What is Product Owner? — UK Software Development Guide

4 min readJune 2025ClickMasters Technical TeamReviewed by James Whitmore, CTO
what is a product owner

Direct Answer

The Product Owner is one of the three Scrum roles, responsible for maximising the value of the product. The PO owns the Product Backlog — the prioritised list of features to be built — and is the primary point of contact between the business and the development team. The PO writes or approves user stories, sets priorities, and accepts or rejects completed work.

Product-owner in the UK

The Product Owner role is critical to UK commercial software projects. In UK startup development, the PO is often the founder or a senior stakeholder. For enterprise projects, a dedicated PO with strong domain knowledge significantly improves delivery quality. UK IR35 consideration: a Product Owner who is fully embedded in a client's team, using client processes, with the client directing their day-to-day work is likely inside IR35. ClickMasters can provide fractional Product Owner services as part of our consulting offering.

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