Answering: “You are the Product Owner for a product with diverse stakeholders with differing opinions that sometimes conflict.”

Design an experiment that tests the new market before committing to an expensive feature. When opinions conflict and both have merit, evidence settles it better than siding with the most senior voice.

Exam Question

You are the Product Owner for a product with diverse stakeholders with differing opinions that sometimes conflict.
Your Director of Marketing strongly believes that you should add a major new feature to reach a new market. Your CEO believes that the new feature is too expensive and thinks you should focus on other features to make existing customers happier. The CEO says that as Product Owner it is ultimately your decision.
You think both perspectives have merit, but you cannot do both. How should you proceed?
(choose the best answer)
A. Trust the CEO’s opinion and focus on current customers, because you cannot afford unhappy customers.
B. Better understand the positions of other stakeholders to gather more information, then make a decision.
C. Devise an experiment that will help the company to better understand the new market and its potential.
D. Trust the Director of Marketing’s opinion and add the features; when revenues increase, you will be vindicated.

Correct Answer

C. Devise an experiment that will help the company to better understand the new market and its potential.

Why This Is the Correct Answer

Scrum is founded on empiricism, and the Scrum Guide says empiricism asserts that knowledge comes from experience and making decisions based on what is observed. Here the Product Owner faces an untested assumption: that a new market is worth the cost. A small, cheap experiment, such as a prototype, landing page or limited release, produces data on real demand. Scrum.org’s Evidence-Based Management guide calls this kind of opportunity unrealized value and recommends small steps with measurable outcomes. The Product Owner keeps the decision, but makes it based on evidence rather than authority.

Why the Other Options Are Wrong

A. Follow the CEO and focus on current customers. The CEO explicitly left the decision to the Product Owner. Picking a side by rank ignores a possibly valuable market.

B. Gather more stakeholder positions, then decide. More opinions add more views but no evidence. The core question about the market stays untested.

D. Follow the Director of Marketing and build the feature. Committing to an expensive feature on one person’s belief risks a large waste if the market does not respond.

Exam Tip

In PSPO II scenarios where stakeholders disagree and uncertainty is high, the best answer usually involves running an experiment or gathering evidence, not choosing between opinions.

Key Takeaways

• Product Owners test risky assumptions with small experiments.
• Evidence beats seniority when deciding value.
• Unrealized value in a new market is worth measuring before investing.