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Product Owners

Product Owners

Owned by Sarah Farooqi
Last updated: Mar 06, 2025
3 min read

Current profile:

Product Owners can use this tool provide detailed information about their product. They can also contribute to the online forums connected to the catalog, sharing best practices and tips for using their platform.

Product Owners can also provide information about sectors or use cases the product is designed to address, and can create and update Projects - providing information about where the product has been deployed and by whom.

Profile below is fictitious:

 

Matteo works for a health care NGO and developed an open source case management tool to manage the health care projects in Mozambique. Since its first success, the tool was deployed to 3 other neighboring countries, and Matteo has assumed the role of product owner due to his technical expertise. He is a highly technical individual but also has a clear understanding of the wide-ranging positive impact his tool can have in the health care space that he operates in.

Matteo knows he has built an excellent tool that can help address development challenges and that can be customized for case management in different sectors (such as education or a community mobilization project) and different regions. He has built an active and engaged open-source community overtime, but he lacks the time and resources to dedicate to scaling deployments of the tool.

Furthermore, his management team does not have the resources to dedicate to management of the tool, and he does not have direct access to other potential users of the tool or donors that could help support its funding.

For Matteo, the Catalog represents an easy way to showcase detailed information about his product to an audience he would not ordinarily have access to, including potential users and funders. He can also find information on other competing or interoperable tools, and can use the guidance resources to continue positioning his solution and to understand the procurement processes in the development ecosystem. Finally, he can also leverage the online forums to respond to queries from users.

 

Characteristics

Motivations/Goals

Challenges/Pain Points

Role

Characteristics

Motivations/Goals

Challenges/Pain Points

Role

  • Highly technical

  • Has an understanding of the development challenges their product was meant to address, but may not have a broader understanding of SDGs

  • Understands the language contained in the SDG Digital Investment Framework (such as BBs and how they match to products).

  • Ability to showcase detailed information about their product to potential users of their tool

  • Possibility of expanding their own communities

  • Gain understanding of interoperable/competing tools

  • Access to guidance resources

  • Access to the demand side of their tool

  • Access to the community

  • Lack of time to dedicate to scaling the tool

  • Disbursement of their community into the Catalog

  • Accurate mappings of their products to use cases and building blocks.

  • “Maintainer” of products featured in the Catalog

  • Plays the supply-side role contained in the Catalog

 

Suggested:


Product Owners supply the digital transformation ecosystem with innovative digital solutions that can be reused, customized, and improved for a variety of use cases. They can use the Catalog to share up-to-date and detailed information about their product, such as the use cases the product is designed to address and showcase where the product has been deployed and by whom.

Product owners can connect to users through their customizable product page and through the online forums in the Catalog, sharing best practices and tips for using their platform.