus on the problem space rather than the solution space. If you can identify the customer’s pain points and develop the right value proposition, then creating a valuable product shouldn’t be too difficult. Develop your critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
- Rather than focusing solely on the Scrum, Safe, and Less frameworks, try to understand other essential product frameworks, such as the Lean Startup, Design Sprints, and the Jobs-to-be-Done framework. These frameworks primarily work in the product discovery space.
- Stay Updated: Engaging in various educational activities can enhance one’s understanding of products. These may include reading books, case studies, and industry-specific blogs; viewing instructional videos; listening to podcasts; participating in professional meet-ups; gaining insight into the business models of different products; and addressing real-world challenges.
- Learn by Doing (Even Without the Title): Start thinking like a product manager in your current role, regardless of your title. Analyse the products you use daily – what works well? What could be improved? Why do you think the product team made certain decisions?
- Seek a mentor who has excelled in product management.
- Try to become a product manager rather than just a Scrum Product Owner.
Conclusion
Any agile certification that doesn’t require candidates to have some kind of hands-on, practical training or testing is detrimental, not just for the candidates but for organisations that hire them and for the software development field in general
– Dave West, Scrum.Org
While a Product Owner certification may help you understand the basics, true expertise comes from tackling real challenges and working directly with teams and stakeholders.
How much should hiring managers depend on Agile credentials to assess a candidate’s expertise and experience? I don’t care if someone holds all the Product Owner certifications and can’t answer basic questions about A/B testing or identify the critical product metrics for the product inception phase.
Finally, I’ll conclude with Albert Einstein’s quote:
The Only source of knowledge is experience.
Leave a Reply