#86 – The SAFe PO Prison

In a SAFe setup, there’s the risk that POs become powerless Backlog Administrators because Product Management potentially drives much of the discovery and high-level work. If that’s the case, try this:

  1. Make SAFe POs accountable for products
  2. Help teams take ownership of their products
  3. Get rid of the Program Backlog and place features in (team-specific) Product Backlogs
  4. Keep SAFe Product Management on a strategic level
  5. Make PI Planning about removing product dependencies
  6. Have POs align as needed throughout the PI.