The Curious Product Owner and the Disempowered One — How Scrum Masters Can Help POs Find Their Voice | Viktor Glinka

Viktor Glinka: The Curious Product Owner and the Disempowered One — How Scrum Masters Can Help POs Find Their Voice

In this episode, we refer to product owner anti-patterns and product owner interviews on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast.

The Great Product Owner: The Curious Negotiator Who Uses Data and Passion

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

"Great product owners are always asking: what if? How can we do it differently? How can we simplify?" - Viktor Glinka

Viktor describes great product owners as fundamentally curious people who constantly look for simpler, better ways to do things. But curiosity alone isn't enough — they're also skilled negotiators who navigate conversations with teams, stakeholders, and customers. In scaled setups, their work shifts from clarification to prioritization, and they delegate effectively. Viktor highlights their visualization skills with a concrete example: one product owner showed stakeholders a work composition chart revealing that more than 50% of the team's work was technical debt, making it impossible to deliver new features. That single visualization changed the conversation. Great product owners are also systems thinkers who understand dynamics and root causes, avoiding local optimization. Viktor adds something rarely discussed in frameworks: mindfulness. Product owners face constant pressure, and the ability to make peace with decisions — to move forward without regret — is critical. They also share their passion and vulnerability with development teams, telling them personally why they want to build something. It's the emotional complement to data-driven negotiation.

Self-reflection Question: Does your product owner use data and visualization to negotiate with stakeholders, or do they rely on authority and deadlines? How could you help them build those skills?

The Bad Product Owner: The Disempowered Middleman Who Can't Give Direction

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Agile and Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes.

"This fear of not being allowed — it's an illusion. You can always do more. Just try. No one will fire you for a suggestion." - Viktor Glinka

For Viktor, the worst product owner anti-pattern isn't about skill or knowledge — it's about empowerment. He believes every person can learn to become a great product owner if they are empowered and trusted by the organization. The red flags are clear: when a product owner talks about deadlines and commitments but never about return on investment or outcomes, that's a sign they're being pushed rather than empowered. Viktor shares the story of a product owner who was struggling to give direction because stakeholders just wanted their features delivered. He was a middleman — afraid to communicate his own vision to the team, afraid to challenge stakeholders. But inside, there was a spark of passion about the product. Viktor helped him uncover it using a simple tool: the product vision canvas. They sat down together and put his thoughts on paper. Once the vision was written, the product owner started thinking about the next step on his own: "What if I show this to stakeholders? What if I tell them there's a better way?" The product vision canvas became the bridge from learned helplessness to ownership.

Self-reflection Question: Is your product owner telling themselves "I'm not allowed to" when they actually could do more? What's the smallest experiment you could run together to test that assumption?

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About Viktor Glinka

Viktor is an organisational consultant and Professional Scrum Master who helps teams and leaders find simpler ways to deliver value while keeping the human side of work at the center. He's practical, curious, and focused on real outcomes rather than buzzwords. His true passion is adaptability - both in business and in personal life.

You can link with Viktor Glinka on LinkedIn.