Product Owner: What is the cost of hiring?

What is a product owner?

A product owner (PO), also called a product director, defines the product vision, manages the product backlog and ensures that development teams deliver features that meet customer and business needs. They connect investors and development, aligning product goals with company strategy.

Why hire a product owner?

Product owners are responsible for key product development tasks, including backlog management, investor communication and feature prioritization. Hiring a PO is ideal if your company needs clear product direction, stronger collaboration between business and engineering teams or improved delivery of customer-focused outcomes.

Signs you may need a product owner include unclear product priorities, misalignment between collaborators and development teams, or slow-release cycles.

Contributions of a great product owner:

• clear product vision and roadmap alignment
• backlog management and feature prioritization
• effective collaboration between investors and agile teams

Defining your hiring needs for a product owner

Start by assessing the scope of your product initiatives and determining whether you require a full-time, part-time or contract PO. Decide on the right title (e.g. product owner, associate product owner, senior product owner) and set a budget based on salary benchmarks. Compare similar roles, such as product manager or business analyst, to ensure your description matches your needs.

What are the types of product owners?

Product owners may specialize in specific industries, product types or team structures, depending on company size and business goals.

Common types of product owners include:

• technical product owner: focuses on technical requirements, APIs and platform scalability
• business-focused product owner: aligns features with market needs and business strategy
• customer-centric product owner: prioritizes user feedback and customer satisfaction
• feature product owner: owns a specific module or product feature within a larger ecosystem
• enterprise product owner: coordinates product initiatives across multiple teams or business units

When writing your product owner job description, consider including some or all of the following keywords to improve the visibility of your job posting. These are the most popular search terms leading to clicks on product owner jobs, according to Indeed data:

• product owner
• product manager
• business analyst
• data scientist
• data
• salesforce
• air canada
• software developer
• product sanofi

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Where to find product owners?

You can find product owners across Canada by targeting agile-focused communities, professional networking events and product management education programs. Consider tapping into your internal project teams or exploring professionals from related roles in business analysis or product management.

To find the right product owner for your business, consider trying out a few different recruiting strategies:

• Agile and product conferences: Events like ProductCamp, Agile Open Canada or Scrum Day attract experienced POs seeking new opportunities.
• Professional associations: Organizations like the International Institute of Business Analysis (IIBA) or Scrum Alliance host job boards and member directories.
• University programs: Business and tech graduates from schools such as the University of Toronto, UBC and McGill are strong candidates for junior PO roles.
• Internal promotions: Promote high-performing business analysts, project managers or developers with strong product instincts.
• Adjacent industries: Candidates from UX design, QA, or consulting roles may bring transferable product skills.
• Post your job online: Try posting your product owner job on Indeed to find and attract quality product owner candidates.

Skills to look for in a product owner

A successful product owner candidate will typically have the following skills and competencies, which may be gained through a variety of experiences, training or education:

• backlog management and prioritization using agile frameworks (Scrum, Kanban)
• investor communication and expectation management
• user story writing and requirements gathering
• ability to define and measure product success with KPIs/OKRs
• technical understanding of software development processes and tools
• strategic thinking and alignment with business goals

Writing a product owner job description

Now that you know the key skills, salary expectations, popular job-seeker search terms and hiring insights for a product owner, you’re ready to write a job description.

A product owner job description typically includes a compelling summary of the role, a detailed list of duties and responsibilities and the required and preferred skills for the position. You may also want to include information about your company culture, benefits, and perks to attract candidates to your open role.

Ready to get started? See our full guide for writing product owner job descriptions.

Interviewing product owner candidates

Strong candidates for product owner positions will be confident answering questions regarding:

• experience with backlog grooming and prioritization
• investor communication and conflict resolution
• defining user stories and acceptance criteria
• aligning product features with business value
• working with agile teams and adapting to change

Need help coming up with interview questions? See our list of product owner interview questions for examples (with sample answers).