Product Owner
The single person accountable for maximizing the value of the product and managing the Product Backlog.
The Product Owner represents stakeholder interests in a single ordered backlog, makes prioritization decisions, and ensures the team is always working on the most valuable thing next. The role differs sharply across scaling frameworks — at scale, strategic product work often splits off to a Product Manager or similar role, leaving the PO with tactical team-level backlog stewardship.
Across the Frameworks
Owns the Product Goal, Product Backlog, and value maximization for one team. Strategic and tactical roles fused into one person.
Tactical role owning the Team Backlog for one Agile Team. Strategic product work (vision, roadmap, ART Backlog) moves up to the Product Manager.
A single PO serves 2–8 teams with one Product Backlog. Per-team or area POs are not permitted in basic LeSS.
One PO for the entire Nexus (3–9 teams), working from a single Product Backlog.