Product LeadersIntermediate

Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) Certification Course

Gain practical skills in Agile product ownership, Scrum, backlog management, and value delivery. Includes PSPO I certification attempt and is ideal for product leaders.

IntermediateScrum.orgTraditional (Full Day) · Traditional (Half Day) · Immersive

What changes for your team

  • Turn backlog noise into business outcomes
  • Make the right calls earlier
  • Prove your product ownership capability

Immersive training pays back differently to a two-day course. Sessions spread across several weeks mean each idea is applied in your real work before the next one lands — so capability builds instead of fading under a backlog. Why immersive produces better returns →  ·  Other formats available in the panel above.

Course Code: PSPO

Overview

The Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) course equips participants to master the Product Owner role through real-world scenarios and practical exercises, enabling them to drive product success using Agile principles and Scrum.

Target Audience

  • Product Owners
  • Product Managers
  • Scrum Masters
  • Lean Agile Practitioners
  • Entrepreneurs
  • Managers seeking deeper Agile Product Management understanding

Learning Outcomes

  • Improve value creation by focusing on outcomes
  • Increase organizational learning and reduce costs through early validation
  • Achieve better business outcomes by aligning initiatives with business strategy
  • Enhance business agility using empirical, data-informed approaches

Course Topics

  • Scrum Framework and Principles
  • Product Owner Accountabilities
  • Product Backlog Management
  • Release Management and Forecasting
  • Value Tracking and Metrics
  • Stakeholder and Customer Engagement
  • Aligning Product Vision and Business Strategy
  • Empirical Process Control

Certification

Upon completion, participants receive a password to attempt the Professional Scrum Product Owner I (PSPO I) assessment. Achieving a minimum score of 85% qualifies for PSPO I certification. A free retake is available within 14 days if the first attempt is unsuccessful. Discounted PSPO II assessment available for those who pass PSPO I. PMI PDUs can be claimed.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Professional Scrum Product Owner (PSPO) course is designed for current and aspiring Product Owners, Product Managers, Scrum Masters seeking deeper understanding of the Product Owner role, and anyone involved with Agile Product Management. If you are not working with Scrum teams or have no interest in Agile product development, this course is unlikely to be relevant.

The course includes one free attempt at the PSPO I certification exam. If you take the exam within 14 days of course completion and don’t score at least 85%, you receive a free second attempt. Passing earns the Scrum.org-recognised PSPO I certification.

PSPO is highly practical and activity-based, featuring team exercises and real-world scenarios. While there is some instruction, most learning comes through hands-on activities and discussion, not passive lectures.

You should have a basic understanding of Scrum before attending—ideally by working with Scrum teams or studying resources like the Scrum Open. This course is not aimed at complete newcomers to Agile concepts.

Yes, the PSPO course welcomes anyone aiming to step into a Product Owner position. It’s suitable even if you’re not in that role yet, as long as you have a basic grasp of Scrum.

Syllabus

Here is exactly what your team will cover, and how we deliver it. Every format teaches the same modules; what changes is how the time is spread and what happens between sessions:

Delivered by Martin Hinshelwood.
Immersive RecommendedTraditional (Full Day)Traditional (Half Day)
Sessions 8 sessions 2 days 4 half-days
Each session 4h: 2h reflect + 2h learn 8h incl. breaks and lunch 4h incl. breaks
Total time with an expert 32h 16h 16h
New concept and practice
incl. breaks		 16h 16h 16h
Facilitated reflection
what happened when you tried it		 16h — —
~Expert time per topic
breaks removed		 ~3h20
1h40 reflect + 1h40 learn		 ~1h30 ~1h40
Time to apply between sessions 1–2 working weeks (≈36–72h) Overnight Half a working day (≈4h)

Each immersive session follows a learning cycle: reflect on what happened when you applied the last concept, learn the next one and practise it, then take it back to work as an outcome-based assignment. It is designed for triple-loop learning, so participants do not just change what they do; they question why they do it and how they see their organisation.

Need more support? The immersive experience can be combined with additional coaching, consulting or mentoring to create a Mentor Program for your team.

Choose a format above to see how the modules group into sessions.

Session 1 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Agile Product Management I (Product vs. Project)

Module 1

Learn a new concept

Students will be able to evaluate their current situation regarding product vs. project mindset and apply changes to move their organization more towards a product mindset.

Outcome-based assignment: How can you move more towards a product mindset? · Immersive only

Create a definition of your product, identify where your organization stands regarding product vs. project mindset and execute at least one experiment to move more towards a product mindset.
For example, you might:
  • Define who your users and buyers are and how they might describe your product.
  • Interview people inside your organization about their definition of your product and identify how these differ from your customers definition.
  • Facilitate a discussion with people in your organization about the impact the product mindset has on your product success.
  • Evaluate how much time your organization is spending in creating and maintaining project charters, project plans and milestones and form an opinion on how much this helps with achieving your business goals.
  • Evaluate how much time your organization is spending on discussing vision, value and doing validation and how adaptive your organization is to the insights generated by this.
  • Describe how your organization and the success of your product could benefit if you would adopt a product mindset.
  • Propose at least one change that will bring your organization closer to a product mindset and see how others in your organization are reacting to it.
  • Evaluate how you are living the Product Owner accountability and run one experiment that increases your proactiveness.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 2: Agile Product Management II (Business Strategy and Product Vision)

Session 2 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Agile Product Management II (Business Strategy and Product Vision)

Module 2

Facilitated reflection: How can you move more towards a product mindset? · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: How can you move more towards a product mindset?

Learn a new concept

Students will be able describe their business strategy and their product vision in order to make assumptions more explicit and start a conversation with their stakeholders on alignment.

Outcome-based assignment: Making assumptions explicit · Immersive only

Create a vision and business model for your product. Share and discuss with your team and stakeholders and identify which insights this conversation creates.
For example, you might:
  • Develop a Business Strategy using Business Model Canvas.
  • Develop a Business Strategy using Lean Canvas.
  • Develop a Business Strategy using Value Proposition Canvas.
  • Develop a Product Vision by creating a Product Box.
  • Develop a Product Vision using Product Vision Template.
  • Identify the various factors that sum up to the TOC of your product and quantify them.
  • Describe your technical strategy to manage your products TOC.
  • Identify if there are products in your organization that should better be discontinued. What is stopping you from doing so? How could you use business strategy and technical - strategy to support the case for excel or discontinue that product?
  • Discuss the Product Vision and your Business Strategy with the Scrum Team. Are they surprised? Is this changing their perspective? Are they offering additional insights?
  • Execute at least one experiment to validate underlying assumptions of your Product Vision and Business Strategy.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 3: Value-Driven Development

Session 3 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Value-Driven Development

Module 3

Facilitated reflection: Making assumptions explicit · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: Making assumptions explicit

Learn a new concept

Students can initiate changes to their organization’s product management by better understanding what the value of their product is and how to measure it.

Outcome-based assignment: Connect measures to value · Immersive only

Take action towards more value-focused measures.
For example, you might:
  • Facilitate a conversation vis various stakeholders to describe the value your product should deliver for the organization and how it can be measured.
  • List the metrics you are currently using in the context of your product and identify those that help to measure value.
  • Identify which of your metrics are leading indicators and which ones are lagging indicators. Try to list the underlying assumptions of leading indicators to signal improvements towards your goals.
  • Categorize your current metrics whether they are measuring resources, activities, output, outcome or impact.
  • Run an experiment to discontinue at least one metric that is not helping to increase transparency of your product.
  • Identify when the value of your product actually changed in the last 12 months.
  • Identify at least one experiment to deliver value through your product earlier and more frequent. Get approval from your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders to run the experiment.
  • Use the EBM Framework and assign your current metrics to the four Key Value Areas. Identify if you have some blind spots in these KVAs and propose metrics that could close these gaps. Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and stakeholders what needs to be changed to measure these additional metrics.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders which of your current metrics take a lot of effort to be measured and if you could stop using it or replace it with something simpler.
  • Identify which percentage of your budget actually helps to improve the value of your product vs. the percentage to obtain the current value. Propose at least one experiment to increase the first and get approval from your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders to run the experiment.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 4: Scrum Theory & Empiricism

Session 4 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Scrum Theory & Empiricism

Module 4

Facilitated reflection: Connect measures to value · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: Connect measures to value

Learn a new concept

The student is able to evaluate the concepts of complexity and empiricism in their context and determine with others in their organization how to deal with uncertainty in their environment.

Outcome-based assignment: Put empiricism into action · Immersive only

Create consensus with your stakeholders and your Scrum Team(s) how you can benefit from using an empirical approach.
For example, you might:
  • Identify factors that contribute to the complexity of your situation and hold a presentation with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders explaining why you think your situation is complex and facilitate a discussion how to deal with this complexity.
  • Together with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders, identify influencing factors that influence your ability to deliver value. Categorize them how much predictable they are and how much control your team has, to influence them.
  • Facilitate a discussion with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders about how much unpredictability is in your current plan to achieve your business goals and how you are currently managing this uncertainty.
  • Identify how you are creating transparency over your current goals and plan and run at least one experiment to increase this transparency.
  • Identify how frequently you are inspecting and updating your current goals and the plan to achieve them. What are events that trigger inspection? Run at least one experiment to do inspection and adaption more frequent, adding additional triggers or increase the effectiveness of inspection and adaption.
  • Visualize your current feedback loops from planning and delivering a change to your product, collecting user feedback and how this feedback is influencing product decisions. - Identify at least one experiment to shorten this feedback loop or make it more effective and get approval from your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders to execute the experiment.
  • Identify how long you are currently planning into the future. What are the oldest elements of your current plan and how likely is it that you will implement it.
  • Identify your current arrival and departure rate to your plan and compare them.
  • Identify one experiment that helps to reduce unplanned work or helps to reduce unpredictability and get approval from your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders to execute it.
  • Identify those stakeholders who expect guarantees or promises on delivery dates, identify their needs behind this request and discuss how these needs could be met in a more empirical manner.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 5: The Scrum Framework

Session 5 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

The Scrum Framework

Module 5

Facilitated reflection: Put empiricism into action · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: Put empiricism into action

Learn a new concept

The students will be able to explain to stakeholders the influence of uncertainty and complexity on product development risks and effectively communicate the utilization of Scrum and empiricism as strategies to mitigate such risks and improve value.

Outcome-based assignment: Putting Product Owner accountability into action · Immersive only

Inspect and adapt how your current process is helping in achieving your business goals and improve its effectiveness by comparing it to the concepts suggested by the Scrum Framework to identify improvement opportunities.
For example, you might:
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) where your current process is deviating from the Scrum Framework and run at least one experiment to adhere more to the rules defined by the Scrum Guide.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) if your increments are really Done and how this might impact your transparency in terms of achieving your business goals. Run at least one experiment to change your Definition of Done to increase this transparency.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) how your Sprint Goals help the team to focus during the Sprint and optimize the value. If you have more than one Sprint Goal, try to reduce it to one. If Sprint Goals are not effective enough to give guidance, make them more concrete or focused on value.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders how the Sprint Goal from the last couple of Sprints where paying into your current Product Goal and therefore get you closer to your business goals.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders how effective your Sprint Reviews are in inspecting and adapting your direction. Define at least one experiment to improve their effectiveness.
  • Hold a Sprint Retrospective with your Scrum Team(s) to identify how you could increase the team’s effectiveness in achieving business goals and agree on one experiment to improve.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 6: Product Backlog Management

Session 6 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Product Backlog Management

Module 6

Facilitated reflection: Putting Product Owner accountability into action · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: Putting Product Owner accountability into action

Learn a new concept

Students will be able to identify opportunities to improve their current product management approach and how they might impact their ability to deliver value and come up with at least one improvement that they tried with their team(s) or stakeholders.

Outcome-based assignment: Own your Product Backlog · Immersive only

Inspect your current product management approach and identify opportunities to improve it in order to help better increasing the value of your product. Define experiment and get approval from your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders to execute as many of them as possible. Run at least one experiment to improve your product management approach and describe its impact.
For example, you might:
  • Question the form and content of your current Product Backlog and rework it to help better focusing on creating value.
  • Reduce the size of your Product Backlog to increase transparency and describe the impact it has.
  • Create a Story Map to visualize how items on the Product Backlog help to achieve a specific goal of improvement and discuss it with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders.
  • Revisit your Product Goal and Sprint Goal and discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders how they could be improved to better serve your product vision.
  • Run one experiment to improve your Product Backlog refinement and describe its impact.
  • Revisit your current approach to describe Product Backlog Items and run one experiment to improve it.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders how you use the Definition of Done, Sprint Goal and Acceptance Criteria and run an experiment to improve them.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders how you order your Product Backlog and run at least one experiment to change factors influencing the order.
  • Create a roadmap and discuss it with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders in order to get feedback and increase transparency of your direction.
  • Revisit the process how you validate the value created by PBIs and run one experiment to improve transparency of real value created by PBIs.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) and your stakeholders which problem each PBI tries to solve and discuss if the problem is relevant enough.
  • Ask your Scrum Team(s) and Stakeholders to describe your Product Vision, Product Goal and current Sprint Goal and how they are related to validate alignment.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 7: Releases & Forecasting

Session 7 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Releases & Forecasting

Module 7

Facilitated reflection: Own your Product Backlog · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: Own your Product Backlog

Learn a new concept

Students will be able to have a conversation with their stakeholders about why forecasting should be different in a complex environment and how frequent releases can improve empiricism.

Outcome-based assignment: Strategize your releases · Immersive only

Understand your stakeholders needs in forecasting and improve how to meet these needs in a way that is more in alignment with an empirical approach addressing the specific challenges in a complex environment.
For example, you might:
  • Interview your stakeholders to better understand their needs with forecasting.
  • Discuss with your stakeholders complexity and empiricism to explain challenges with forecasting.
  • Define an experiment to meet your stakeholders need in an more empirical way and get approval from your stakeholders to run it.
  • Calculate flow-based forecasts for historic data you have gathered and compare it with your current forecasting approach and the real data. Present the results to your stakeholders to initiate a discussion on various forecasting approaches.
  • Evaluate time investment in forecasting and initiate a discussion with your stakeholders what would change if you would stop this investment completely.
  • Discuss with your Scrum Team(s) how much undone work and technical debt your product is currently holding and how much this impacts transparency. Run one experiment to increase transparency.
  • Run an experiment on communicating a bandwidth for a forecast instead of a specific deadline and degrees of certainty to your stakeholders.
  • Run an experiment to forecast a goal instead of the work to be done.
  • Visualize your workflow around delivering valuable work and discuss it with your Scrum Team(s) and stakeholders.
  • Run an experiment to identify the smallest possible functionality to gather feedback instead of planning to build the full functionality.
  • Run an experiment to validate the value delivered with a release and compare it to expectations.
  • Discuss ways with your Scrum Team(s) and stakeholders to reduce your release cadence and get approval to run a specific experiment to shorten cycle time.
→ Reflected on at the start of Module 8: Closing

Session 8 · 2h facilitated reflection + 2h new concept and practice · 10m break each hour

Closing

Module 8

Facilitated reflection: Strategize your releases · Immersive only

Facilitated reflection: Strategize your releases

Learn a new concept

As we conclude the Product Owner course, this final session is designed to reflect on your learning journey, consolidate key concepts, and prepare you to apply your new skills confidently within your team. We’ll revisit the course highlights, address any remaining questions, and provide guidance on the next steps to continue your growth as a Scrum Master.

Outcome-based assignment: Take the PSPO I assessment. · Immersive only

  • Passing score: 85%
  • Time limit: 60 minutes
  • Number of Questions: 80
  • Format: Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, True/False
  • Language:
  • Free Credly digital credential included
  • Practice assignmentScrum Open
  • Passwords have no expiration date, but are valid for one attempt only
  • Lifetime certification - no annual renewal fee required
→ Reflected on at the start of Catchup & After

Catchup & After · Immersive only

Catchup & After

Facilitated reflection: Take the PSPO I assessment.

Facilitated reflection: Take the PSPO I assessment.

Two weeks after completion, participants are invited to join a follow-up catch-up session designed to address any remaining questions, ideas, or challenges that have emerged since the training. This session provides an opportunity to reflect on your experiences applying the concepts learned in the course, share insights, and receive additional support.

* Assignments are part of our Immersive Training Programs, encouraging participants to apply their learning practically between sessions for a more hands-on experience.

What people who took this course said

The immersive PSPO training was amazing!

The immersive PSPO training was amazing and would recommend this format over anything else. Having the time to have conversations and activities was much better than trying to consume information in a short period of time. Having the training each week also allowed me to use what I had learnt in real workplace settings and it allows for a deeper understanding of Scrum and Agile. Martin himself is fantastic and so friendly and engaging. He has a wealth of experience and can give real life examples for almost any situation.

Niall Reviewed

Really impressed with immersive PSPO!

The immersive PSPO training was incredibly valuable. It was so much more useful to split the training over several weeks as there were real opportunities to take the things I've learned and put them into practice. Martin is an excellent trainer with a wealth of real life examples to bring the course to life. I'd definitely recommend for anyone looking to get a grounding in product ownership or get the PSPO certification.

Geraint Reviewed

Loved Product Owner course

If you are looking forward to diving into Scrum, I recommend Martin as a trainer because he brings theory and practice together.

Neringa Young Attended

Thoroughly enjoyable class with some great collaboration techniques and concepts.

Tim Walsha Attended

Great work!

After taking a bootcamp at WozU that included Agile training, I was left wanting more knowledge on Agile. Jim and Martin did a fantastic job of explaining the concepts and matching them with relevant examples from our industry. They built a confidence in their knowledge base that is super tough to be pessimistic about! The format was wonderful and built in a manner such to grab and hold the attention of students. I was terrifically impressed with the full course.

Zeb Donnell Attended · co-delivered with Jim Sammons

JIM SAMMONS & MARTIN HINSHELWOOD - The Duo, Great pair of coaches for PAL-E & PSPO courses I got trained, with a very interactive environment during these tough times of staying remote, keeping each and every trainee engaged & lively conversations with write amount of break out sessions, real world scenario comparisons as they explained and SCRUM Framework & Professional Scrum competencies.

Ramgopal Mushini Attended · co-delivered with Jim Sammons

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