r/ProductOwner

I just interviewed for a position where all four roles (Product Manager, Product Owner, Scrum Master, and People Manager) are combined into a single job. I’m trying to figure out how to feel about that.

For context:

In my current role, I’m a Product Owner. My people manager is also the Product Manager, but I’ve never really gotten meaningful support from them. Most of the product responsibilities fall on me, and they only show up during planning cycles.

Same story with our Scrum Master. They basically act as a meeting host (daily standup, weekly ceremonies) but they don’t actually contribute much to the team’s workflow or remove blockers. Again, a lot of that ends up falling on me.

Because of this, I kind of understand why a company might think these roles can be merged. In practice, I’ve already been doing pieces of all three. But seeing them formally combined into one official role feels… heavy. Potentially unrealistic. Maybe even a red flag.

So I’m curious how others see it:

• Is this a normal setup in your organization?

• Have you seen these roles successfully combined?p

• Would you consider this a warning sign, or is it just a different flavor of agile?

It sucks when your job depends on the job of others. If something goes wrong, it's your fault. If something goes right, credit to the team. It's very stressfull and the worse part is that there is no recognition what so ever.

My team is very depending on someone to create small tasks, subtasks, sub-sub tasks, being on every refinement session that takes 2 hours peer week, and it just keeps me away from focusing on the biggest part of the PM work and finally create some impact.

Have any Business/Product Owners used Coursiv to generate DTC online sales? I feel like I keep falling for pitches and end of wasting $150 here, $50 there, $100... Anyone ever hear/work with them?

I'm developer with 11 years experience now. With AI and all the disruptions I made up my mind to move towards product delivery and management. I also started semi online MBA to check a box which is due finish in Jan 2027. 

Now my current company is offering Associate product owner role. They will make full transition in two years as per company policy when switching verticals.

We are expecting our second baby soon and I and wife has decided to move back to Berlin, near family, from London. 

With current job market, do you think "Associate" product owner is going to be a issue when applying for Product owner jobs given that I have 11 years of software development experience? If not Berlin, we can move to Dublin where my parents live. 

I'm PSPO1 certified.

Quick questions for Devs/PMs:

1. What technical level is expected for a working student? (Logic vs. Frameworks?)
2. How much should I focus on "Product" (KPIs, Users) vs. "Dev" (Coding)?
3. What’s one question I can ask to show I understand the product lifecycle?

Lastly, if you could give me just one "pro-tip" about product development that I won't find in a textbook, what would it be?

Thanks!