Transition From Business Analyst To Product Owner In 2024 | BusinessAnalystMentor.com

Transition from Business Analyst to Product Owner in 2024


business analyst to product owner

From time to time especially in today’s increased awareness of agile ways of working and product management, many business analysts will ask the question or consider transitioning from a business analyst to product owner.

The need or aspiration or just being told by their organisation will be drivers to start the conversation or explore further the best way to transition.

The leap or transition from business analyst to product owner / product management may not be a huge transition as some people may think.

How quick the transition will take will depend upon each person’s starting point to start bridging the gap and start transitioning.

 

Table of Contents

Learn the Role of a Product Owner

Product Owner

As a product owner, your main objective is to ensure that the product that you contribute too delivers maximum value to its customers. 

Some key responsibilities include:

  • Uncovering the full value of the product and foster a clear vision for its use.
  • Guarantee that development teams are consistently supplying product value, with the appropriate changes to keep up with current trends.
  • Prioritising the backlog in order to reach business and customer objectives.
  • Presenting the backlog to all stakeholders in a clear and understandable format, ensuring it is always visible and easy to interpret.

Business Analyst 

A business analyst is responsible for assembling and investigating information from various sources within an enterprise. This includes tools, processes, documentation as well as stakeholders in order to identify the actual needs of all involved parties. 

Business analysts are essential in bridging the gap between stakeholders and realised solutions. Key responsibilities of business analysts include:

  • Understanding problems and business objectives.
  • Analysing user needs.
  • Determining strategies.
  • Enabling change.
  • Working and collaborating with stakeholders. 
  • Aligning stakeholder needs with solutions.

Identifying Skills Gaps to Transition from a Business Analyst to a Product Owner / Product Manager 

As a business analyst transitioning to a product owner or product manager role, there may be some skills gaps that you need to address. To identify these gaps, you can start by comparing the skills and knowledge required for a product owner or product manager role to your current skills and experience as a business analyst. Some of the skills you may need to develop include:

  • Product strategy: As a product owner or product manager, you will be responsible for developing and executing a product strategyOpens in a new tab. that aligns with the company’s overall goals. This requires an understanding of the market, the customer, and the competition.
  • Product roadmap: As a product owner or product manager you will be responsible for developing product roadmapsOpens in a new tab. and setting direction for your product. This requires an understanding of managing priorities, stakeholders ensuring that the product is meeting customer expectations from a planning perspective.
  • Product discovery: developing skills and techniques to understand the customer needs and to develop the needs into  a product backlog.
  • Product development: learning how to work with a product development team, typically cross-functional to lead them in the right direction to prioritise and develop the product.
  • Communication: As a product owner or manager, you will need to communicate effectively with stakeholders, including the development team, senior leadership, and customers.
  • Prioritisation: You will need to be able to prioritise tasks and make trade-offs when there are conflicting priorities.
  • Technical skills: Depending on the product, you may need to have some technical skills or be able to work closely with technical team members.

Once you have identified the skills you need to develop, you can start working on closing the skills gaps. 

Developing Knowledge of Agile Ways of Working

Developing Agile Knowledge via Websites

It is important that a business analysts gets familiar with agile ways of working so that they get familiar with agile terminology, concepts, principles, and processes. It is also important to understand the key agile roles and responsibilities.   

There are some good websites that provide good basis for understanding agile, including:

From these websites a business analyst will start to under agile ways of working, value, and principles.

Developing Agile Knowledge via Podcasts

There are some good podcasts to listen to from an agile perspective including:

Developing Agile Knowledge via Agile Business Analyst Certifications

There are business analyst agile certifications that provide an agile perspective. The article provides a good range of industry certification bodies that provide very good foundational training.

International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA)

  • IIBA Agile Analysis Certification (IIBA-AAC).
  • IIBA Certificate in Product Ownership Analysis (IIBA-CPOA).

British Computer Society (BCS)

  • BCS Professional Certificate in Agile Business Analysis.

International Software Quality Institute

  • iSQI® Certified Agile Business Analysis (CABA).

APMG International

  • AgileBA Foundation Certification.
  • AgileBA Practitioner certification.

Developing Agile Knowledge via Business Analysis Agile Books

There are some recommended agile business analysis booksOpens in a new tab. in that business analyst can read to develop their working knowledge of agile. Some useful book resources include:

Developing Knowledge of Product Management Ways of Working

Developing Product Management Knowledge via Websites

There are some good websites that provide a good basis to understand more about product management, including:

  • Disciplined Agile Product ManagementOpens in a new tab. : Provides good articles on product management theory and practice.
  • Roman Opens in a new tab.Pilcher’s Blog:Opens in a new tab. Provides useful resources and templates for product roadmaps, product visions.
  • Product SchoolOpens in a new tab.: Product School offers a range of courses and resources for product managers, including a certification program for aspiring product managers. They also offer free resources such as webinars and blog posts on topics such as product development, product marketing, and product strategy.

  • Mind the ProductOpens in a new tab.: Mind the Product is a community of product managers that offers resources such as articles, podcasts, and events on a wide range of product management topics. They also offer training courses and workshops, as well as a job board for product management roles.

Developing Product Management Knowledge via Podcasts

There are some good podcasts to listen to from a product perspective include:

  • One Knight in ProductOpens in a new tab. This is a podcast aimed at people involved in designing, managing, building or marketing products.
  • The Product PodcastOpens in a new tab. This podcast features interviews with product managers and other industry experts. The episodes cover a range of topics, including product roadmaps, user feedback, and metrics and KPIs.
  • The Product ExperienceOpens in a new tab. In-depth conversations with some of the best product people around the world. Every week the hosts chat with people in the know and cover the topics that matter to you – solving real problems, developing awesome products, building successful teams and developing careers.
  • Roman’s Product ManagementOpens in a new tab. Covers relevant topics in product management and helps explains some of Roman’s product management resources.

Developing Product Management Knowledge via Training Courses

There are business analyst training courses that provide a product perspective such as the IIBA Certificate in Product Ownership Analysis (CPOA)Opens in a new tab.. The CPOA provides business analyst professionals to gain knowledge to help transition from a business analyst to a product owner / product manager. 

The CPOA certification covers the role of the product owner and the techniques used to identify, prioritise, and manage requirements. The CPOA certification can help you understand the end-to-end product development process, from ideation to launch, and how to ensure that the product meets the needs of customers and stakeholders. This knowledge can help you transition from a business analyst to a product owner by developing the skills needed to lead the product development process and create value for customers and the business.

You can also consider scrum product owner training such as Professional Scrum Product Owner.Opens in a new tab.

Developing Product Management Knowledge via Product Management Books

There are some recommended product management booksOpens in a new tab. that business analyst can read to develop their working knowledge of product management. Some useful book resources include:

Transition from Business Analyst to Product Owner

Utilising the type of learning resources listed in this blog post is a good starting point for transitioning from a business analyst to product owner / product manager.

Some considerations or next steps that you may also wish to consider include:

  • Taking small incremental steps towards reaching your career development goals. 
  • Writing down where you are lacking and acquire knowledge on your weak areas.
  • Iterate and put what you learned into practice, you may sometimes make mistakes but you’ll learn from them.
  • Don’t be afraid to ask questions at work if you don’t understand something, there are no silly questions.
  • Developing and expanding your professional network to learn from others. Join LinkedIn product management groups and try to be active in the groups.
  • Asking for support from peers. in lunch and learn sessions or community of practice.
  • Own your career and be confident with it.
  • Document and communicate in your career development plan your aspiration to transition from business analyst to product owner.
  • Make others in your workplace aware of your aspirations.
  • Look for a good mentor or coachOpens in a new tab. to support you on your journey.
  • Look for opportunities to explore internal opportunities in your organisation to get exposure to the product management team.

Jerry Nicholas

Jerry continues to maintain the site to help aspiring and junior business analysts and taps into the network of experienced professionals to accelerate the professional development of all business analysts. He is a Principal Business Analyst who has over twenty years experience gained in a range of client sizes and sectors including investment banking, retail banking, retail, telecoms and public sector. Jerry has mentored and coached business analyst throughout his career. He is a member of British Computer Society (MBCS), International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA), Business Agility Institute, Project Management Institute (PMI), Disciplined Agile Consortium and Business Architecture Guild. He has contributed and is acknowledged in the book: Choose Your WoW - A Disciplined Agile Delivery Handbook for Optimising Your Way of Working (WoW).

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