Let’s go much deeper in how people in the role of Product Owner and people in the software Product Management profession should think about levels of training and knowledge acquisition. I thank Luke Hohmann for the following structure that he attributes to Meiler Page-Jones.

  1. Innocent. You have not been exposed to a given area of knowledge and are unaware of its existence. In other words, you have absolutely no plans associated with the topic in your cognitive library, your preexisting set of solutions and experiences.
  2. Aware. You have been exposed to an area of knowledge (such as a new technique to organize your product backlog), perhaps by reading an article, and can see its relevance, but have not yet applied or used it. Your cognitive library may have one or two plans regarding the body of knowledge. These plans are rudimentary at best. You are still unable to use it for any useful purpose.
  3. Apprentice. You have had some formal training in the structures, processes, and outcomes associated with a topic, perhaps through a two or three day workshop. You have begun the task of creating and storing plans in your cognitive library. At this stage of learning, structures tend to be viewed as absolute, not to be violated. You can produce simple outcomes for well-defined problems, but require the assistance of more expert individuals to solve ill-defined or new problems.
  4. Practitioner. You are able to accomplish moderately difficult tasks without assistance. Your cognitive library is fairly well developed, but you must still rely on experts to accomplish very complex tasks.
  5. Journeyman. You regularly use the body of knowledge in your work, and begin to question and/or modify structures to suit your needs. At this stage your cognitive library is reasonably large. You begin to apply existing plans in novel ways. Individuals at levels 2 through 4 seek your guidance.
  6. Master. You have mastered the body of knowledge, and can effectively apply it in many different situations. Your cognitive library is quite well developed. It contains plans enabling you to solve well-known problems quickly and easily. You are adept at applying plans in novel ways. You can easily adapt or invent appropriate structures to aid in problem solving.
  7. Expert. With substantial expertise, you move beyond the master stage by extending the collective body of knowledge through lectures, writing articles and/or books, or applying the knowledge in new problem domains. The difference between a master and an expert is subtle, but important. Both possess extensive cognitive libraries, but the expert works at externalizing their library in a form suitable for use by others.

All of us at Applied Frameworks focus on how to assist you on your journey to the Expert level of product management in each of the frameworks you need to succeed and excel at your job.

We will help you assess where you are now and your path to the next level.  We absolutely value your input and specific feedback as we work through our minimum viable product to create a service that delivers value.