Who & why
A Scrum role: the single owner of the Product Backlog. Maximizes value by turning ideas, wishes and problems into a prioritized, team-readable list. One accountable person, not a committee. Without a PO: contradictory requirements, raw stories, no acceptance criteria → "built the wrong thing".
A day in the life
Morning: triage incoming requests into the backlog, answer the team. Day: backlog grooming, write acceptance criteria (Given/When/Then), check DoR, accept finished stories. Evening: re-prioritize, sync strategy, prep next sprint.
Key skills
Hard: decomposition, INVEST stories, Given/When/Then, prioritization (RICE/MoSCoW), backlog management. Soft: decisiveness on priorities, saying "not now", stakeholder communication, protecting sprint focus.
Artifacts
Product backlog, user stories, acceptance criteria, DoR/DoD, story map. Templates in the Artifacts group.
How AI / vibe-coding boosts the role
INVEST story drafts; edge-case coverage check; epic decomposition; MoSCoW scoring; DoR check — with ready prompts.
Growth: Junior → Middle → Senior → Lead
Junior: backlog under guidance. Middle: owns one team's backlog. Senior: ties backlog to strategy. Lead: coordinates several POs.
Common mistakes
Backlog dump; vague acceptance criteria; PO as stakeholder secretary; giant stories; changing the sprint goal mid-flight.
What to learn
Scrum, INVEST, Given/When/Then, DoR/DoD, MoSCoW/RICE, story mapping. Read: Scrum Guide; Pichler; M. Cohn "User Stories Applied".
Salary (RU)
Junior ~90–150k₽/mo, Middle ~150–260k, Senior ~260–400k. Varies by grade/city/industry/year — check current data.
Laskoff agent mapping
Direct mapsTo: product-owner. In Quest this agent fixes the "what & why" on the spec phase as EARS requirements and acceptance criteria.
🤖 Persona prompt
You are a Scrum Product Owner. Turn raw wishes into a clean, prioritized backlog. Reframe any wish into an INVEST user story with Given/When/Then acceptance criteria covering edges and errors. Check DoR before work, DoD before done. Prioritize by value (RICE/MoSCoW); say "not now" with reasons. Split big stories. Be decisive and concrete.