Navigating the complex task of prioritising features within a product backlog remains a perennial CV challenge for product owners. Our guide offers actionable insights and strategies to streamline this process, ensuring your most impactful features are delivered with optimal efficiency.
Land the job of your dreams with our bespoke guide on how to:
- Design and format your professional product owner CV;
- Curate your key contact information, skills, and achievements throughout your CV sections;
- Ensure your profile stays competitive by studying other industry-leading product owner CVs;
- Create a great CV even if you happen to have less professional experience, or switching fields.
When writing your product owner CV, you may need plenty of insights from hiring managers. We have prepared industry-leading advice in the form of our relevant CV guides.
- Process Engineer CV Example
- Assistant Project Manager CV Example
- Senior Project Manager CV Example
- Agile Project Manager CV Example
- Digital Project Manager CV Example
- Product Manager CV Example
- Program Manager CV Example
- Construction Project Manager CV Example
- Scrum Master CV Example
- Agile Coach CV Example
Structuring and formatting your product owner CV for an excellent first impression
The experts' best advice regarding your CV format is to keep it simple and concise. Recruiters assessing your CV are foremost looking out for candidates who match their ideal job profile. Your white space, borders, and margins. You may still be wondering which format you need to export your CV in. We recommend using the PDF one, as, upon being uploaded, it never alters your information or CV design. Before we move on to the actual content of your product owner CV, we'd like to remind you about the Applicant Tracker System (or the ATS). The ATS is a software that is sometimes used to initially assess your profile. Here's what you need to keep in mind about the ATS:- All serif and sans-serif fonts (e.g. Rubik, Volkhov, Exo 2 etc.) are ATS-friendly;
- Many candidates invest in Arial and Times New Roman, so avoid these fonts if you want your application to stand out;
- Both single and double column CVs can be read by the ATS, so it's entirely up to you to select your CV design.
PRO TIP
For certain fields, consider including infographics or visual elements to represent skills or achievements, but ensure they are simple, professional, and enhance rather than clutter the information.
The top sections on a product owner CV
- Professional Summary showcases your career goals and highlights.
- Key Skills reflect your product management abilities.
- Work Experience details relevant roles and achievements.
- Product Portfolio demonstrates successful projects you've led.
- Education and Certifications list pertinent academic and industry credentials.
What recruiters value on your CV:
- Highlight your ability to define and prioritise product features by showcasing successful products you've managed, along with the impact your decisions had on the product's success.
- Emphasise your Agile and Scrum expertise by detailing your experience with these methodologies and how you've facilitated collaboration between cross-functional teams.
- Demonstrate your stakeholder management skills by mentioning specific instances where you effectively balanced and managed the expectations of various stakeholders.
- Showcase your strategic thinking by explaining how you've developed and executed product roadmaps aligned with business goals and customer needs.
- Quantify your achievements with metrics, such as improvements in customer satisfaction or increases in revenue, to provide concrete evidence of your results-driven approach.
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Our checklist for the must-have information in your product owner CV header
Right at the very top of your product owner CV is where you'd find the header section or the space for your contact details, headline, and professional photo. Wondering how to present your the name of the city you live in and the country abbreviation as your address;
- are tailored to the role you're applying for by integrating key job skills and requirements;
- showcase what your unique value is, most often in the form of your most noteworthy accomplishment;
- select your relevant qualifications, skills, or current role to pass the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) assessment. Still not sure how to write your CV headline? Our examples below showcase best practices on creating effective headlines:
Examples of good CV headlines for product owner:
- Agile Product Owner | Certified ScrumMaster | UX Focus | 3+ Years of Product Innovation
- Senior Product Owner | Financial Services Specialist | SAFe Agile | 8 Years Industry Leadership
- Lead Digital Product Owner | E-Commerce Expert | Data-Driven Strategies | 5+ Years of Growth
- Associate Product Owner | Entry-Level | Tech Enthusiast | Cert. Scrum Product Owner | Rapidly Advancing
- Chief Product Owner | 10+ Years in Software Development | Product Lifecycle Guru | Agile Advocate
- Product Owner - SaaS Solutions | 6 Years of Agile Methodology | Certified Product Manager | Team Collaboration Leader
What's the difference between a product owner CV summary and objective
Why should it matter to you?
- Your product owner CV summary is a showcasing your career ambitions and your unique value. Use the objective to answer why your potential employers should hire you based on goals and ambitions. The objective is the ideal choice for candidates who happen to have less professional experience, but still meet some of the job requirements.
Before you select which one will be more relevant to your experience, have a look at some industry-leading CV summaries and objectives.
CV summaries for a product owner job:
- With over six years of product management experience within the competitive tech industry in Silicon Valley, I possess an extensive background in software development life cycle, Agile methodologies, and user-centric design. My crowning achievement was leading a cross-functional team to successfully launch a groundbreaking mobile application that garnered over one million downloads within the first month.
- A dedicated product manager with a decade's expertise in the rapidly evolving fintech sector in London, I bring a profound understanding of data analytics and customer experience strategies. A major triumph in my career was the overhaul of a legacy system that improved transaction processing times by 55%, greatly enhancing customer satisfaction and retention.
- Transitioning from a successful career in healthcare management in Dubai, I have a 7-year track record of executing cost containment strategies and optimizing patient services. I now seek to apply my analytical problem-solving skills and my passion for technological innovation to the field of product management, with a focus on creating products that improve quality of life on a global scale.
- A seasoned marketing strategist from Madrid pivoting into product ownership, I bring over 8 years of expertise in market research, brand development, and consumer engagement campaigns. My significant contribution was increasing brand market share by 25% through the implementation of targeted digital marketing initiatives. Eager to utilize my competitive analysis and strategic insight in the realm of product development.
- As an enthusiastic graduate with a Master's in Business Analytics from the University of Melbourne seeking to embark on a career in product management, I am motivated to apply academic knowledge in real-world settings. Passionate about leveraging data-driven decisions to shape innovative products, I aim to contribute a fresh perspective and untiring energy to a forward-thinking company focused on technological advancements.
- An aspiring product owner with a strong foundation in computer science from the University of Toronto, I have honed my analytical and problem-solving skills through rigorous academic training and collaborative projects. Though new to the field, I am eager to translate my enthusiasm for tech and user experience design into tangible products that resonate with users and drive business success.
How to meet job requirements with your product owner CV experience
We've now reached the essence of your actual CV - your experience section. This is the space where you can list your career roles and on-the-job successes. Many candidates tend to underestimate just how much time and effort they should put into writing this CV section. Your experience shouldn't be a random list of your responsibilities, but instead:
- Match the job description with your skills, values, and accomplishments;
- Start each bullet with a strong action verb, followed up with one key skill and your outcome of applying this skill;
- Spotlight parts of your career history that are relevant to the job you're applying for.
Before we move on, make sure to check out some professional CV experience sections.
Best practices for your CV's work experience section
- Steered the development of a new mobile application, successfully launching to market within 9 months, by collaborating closely with cross-functional teams and managing the project's scope, budget, and timeline.
- Championed the voice of the customer by conducting user research and incorporating feedback into product features, resulting in a 30% increase in user satisfaction scores.
- Authored and maintained a prioritised product backlog, ensuring alignment with business objectives and enabling a 20% acceleration in feature delivery.
- Facilitated agile ceremonies including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives, contributing to a 15% improvement in team velocity over six months.
- Negotiated with stakeholders to define and validate product requirements, securing buy-in and ensuring delivered features met critical business needs.
- Analysed market trends and competitor activity to inform the product roadmap, directing the launch of three major features that captured an additional 10% market share.
- Spearheaded a pivot in product strategy in response to changing market conditions, which led to the development of an alternative revenue stream increasing turnover by 25%.
- Led the transition from Waterfall to Agile methodologies, significantly reducing time-to-market by 40% and enhancing responsiveness to customer needs.
- Managed the product lifecycle from concept to phasing out, delivering 5 major product releases and over 20 updates that consistently met targeted outcomes.
Senior Agile Product Owner
Senior Agile Product Owner
Salesforce UK
01/2022-Ongoing
- Successfully managed a product team of 10 to develop a new SaaS platform, which increased customer satisfaction by 30% within the first year.
- Drove the product vision and strategy for a portfolio generating over £4M annually, aligning with broader business goals and customer feedback.
- Negotiated with stakeholders to prioritise a backlog of over 200 items, leading to the on-time delivery of 4 major updates in the past year.
Product Owner Lead
Product Owner Lead
Adobe UK
06/2019-12/2021
- Orchestrated the transition of three key products to a new market segment, which expanded the customer base by 25% and increased revenue.
- Built and maintained strong working relationships with cross-functional teams, enhancing collaborative efforts and product quality.
- Instituted a customer-centric product development approach, involving user experience studies that improved feature usability by 40%.
Digital Product Owner
Digital Product Owner
Google UK
03/2016-05/2019
- Led a digital transformation project, integrating AI technologies which reduced manual processing time by 50%, enhancing operational efficiency.
- Established metrics to measure user engagement, which informed data-driven enhancements, resulting in a 35% increase in active users.
- Directed the agile development process for a mobile app launch that secured 100,000 downloads within the first three months post-launch.
Associate Product Owner
Associate Product Owner
Barclays UK
11/2013-02/2016
- Collaborated on the market analysis and product positioning for a new fintech service, contributing to a successful launch with over £1M in revenue during the first quarter.
- Facilitated the scrum process, reducing sprint cycle times by 15%, thereby expediting product feature releases.
- Conducted comprehensive user story mapping sessions to ensure product features accurately reflected user needs and market demands.
IT Product Manager
IT Product Manager
IBM UK
04/2011-10/2013
- Oversaw the development and release of an enterprise resource planning system that improved operational efficiency by 60% across the organisation.
- Implemented customer feedback loops to guide product enhancements, which led to a significant rise in net promoter score (NPS) by 20 points.
- Managed the product lifecycle of a key business software suite that served over 15,000 daily active users.
Junior Product Owner
Junior Product Owner
Start-Up Tech Ltd.
07/2009-03/2011
- Contributed to developing a minimum viable product (MVP) that attracted early adopters and secured an initial investment of £500,000 for further development.
- Assisted in creating and maintaining a prioritised product backlog, which streamlined development efforts and cut down release time by 20%.
- Involved in user acceptance testing resulting in critical usability enhancements prior to full-scale product rollouts.
Technical Product Owner
Technical Product Owner
HSBC UK
05/2018-11/2020
- Guided a team of developers to enhance cybersecurity features for a banking application, subsequently reducing security-related incidents by 70%.
- Deployed iterative testing strategies to improve product performance and reliability which led to a reduction in customer-reported issues by 60%.
- Leveraged data analytics to refine product roadmaps, boosting user retention rates by 25% within a competitive market landscape.
E-commerce Product Owner
E-commerce Product Owner
ASOS UK
08/2014-12/2018
- Managed the end-to-end product development for an e-commerce platform that supported over 10,000 transactions per month, achieving a 35% year-over-year growth.
- Spearheaded a cross-functional initiative to optimise the user checkout process, which decreased cart abandonment rates by 15%.
- Developed product features based on market trends, consumer behaviour analytics and competitive analysis which resulted in a 20% increase in average order value.
Lacking professional expertise: how to write your CV to highlight your best talents
Don't count on your lucky stars when you're applying for a role, where you happen to have less (or almost none) professional experience. Recruiters sometimes do hire inexperienced candidates if they're able to present their unique value from the get-go. So, instead of opting for the traditional, CV experience section:
- List any applicable expertise you happen to have - no matter if it's a part-time job, internship, or volunteer work. This would hint to recruiters that your profile is relevant;
- Focus your CV on your transferrable skills or talents you've obtained thanks to your whole life and work experience. In effect, you'll be spotlighting your value as a candidate;
- Separate more space for your applicable academic background and certificates to show you have the technical know-how;
- Ensure that within your objective, you've defined why you'll like the job and how you'll be the perfect match for it. Always ensure you've tailored your CV to individual applications.
Looking for more good examples for your first job? We'll show you how other candidates, with less professional experience, have created their job-winning CVs.
Recommended reads:
PRO TIP
If applicable, briefly mention a situation where things didn’t go as planned and what you learned from it, demonstrating your ability to learn and adapt.
Mix and match hard and soft skills across your product owner CV
Your skill set play an equally valid role as your experience to your application. That is because recruiters are looking for both:
- hard skills or your aptitude in applying particular technologies
- soft skills or your ability to work in a team using your personal skills, e.g. leadership, time management, etc.
Are you wondering how you should include both hard and soft skills across your product owner CV? Use the:
- skills section to list between ten and twelve technologies that are part of the job requirement (and that you're capable to use);
- strengths and achievements section to detail how you've used particular hard and soft skills that led to great results for you at work;
- summary or objective to spotlight up to three skills that are crucial for the role and how they've helped you optimise your work processes.
One final note - when writing about the skills you have, make sure to match them exactly as they are written in the job ad. Take this precautionary measure to ensure your CV passes the Applicant Tracker System (ATS) assessment.
Top skills for your product owner CV:
HARD SKILLS
Agile Methodologies
Scrum
Product Management
Backlog Management
User Story Development
Market Research
Data Analysis
UX/UI Principles
Project Management
Stakeholder Management
SOFT SKILLS
Leadership
Communication
Problem-Solving
Teamwork
Adaptability
Time Management
Empathy
Negotiation
Strategic Thinking
Decision Making
PRO TIP
If you have received professional endorsements or recommendations for certain skills, especially on platforms like LinkedIn, mention these to add credibility.
Your university degree and certificates: an integral part of your product owner CV
Let's take you back to your uni days and decide what information will be relevant for your product owner CV. Once more, when discussing your higher education, select only information that is pertinent to the job (e.g. degrees and projects in the same industry, etc.). Ultimately, you should:
- List only your higher education degrees, alongside start and graduation dates, and the university name;
- Include that you obtained a first degree for diplomas that are relevant to the role, and you believe will impress recruiters;
- Showcase relevant coursework, projects, or publications, if you happen to have less experience or will need to fill in gaps in your professional history.
PRO TIP
Order your skills based on the relevance to the role you're applying for, ensuring the most pertinent skills catch the employer's attention first.
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Key takeaways
Here are five things you need to remember about writing your product owner CV for success:
- Sort your experience based on the reverse chronological order, starting with your most recent career items, to showcase how you've grown your career;
- Include within your CV header your relevant contact details, a headline that could spotlight your unique value, and a photo - if you're applying for roles outside the UK or US;
- Decide to use the CV summary, if you happen to have more professional experience, and an objective, if you want to showcase your career goals;
- Within the experience section, write your bullets using action verbs, skills, and success, instead of just merely listing your on-the-job responsibilities;
- Prove your technical skills, using your education and certificates, and your soft skills, with your achievements and strengths sections.
