What is a Epic Owner?

Ruben Buijs

Founder & Digital Consultant

Written on Aug 10, 2023

3 minutes

Product Management

The role of an Epic Owner is crucial in product management as they are responsible for overseeing and managing the development of epics within a product or project. An epic is a large and complex user story that cannot be completed within a single iteration or sprint. It generally spans multiple sprints and requires coordination with various stakeholders.

Examples

To better understand the role of an Epic Owner, let's consider a few examples:

  • In a software development company, an Epic Owner may be responsible for managing the development of a new feature that requires collaboration between the design, development, and testing teams.
  • In an e-commerce company, an Epic Owner might oversee the development of a new shopping cart functionality that involves integration with payment gateways, inventory management systems, and customer support tools.

Importance

The role of an Epic Owner is crucial for several reasons:

  1. Alignment of Vision: The Epic Owner ensures that the development of epics aligns with the overall vision and goals of the product or project. They work closely with the product manager and other stakeholders to understand the strategic objectives and translate them into actionable epics.

  2. Coordination and Collaboration: Epics often involve multiple teams and stakeholders. The Epic Owner plays a vital role in coordinating these efforts, ensuring effective collaboration, and resolving any conflicts or dependencies that may arise.

  3. Prioritization and Roadmapping: The Epic Owner helps prioritize epics based on their strategic value, customer needs, and business priorities. They work closely with the product manager to create a roadmap that outlines the sequence and timeline for epic development.

How to Use It

To effectively use the role of an Epic Owner, consider the following steps:

  1. Understand the Vision: Familiarize yourself with the vision and goals of the product or project. Collaborate with the product manager and other stakeholders to gain a clear understanding of the strategic objectives.

  2. Identify Epics: Work with the product manager and development teams to identify epics that align with the product vision. Epics should be well-defined, measurable, and represent significant value to the end-users.

  3. Coordinate Efforts: Collaborate with various teams, such as design, development, and QA, to ensure smooth coordination and alignment throughout the development process. Regularly communicate and update stakeholders on the progress of epics.

  4. Prioritize and Roadmap: Work closely with the product manager to prioritize epics based on their strategic importance and business value. Create a roadmap that outlines the sequence and timeline for epic development.

  5. Monitor and Evaluate: Continuously monitor the development of epics, track the progress, and evaluate the achieved outcomes. Collect feedback from stakeholders and iterate on the process to improve future epic development.

Useful Tips

Consider these tips to enhance your effectiveness as an Epic Owner:

  • Clear Communication: Ensure effective communication with all stakeholders, including the product manager, development teams, and other relevant parties. Keep everyone informed about the progress, challenges, and changes related to epic development.

  • Collaborative Approach: Foster a collaborative environment where teams can openly share ideas, concerns, and feedback. Encourage cross-functional collaboration and build positive relationships among team members.

  • Flexibility and Adaptability: Embrace changes and be open to adapting plans and priorities as needed. Epics may evolve over time, and the Epic Owner should be flexible enough to accommodate changes while keeping the overall objectives in focus.

  • Continuous Learning: Stay updated with the latest trends, tools, and methodologies in product management. Attend conferences, join communities, and engage in continuous learning to enhance your skills and knowledge as an Epic Owner.

FAQ

An Epic Owner is a role in product management responsible for managing and overseeing the development of epics, which are large and complex user stories.
Epics are large and high-level user stories that capture a significant piece of functionality or feature. They are typically broken down into smaller user stories or tasks for development and implementation.
The responsibilities of an Epic Owner include prioritizing epics based on business value, defining and refining epic requirements, coordinating with stakeholders, collaborating with development teams, and ensuring timely delivery of epics.
Epic Owners prioritize epics based on various factors such as market demand, customer feedback, business goals, and strategic objectives. They work closely with stakeholders to understand priorities and make informed decisions.
To be an effective Epic Owner, one needs strong product management skills, including the ability to define and communicate product vision, excellent stakeholder management skills, analytical thinking, and the ability to make data-driven decisions.
Epic Owners collaborate with development teams by providing clear and detailed requirements, answering questions and clarifying doubts, participating in sprint planning and review meetings, and ensuring smooth communication and coordination throughout the development process.
While both roles are involved in product management, an Epic Owner focuses on managing and overseeing the development of epics, which are larger and more complex user stories, whereas a Product Owner focuses on managing the development and delivery of individual user stories.
Yes, it is possible for someone to hold both the roles of an Epic Owner and a Product Owner, especially in smaller organizations where resources are limited. However, in larger organizations, these roles are often separate and assigned to different individuals.
An Epic Owner can ensure timely delivery of epics by closely monitoring the progress of development, identifying and addressing any roadblocks or bottlenecks, regularly communicating with stakeholders and development teams, and adjusting priorities and resources as needed.
The career path for an Epic Owner can vary depending on the organization and individual preferences. It can lead to roles such as Senior Product Owner, Product Manager, or other leadership positions in product management.

Article by

Ruben Buijs

Ruben is the founder of ProductLift. I employ a decade of consulting experience from Ernst & Young to maximize clients' ROI on new Tech developments. I now help companies build better products

Table of contents

  1. Examples
  2. Importance
  3. How to Use It
  4. Useful Tips
  5. Related Terms

Join 2.341 product teams building better with user feedback

Grow products by listening and building the right features

Start free

The faster, easier way to capture user feedback at scale

Join over 2.341 product managers and see how easy it is to build products people love.

starstarstarstarstar 4.9 / 5 on Capterra and G2