Understand the development strategy
Technical staff will develop a strategy for implementing new features based on the business requirements you've gathered. As a Product Owner, you need to understand the steps necessary to implement this strategy successfully. Do the tasks have dependencies? Do they require people with specialized skills? What could break? Do you need to test differently? And so on.
Approach every new feature with an open mind
As you gain experience, implementing new features may seem very similar. However, the devil is in the details, so approach new topics with a fresh perspective.
Risk management
Before you start, make sure you understand all the risks. Talk about risks well in advance of starting work and be aware of their impact.
Know your team
For me, this is one of the most important points. You need to be aware of whether someone works poorly under pressure, prefers finding bugs to writing new features, or has good organizational skills and can speak well. It is always worth supporting someone's talents to help them develop in a natural direction.
Think about vacations throughout the year
I like to plan major vacations with my team in advance. Holidays or vacation periods are significant. Include such absences in your plan.
If your team is from a different country than yours, I recommend adding a list of holidays for that country to your calendar.
If your work requires connecting to any services from an external company, allow at least one sprint buffer for integration
Sometimes, before we can deliver anything, we need to go through security procedures, network procedures, etc. for both companies to establish the first connection.
Set and monitor checkpoints for your plan
It is worth checking after each sprint whether your plan is being implemented or if delays are starting to occur. If you track this regularly, you will see small delays. You can then take action. If we do not address small delays immediately, they will eventually grow into larger ones and cause much more stress and tension. Then we fall into a vicious circle of decisions made under emotional influence. Check often, and report early.
Create a plan with your team
As a PO/PM, we tend to build plans in isolation. It is worth consulting our visions with the team and updating them about changes. It is good to remind yourself of these things at planning so that everyone is aware of where they stand and where they are headed. It's also important for team's motivation to have a voice and impact on the plans ahead of us.
A planning journal
It can take several forms:
A short record of events from a given day or sprint
A record of thoughts on the built roadmap
A lot happens during software development and changes are dynamic. Your journal provides support for what happened in the past and what goal you had when creating a given plan. This is often an indispensable tool in explaining possible conflicts or delays.
Make decisions upon data
Gather information about the market, sales, about users.
Such data will drastically improve your decisions on what to do next.
If you want predict better, try using Monte Carlo simulation
Even with good practices in place, it's still advisable to be aware of common mistakes. I discussed them in this article: LINK