Jarrod Leder

I am Jarrod Leder, and I come to the world of Scrum out of my natural tendencies in life. I am passionate about discovering new technology, but this passion is not because "gadgets are cool." I'm passionate about the ways in which technology makes my life better and the lives of those I know.

Since I discovered the role of a Product Owner I have been naturally hooked. I love to solve user problems by giving them tools to make their lives better. I love to listen to people who actually use products so that I know what makes their lives easier and what makes them harder. This is more than simply asking "what problem are we trying to solve." This is deeply understanding the problem to the point that my product team has a passionate response to things that both work well and do not work well.

My experience in technology started as a QA Analyst and Lead with a QA consulting company in Minneapolis. They quickly moved me to a Business Analyst role because I kept asking whether a requirement really meets the end user's needs. I kept advocating for the user. They got so annoyed with my questions that they put me somewhere that those questions would be useful.

The BA role was  great, but it was still unfulfilling. I became an order taker for "the business" and a lightning rod for my developers, QA, and their management. More importantly I didn't feel that I had enough sway on what ought to be built and how that would be beneficial for the customers. My projects always ulfilled all the requirements. But my tale is a classic Waterfall tale: what was finally built wasn't actually useful to anyone.

And now as a Product Owner I get the chance to bring all of this together. I am so excited to deliver capabilities to my organization that moves us towards continuous delivery and delights other product teams. I tend to be on internal applocations, which is fine for me because I literally sit next to my customers. I can get feedback for free every day!

BRING IT ON!