I am a logistician through and through. I studied business administration with a focus on logistics at a cooperative university, so I was working while I studied. Since then, I’ve always been in the operational side of logistics companies, either directly responsible for a specific area or for the entire warehouse in general.

That changed partially three years ago. In addition to my operational responsibilities, I also became responsible for IT projects as a Product Owner. The dual role was too much in the long run, and I switched companies at the beginning of last year. Now, I am exclusively a Product Owner. And my workday has completely changed.

While my daily routine in operations was defined by a few status meetings and irregular project appointments, regular meetings now take up at least half of my workday. Even though the time commitment has increased, these meetings are nothing new. But they are a bit more exhausting. Focusing on changing topics for hours on end isn’t so easy. Still, what was somewhat more difficult for me was the time outside of meetings. Since I don’t have any day-to-day business, this time is for developing projects, stories, or just the normal administrative tasks of a Product Owner. You’re rarely under time pressure, at least not in the way you are in daily operations. You often have several days to complete your tasks and can choose the order and effort yourself.

In the beginning, this led me to grab every topic that came my way and tackle it immediately with maximum efficiency, just as I was used to. Of course, as a newcomer, you aren’t immediately swamped with many or complex tasks. But that followed in the next few months. I took on partial responsibility for larger projects and, on the side, intensified and detailed the further development of my own topics. Suddenly, I had several complex issues on my plate that couldn’t just be checked off a list. On the contrary, the topics only move forward step by step, you have to collaborate and coordinate heavily with other employees, and manage to fit the various topics into your schedule.

Should I schedule and prepare the next coordination meeting, or should I take care of the sprint planning first? What about the effort estimation and the high-level concept for the logistics project, which are due by Friday? I need to find time for that too and sit down with the developers. And then there’s the external provider with whom I still need to coordinate the integration and the timeline. Not everything is due at once, but all the topics are open and will become due in the next few days. Ah, and I’m just being reminded that I wanted to look at those three stories…

The workload is actually manageable time-wise, if you could freely schedule your time. But as a Product Owner, you also have to bring the stakeholders and requesters along; you can’t just work in isolation. This, of course, creates more work on one hand, and on the other, it takes away your flexibility. The other participants also have their own calendars, and you have to take whatever time slots are still available. If any are left. Then the meeting needs to be prepared. Either at short notice, or you’ve had other things on your plate in the meantime and a preparation like that just fell through the cracks. So, it’s last-minute and under high stress. You still want to deliver quality, after all.

It’s no longer the operational routine and its twists and turns that dictate my planning and tasks, but me. I have to plan ahead, document properly, and drive things forward independently - myself and others. Without losing track of the multitude of active topics and finding a balance in terms of both time and resources. It’s a completely different world and still unfamiliar to me even today. Sometimes I have no active task and almost fall into a void. A day later, I realize it would have been good if I had done something specific during that time. But the idea came to me too late, and now time is getting tight again.

Sometimes you just sit there, writing a concept and thinking about it for 30 minutes. From the outside, it looks like I’m just daydreaming, but my brain is actually running at full throttle. Luckily, for the most part, not in my free time. Over the last few years, I’ve learned to leave the topics behind me after clocking out until the next morning. Most of the time, at least, I’d say on 95% of days. I no longer just finish my tasks and then I’m done for the day. The day is over when the working hours are over; the topics continue the next day. The satisfaction of completion comes less often, but in return, a completion feels much more rewarding. You haven’t just worked through another day’s tasks; you’ve truly designed and implemented something.

I like my new way of working; I just have to get completely used to it. Thinking and creating concepts is work and valuable, even if you only reap the rewards much later. And the small things and irregular (management) tasks? I still need to find a way to schedule those in properly. I forget all too often to update the roadmap and the current status of projects. There are still a few steps ahead of me, but I’ve already come a long way. Fundamentally, I believe, also based on the feedback, that I’m doing a good job. Possibly better than many other POs, but not yet at the level of my own expectations. It can still be better and, above all, more structured.