- Discovery : How well does the PO do at uncovering the actual needs of their customers vs. simply taking a list of “wants”. This is really designed to measure their ability to understand the “why” and their ability to translate that into product needs for their scrum team. I also throw prioritization into this bucket.
- Delivery : Does their team actually produce anything of value to their customers and do their customers agree?
- Domain Depth : Are they the experts in their area and can they “speak” as their personas?
- Leadership : I look at their ability to get people to rally around them as well as do people come to them as the “expert”. They have three groups to lead – their team, their customers, and the company (thought leadership)
- Innovation : Are they creative in how they solve problems with the resources they have? Not only are they coming up with new ideas/tech solutions when they have a well-funded, growing product, but how are they getting the most out of the resources they have (this helps when measuring a run-the-business PO)
Dumb Analogy Guy 