[28304283409234]

But, after 25 years of IT and 15 years of agile, I have yet to meet the product owner that knows what "the right stuff" is.

Defining the problem is the hardest part. After that, asking the team what they think they can do to create a solution for the problem: that is the easy part.

[psunavy03]

The entire point of Agile is that you accept that you DON'T KNOW what "the right stuff" is at first, and so you get stuff in front of the customer as soon as feasible and then use that feedback as quickly as possible, over and over again until the cost of going further isn't worth it anymore.

The entire point is moving away from big design up front. Instead, you create hypotheses and then test them against reality. You're not expected to know the entire path, but you ARE supposed to know what vector to take until the next feedback.

[jrs235]

>I have yet to meet the product owner that knows what "the right stuff" is.

>Defining the problem is the hardest part.

I have yet to meet a product owner that collects customer requests (or determines customer pain points) and assigns a value to implementing/alleviating them, also known as determining the payoff function.

Determining the most valuable problem to solve is the hardest part.