From our experience across more than 1,200 engagements in the DACH Mittelstand the pattern recurs: companies advertise for a Scrum-Guide-pure "product owner" and find no one who can live that role in a 250-person setting. In our projects the PO role merges with project leadership in ERP — methodically wrong, organisationally understandable.
What Are the Responsibilities of a Product Owner?
A product owner is accountable for maximising product value. They define the product goal, create and order the backlog, communicate it transparently, and represent stakeholders to the development team. In Scrum the PO is always a single person — never a committee.
The formal definition comes from The 2020 Scrum Guide (Schwaber & Sutherland): "The Product Owner is accountable for maximizing the value of the product." The German edition names four accountabilities: the product goal, item creation, ordering, and backlog transparency. A meaningful 2020 shift: "role" was replaced by "accountabilities" — the PO does not hold a role, the PO holds accountability.
Six task areas shape the role in practice:
- Define the product goal — derived from corporate and customer strategy.
- Maintain the product backlog — creation, refinement, ordering, user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Stakeholder communication — alignment between business, leadership, and engineering.
- Sprint planning and review — co-shape the sprint goal, accept or reject increments.
- Backlog transparency — keep status, priority, and rationale visible.
- Value decisions — say no, shift priorities, defend unpopular calls.
The demarcation matters more than any job advert: the scrum master owns the process "how", the PO the product "what". The product manager (SAFe) owns the strategic roadmap; the PO the tactical backlog. The ERP project manager owns contract, budget, and vendor steering; the PO the functional requirements. Cleanly separated in the corporation; routinely combined in one person in the Mittelstand — and that is where the most common role conflict sits.
Why the PO Role Matters in the DACH Mittelstand in 2026
Three drivers turn the PO role into a Mittelstand bottleneck in 2026: accelerated ERP modernisation across the DACH region, scarce internal methods capability, and the recurring conflation between Product Owner and ERP project leader in companies with 50 to 500 employees.
First, agile adoption. Agile methods are now broadly established in German IT, and Scrum is the dominant framework. In our projects, the Mittelstand often lacks the decision-capable PO the framework requires — the method is widespread, the role rarely cleanly anchored.
Second, talent scarcity and part-time staffing. Per StepStone 2026 salary data, the median is around EUR 61,700 gross per year, ranging from about EUR 54,000 to 73,700; around 1,029 PO positions are currently open. In our experience the role is usually filled part-time or as a combined role in the Mittelstand — a full-time PO is often simply not refinanceable in a 200-person firm.
Third, ERP modernisation and role confusion. In our practice, once contract, budget, and vendor steering sit alongside backlog authority, either methodological cleanliness or commercial steering suffers. In our vendor-neutral ERP consulting we separate consistently: PO owns the "what", project leadership owns the "how".
Project Example: A German Mittelstand Engineering Firm, c. 280 Employees
At a southern German engineering firm we hit the classic Mittelstand conflict: the nominated "product owner" was in fact also the ERP project leader and a steering-committee member — adequate in none of the roles. We dismantled the dual role.
A manufacturer with around 280 employees, three sites, and a late-2000s ERP landscape had started modernisation. Management had appointed the head of order processing as "Product Owner ERP Implementation" — methodically understandable; he knew the processes and had the workforce's trust. Factually he was also contract holder against the vendor, budget owner, and steering-committee member.
After five months the project lost pace. The sprint plan slipped by three sprints. The vendor escalated contractual clarifications onto the same desk where the user stories were prioritised. We were called in to restart.
The correction was pragmatic: we dismantled the dual role. The head of order processing took on the pure product-owner accountability with clear backlog authority, at 50 percent of his time, with a documented deputy. ERP project leadership — contract, budget, vendor steering — moved to the commercial director with our support. In the specification we described both roles explicitly, including escalation paths.
The result after eight months: a stable sprint rhythm, a coherent backlog with maintained prioritisation, user acceptance of 87 percent — no contractual escalation on the same desk. The lever was methodically banal: separating two roles the 2020 Scrum Guide had never combined.
What Product Owner Guides Leave Out
Three points common PO guides and certification materials fail to address — and that decide success or failure of a PO appointment in the DACH Mittelstand. From our experience in companies with 50 to 500 employees, these gaps recur in nearly every engagement.
1. The Product Owner in the DACH Mittelstand Is Almost Never Full-Time
The 2020 Scrum Guide implicitly assumes a full-time PO. In corporations with dedicated product organisations that works. In a Mittelstand of 50 to 500 employees the full-time role is neither staffable nor refinanceable. In our projects we combine the responsibilities almost always: PO plus head of order processing, PO plus product management, PO plus sales. The market shows it too: a share of advertised PO positions are part-time. Rule of thumb: minimum 50 percent PO time, a clear deputy, documented decision authority.
2. The Product Owner Is Not the ERP Project Leader — and Vice Versa
The most frequent role conflict arises when the PO function in an ERP implementation is conflated with project leadership. These are two roles: the PO owns the "what" — product goal, backlog, user stories. The ERP project leader owns the "how" — contract, budget, vendor steering, timelines. The Scrum Guide states: "For Product Owners to succeed, the entire organization must respect their decisions." That decision authority cannot be reconciled with commercial vendor negotiation in one person. The separation differs from the relation to the process owner: PO and process owner can share a person; PO and ERP project leadership must not.
3. DACH Pragmatism Deliberately Combines PO and Departmental Leadership
In the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) the PO role is separated from the product manager: the PO owns the tactical backlog, the product manager the strategic roadmap. Sensible in scaled settings with several parallel teams. In a Mittelstand with one or two agile teams it produces only interface costs. From our experience the SAFe separation pays off only from four parallel teams upward. Below that, combining PO plus departmental leadership is the more honest answer — provided backlog authority and line deputisation are documented.
Our take
The 2020 Scrum Guide is a precise methodological foundation. It is not a job profile. Taken literally in a 250-person Mittelstand, it produces full-time vacancies that no one fills — or the PO/ERP-project-leader dual role that structurally slows the project.
How We Deploy the PO Role in ERP Projects
Four phases: goal clarity and KPIs before the first sprint, role separation PO / project leadership before vendor selection, backlog coaching of the internal PO candidate over six to twelve weeks, KPI-based solution evaluation after roll-out.
In our vendor-neutral ERP consulting a four-stage approach has proven itself. We coach internal candidates for six to twelve weeks and then withdraw — the Mittelstand counterpart to the corporate "interim PO over 18 months".
- Goal clarity and KPI set — before the first sprint. Product goal with measurable KPIs: sprint-goal hit rate, backlog maturity, stakeholder NPS, user acceptance after three months.
- Role separation PO / project leadership — written into the specification and the project charter.
- Backlog coaching of the internal PO candidate — six to twelve weeks of guided backlog grooming, user-story writing, and refinement facilitation.
- KPI-based solution evaluation — after three and six months of roll-out.
How we anchor the PO role
We coach, we do not take over permanently. The internal candidate stays decision-capable in-house. The material difference from the classic consulting offer: we recommend vendor-independently.
More on our stance in our consulting approach.
Common Mistakes With the PO Appointment in the Mittelstand
Five failure patterns recur in PO appointments across the DACH Mittelstand: the dual PO/project-leader role, full-time profiles in 200-person firms, order-taker POs without authority, late KPIs, and SAFe in single-team settings. All five are avoidable if addressed before the appointment.
Mistake 1 — PO and ERP project leader in one person. The most common Mittelstand constellation and the most common drag. Fix: separate the roles in the specification.
Mistake 2 — full-time PO profile in a 200-person company. Untenable, and produces twelve-month vacancies. Fix: advertise the combination role (PO plus departmental leadership, minimum 50 percent PO time) explicitly.
Mistake 3 — PO without decision authority (order-taker PO). If every backlog prioritisation runs through a steering committee, the PO is effectively a secretary. Fix: anchor decision authority in the project charter.
Mistake 4 — KPIs only after the first sprint. The product goal stays vague and success is felt rather than measured. Fix: define the KPI set in the goal-clarity phase.
Mistake 5 — SAFe in a single-team setting. PO/PM separation produces only interface costs below four parallel teams. Fix: introduce SAFe from four teams upward.
Our take
Four of the five are rarely personal failures. They are structural — and that is where vendor-neutral consulting has its leverage.
Frequently Asked Questions
A product owner is accountable for maximising the value of the product. Six task areas shape the role: defining the product goal, creating and prioritising the backlog, stakeholder communication, sprint planning and review, backlog transparency, and value decisions. The PO is always a single person per the 2020 Scrum Guide. In the DACH Mittelstand a combined role with departmental leadership is almost always added.
The scrum master owns the "how" of the process — coaching the team, removing impediments. The product owner owns the "what" of the product — defining the product goal, prioritising the backlog, making value decisions. The 2020 Scrum Guide separates the roles explicitly; combining them in one person is a common Mittelstand anti-pattern.
Per StepStone 2026 salary data the median is around EUR 61,700 gross per year, ranging from about EUR 54,000 to 73,700. Around 1,029 product-owner positions are currently open. In our experience the role is usually filled part-time or as a combined role in the Mittelstand — a full-time PO is often not refinanceable in a 200-person firm.
Two paths dominate: the Scrum.org PSPO certifications (I, II, III) — exam-based, lifetime-valid, PSPO I at 200 USD with an 85 percent pass mark. And the Scrum Alliance CSPO — awarded via a two-day course with a Certified Scrum Trainer. Our view: PSPO for methodological depth, CSPO for quick entry.
From over 1,200 projects the external PO rarely pays off permanently. The sensible model is: an external consultant coaches the internal PO candidate over six to twelve weeks. A permanent external appointment we do not recommend — the role demands in-house knowledge and stakeholder relationships an external party cannot structurally provide.
Next Steps
Before posting a vacancy or commissioning external coaching, a brief upfront clarification pays off: which goals should the engagement support, how is success measured, which roles combined and which separated? To anchor the PO role or prepare an ERP-implementation engagement, our digitalisation services and our ERP consulting practice are the starting points. We coach internal candidates rather than staffing the PO role permanently.
Alongside, see our wiki entries on the process owner and the ERP system definition. For deeper methodological background, see our insights; for a personal assessment our team is available via the contact page.
30 minutes with Dreher Consulting
A structured clarification of your PO appointment — target picture, KPI set, and the clean separation of Product Owner and ERP project leadership, vendor-neutral, from over 1,200 projects in the DACH Mittelstand.
