Boris Banjac - Team player always and forever

The soul of Pangea.ai’s brand is making human connections. Our tech partners continue to build and strengthen our community’s DNA. We are very proud to have Amplitudo as part of our circle, whose unique individuals now inspire and empower all of our team members.

Time to meet the Product Owner Lead at Amplitudo, Boris!

Economy was my first choice.

My first and only choice when enrolling in high school was the school of economics, where I singled out marketing as a special sphere of interest, which is why I chose the same field to study further. That made it easier to choose a faculty, so I graduated from the Faculty of Economics, majoring in marketing.

The range of jobs that a graduate economist can perform is quite wide. During our studies, we get to know many different fields (business, marketing, finance, entrepreneurship, accounting). Still, we don't get enough practice to do quality work in any of them (which, I suppose, is a problem with most faculties). I think that an even harder decision than choosing a faculty is perhaps the choice of the profession. I spent the first two years of my professional life dealing with finance.

However, since I didn't quite find myself fit, I decided to return to what interested me during high school and student days, so I applied to Amplitudo's finance job ad.

Everyday office work

From finance job ad to the first tester and Product Owner of the company.

The interview where I tried to explain that I was not interested in finance and would like to try my hand at the marketing sector was very interesting but also successful. They decided to give me a chance, so I spent my first days in the digital marketing department.

However, taking part in website and application development became increasingly attractive to me, so some of the first sites and applications we developed passed my quality control as part of the role of the first tester in Amplitudo. The combination of experience gained through working with clients in the marketing department and growing knowledge of software through testing led to the position without which the development of any product could not be possible - PO.

The role, function, and importance of a Product Owner.

Today, all IT companies are switching to the Agile methodology, which opens new work positions that ensure a better development organization, carried out by the Agile team.

Each team consists of three roles: Product Owner, Scrum Master, and members of the development team (developers, testers, designers). The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the product value. PO works on creating a product vision in cooperation with all interested parties, both managers and clients. PO has a great responsibility to meet all the requirements in cooperation with other team members.

What makes a good Product Owner?

First of all, PO must be pragmatic. There are several other qualities that a PO should possess, some of which even oppose each other. For example, the PO must be business-oriented and a leader, but at the same time, it is very important to be visionary and creative.

Of course, to perform his role well, the PO must think "out of the box", constantly develop new ideas, collect feedback from clients, managers, and members of the development team, and define the next steps accordingly. Finally, we can say that the best Product Owner would be extroverted, communicative, innovative, and of course, versatile.

Product presentation

Duties, responsibilities, and expectations.

The most crucial PO responsibility on a daily level is managing the product backlog. Working with clients is very dynamic, and each of them wants to respond to all the opportunities that the market offers promptly. Therefore, items defined in the product backlog may require specific changes.

After establishing the vision and defining and prioritizing items in the backlog, the PO must be involved in all phases of product development so that the team receives all the necessary instructions and clarifications on potential ambiguities. The PO must participate in all team meetings (daily standups, sprint planning, sprint retrospective), because, together with the development team, the best possible solutions are reached, especially when there are obstacles in the realization of the plan defined by the Sprint.

The Product Owner must be accessible to everyone, especially the team, communicate openly with each member, and understand their concerns. POs are expected to be pragmatic leaders, to lead the team daily by the vision and defined goals. The PO manages the product from start to finish and thus has a lot of responsibility. That is why it is very important to focus on quality communication ensuring that all interested parties understand the product's vision.

My working day - prioritization and motivation.

Carrying out the PO function on various projects, as well as the very PO lead position, entail numerous meetings with all interested parties. In addition, we are constantly working on creating or supplementing some project tasks. That is why it is very important to plan every second of the working day. Stickers where I write my tasks down and keep them in a visible place as a daily reminder has proven to be very useful for me in this challenge. Of course, for larger-scale plans, I use digital tools, such as Trello, while checking Jira with other team members as part of daily standups.

In a way, the PO is the first on the assembly line during product development, so many other team members depend on the tasks that the POs have to perform. It is precisely based on this that we set priorities and complete tasks so that the other team members can continue or start theirs as soon as possible. The motivation is for everything to be efficient and effective, that is, for the assembly line to function continuously and for everyone to know what and how they need to do at every moment.

Get to know Boris and the rest of the Amplitudo team!

We’re delighted that Boris decided to join Amplitudo – it’s been great having them on board! If you have any questions or want to get to know Boris or one of their colleagues from the Amplitudo team, we can put you in touch. Don’t hesitate to reach out!