A neighboring town both pays into the county's shared permitting platform and has clerks who use it daily. The town's manager wants features that help procurement reporting; clerks need faster plan-review queues. The two ask for opposite order. What should the Product Owner do?
Select an answer to reveal the explanation.
Short Explanation
The person who writes the check and the person who stamps the plans are not the same customer. Name which outcome the product exists to improve—usually the clerks' plan-review job—and be honest when the buyer wants a report instead. Hybrids need that distinction or the backlog becomes a tug-of-war.
Full Explanation
Buyer and user often differ, especially on a multi-jurisdiction civic platform. The Product Owner should make explicit whose outcomes define value for this Product Goal and order the backlog to those outcomes, negotiating the buyer's reporting need as a separate value question. Automatic preference for budget authority or for users, or forked backlogs, hide the conflict instead of deciding it. Clarity about roles is the advanced stakeholder skill.