Suddenly Product Owner

You are a new product owner for a product that you understand in principle - but don't really know yet.

The customer expects - and rightly so - immediate operational readiness. What to do?

To deliver cool new features to users, you first have to do one thing: experience the product from the user's perspective.

So: product installed, played around a bit. Discovered new terms and processes. Then created test data and imported it into the system via REST API - using Mockaroo, because I still had a subscription from the last project.

The API is not always easy to use - frustrating, but instructive, especially because it deals with very complex data.

I discover dependencies that are not visible in the UI. Many users also work directly with the API - that is valuable context.

At the same time: The UI helps you to understand. The imported data has to appear somewhere - so you click through, search and learn.

This type of familiarization creates a steep learning curve. Mistakes that I make are probably also made by many users. This is exactly where understanding arises - and the first ideas for real improvements.

Instructional videos? Only enough for the basics. If you really want to _understand_ a system, you have to do it yourself.

Online communities and support sites also provide valuable insights - real problems, real solutions.

And when you think you have found a problem? Then the next step is not to change it immediately. Perhaps the solution makes sense. Therefore: talk - with developers, architects, users. Understand how the system really "ticks".

Only those who experience the product themselves can develop it further in a meaningful way.

And one more thing: Be enthusiastic about your product - and treat users like good friends whom you really want to help.

Understand their goals, not just their desires. Because as Henry Ford said:

"If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said: faster horses."