Five roles work across Run and Change. Each one leads some activities and joins others. Use this page to see who to bring into the room.
What each role owns
| Role | Owns | One-line test |
|---|---|---|
| Product Manager | What is worth building and why | "Should we do this at all?" |
| Program Manager | How projects fit together across the portfolio and its capacity | "Can we do all of this at once?" |
| Project Manager | Goals, milestones and risks for one strategic project | "Will this project land on time?" |
| Product Owner | The backlog and the value each sprint delivers | "What does the team build next?" |
| Scrum Master | How the team works, and clearing what blocks it | "What's slowing the team down?" |
Business Executives aren't a Product Operations role, but they sponsor ideas in Discovery and sign off the plan at Quarterly Planning.
Where each role shows up
L = leads, J = joins.
| Activity | Product Manager | Program Manager | Project Manager | Product Owner | Scrum Master |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Idea intake | L | J | |||
| High-level design review | L | J | J | ||
| T-shirt estimation | J | L | J | ||
| Portfolio prioritization | L | J | |||
| Resource and capacity planning | L | J | J | ||
| Goals and milestones | J | J | L | J | |
| Quarterly Planning | J | L | J | J | |
| Backlog refinement | J | L | J | ||
| Sprint planning | J | L | L | ||
| Daily scrum | J | L | |||
| Sprint review and retrospective | J | J | L | L | |
| Incident Management | J | J | J | ||
| Platform Health review | L | J |
Sprint planning, and the sprint review and retrospective, have two leads. The Product Owner leads the content and the Scrum Master leads the facilitation.
Why it matters
Clear ownership keeps meetings small and decisions fast. If an activity has no lead in the room, stop and find them before you go on.
How it connects
- Each role has its own guide with the playbooks it leads, listed by stage.
- The value delivery system shows where each activity sits in Run and Change.