There are five teams working on a product. How many Product Owners would there be? (Choose the best answer)

According to the principles of Scrum, a single product has one Product Backlog, which in turn is managed by one Product Owner. This ensures a single, coherent vision and a clear, prioritized roadmap for the product. The Product Owner is the sole person responsible for managing the Product Backlog and maximizing the value of the product resulting from the work of all Development Teams. Even when multiple teams work on the same product, they all pull from this single backlog, which is owned and prioritized by the one Product Owner. This structure prevents conflicting priorities and ensures all teams are aligned towards a common goal.

A. Having five Product Owners for one product would create multiple, conflicting backlogs and priorities, leading to a fragmented product and diluted value.
C. The structure of roles, such as the number of Product Owners per product, is a fundamental rule of the Scrum framework, not a decision left to team discretion.
D. While Agile values adapting to context, the principle of one Product Owner per product is a core tenet designed to ensure clarity and accountability, not a variable.

1. Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2020). The Scrum Guide. Scrum.org.

Page 5, The Product Owner: "The Product Owner is one person, not a committee. The Product Owner may represent the needs of many stakeholders in the Product Backlog."

Page 11, Product Backlog: "The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product. It is the single source of work undertaken by the Scrum Team."

2. Larman, C., & Vodde, B. (n.d.). LeSS Rules. The LeSS Company B.V.

LeSS Framework Rules, "Scrum-based" section: "There is one Product Owner and one Product Backlog for the complete shippable product." This rule explicitly clarifies the one-to-one relationship for large-scale, multi-team product development.