It is often debated whether a PO should have deep technical expertise, or just have a strong business focus? The Product Owner role was designed to bridge the gap between stakeholders and development teams, ensuring alignment and delivering value. Yet, the question remains: does technical knowledge enhance or hinder that mission? It is critical to explore both approaches, using real scenarios, and examine how to strike the right balance. We won’t settle for simplistic answers but challenge assumptions and explore what truly makes a Product Owner effective. Because in the end, it’s not just about being technical or not it’s about delivering the right product in the most effective way.

For the agile technologist and continuous learner, constant and rapid consumption of knowledge can be something of an occupational hazard! We’re frequently being sold new tools, methodologies and frameworks on the basis of science, yet we often lack the time, skills or resources to interrogate them. This effectively forces us to default to the same shaky modes of thinking we’re seeking to avoid, where poor judgement can have poor consequences for us, our teams, and the products we create. In this thought-provoking interactive talk, I’ll be asking… How can we judge the integrity of knowledge content when we are not the subject matter experts? How can we avoid being swept along by the latest 'evidence based' tools, techniques and frameworks? As we look for answers to these questions, we’ll engage and sharpen one of the most valuable capabilities in the continuous learner’s toolbox: critical thinking.