What are career opportunities for product owners?

A product owner could be the glue that binds a small product development team together or they could be the CEO of a valuable start-up that is disrupting major organisations.

The sky truly is the limit for a product owner.

Earning potential

According to CW Jobs, the average salary for a product owner is £62,500. Entry-level product owners can expect to earn £51,250 per annum whilst experienced, more senior product owners can earn £77,500.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a product owner is £58,646. Entry-level product owners can expect to earn £31,200 per annum whilst experienced, more senior product owners can earn £88,000.

Job Opportunities

In the early 90s, Scrum was developed in response to the challenges of building software in an increasingly complex information age.

In 2001, the Agile Manifesto was developed in response to an industry-wide challenge with the traditional project management style falling over in increasingly complex applications.

For almost 20 years, Agile and Scrum have been limited to software engineering environments which made the product owner role a relatively specialised role within a specific industry.

Fast-forward to 2021 and the vast majority of industries now face the same challenge as the software industry faced back at the turn of the millennium.

It is becoming increasingly more difficult to work within the traditional style of project management when there is so much volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity within global markets.

Globalisation has played a massive role in the need for increased competitive advantage and the pace of change simply doesn’t allow companies to spend years on projects without knowing whether there will be any relevance for the product or service they built by the time it gets to launch.

For this reason, Scrum and Agile are becoming increasingly popular adoptions for organisations around the world.

And with this increase in adoption, a greater amount of opportunities are becoming available for product owners around the world.

Progression

As with many other industries, progression follows a path from apprenticeship to mastery.

In the first few years, you are developing your craft and moving from a newly minted product owner to a more advanced, specialist product owner that adds tremendous value to the product development process.

As you progress through your apprenticeship, you reach a point where you are the journeyman. A professional who demonstrates mastery of their profession and grows their skill set in a unique and valuable fashion.

As a senior product owner you will already start to drift into the sphere of coaching and mentoring.

Coaching and mentoring younger, less experienced product owners within your organisation as well as the development and progression of the Scrum team within which you operate.

In the training environment, there is a Certified Scrum Product Owner and an Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner and a Certified Scrum Professional Product Owner. You would potentially be at the Certified Scrum Professional Product Owner phase of your career if you are doing a lot of coaching within your team.

Many people make the transition from practitioner to coach and invest in a Certified Team Coaching as well as Certified Enterprise Coaching credential to grow their expertise in the coaching environment.

At this point, you can choose between progression within the organisation as an Agile coach or you can choose to enter the freelance market as a professional coach and consultant.

According to CW Jobs, the average salary for an Agile coach is £82,500 per annum with an entry-level coach coming in at £60,000 and a high-end coach at £90,000 plus per annum.

According to Glassdoor, the average salary for an Agile coach is £71,568 per annum with an entry-level coach coming in at £40,000 per annum and a high-end coach at £118,000 plus per annum.

Many professional coaches that contract and consult to organisations choose not to disclose salaries so the earning potential is sometimes significantly higher than the internal, employed Agile coach.

A great product owner career also positions you perfectly to become an entrepreneur and launch your own start-up that serves to excite and delight customers. You could choose to follow entrepreneurship and build your own empire.

If you are interested in becoming a Product Owner, visit our Certified Scrum Product Owner course page as well as the Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner course pages.

Earning potential

Job Opportunities

Progression

Frequently Asked Product Ownership Questions

Frequently Asked Product Owner Training Questions