Product Owner: Can you be successful with a Tech and SEO dual role?
In theory, a Product Owner is there to bridge the gap between clients and the technical team. But in reality, staying strictly on the business side is often a bottleneck. We often wonder if we have to choose a side, but in fact, having one foot in tech and the other in SEO is what makes the difference between a project that just survives and one that really takes off.
Why tech culture changes everything for a PO
When you understand at least a little of what’s going on under the hood, your daily work changes. It’s not about becoming a developer instead of the developers, but rather about speaking the same language. If you know what an API or technical debt is, you save a huge amount of time in meetings.
Instead of proposing features that are impossible to integrate, you frame things right from the start. This creates a climate of trust with the technical team because they feel you get their constraints.
For those who want to dive deeper into this, the Scrum.org site offers plenty of resources on collaboration within agile teams.
As a result, time estimates are more realistic, and you avoid bad surprises at delivery time.
SEO: A product pillar, not an option
For SEO, it’s pretty much the same story. Often, organic search is seen as something you add at the end, once the site is ready. That’s an expensive mistake. A PO with SEO knowledge will integrate heading structures, internal linking, or loading speed right from the design phase.
Basically, instead of building a house and realizing later there’s no door to let visitors in, you plan everything from the blueprint. A product that is technically well-designed for SEO is ten times more likely to be visible. This is often highlighted by the Semrush blog, which explains clearly that tech is the foundation of any visibility strategy.
Finding the right balance without overextending
The only real danger is trying to do everything yourself. If you spend your days fixing meta tags or looking at lines of code, you’re no longer doing your job as a Product Owner.
Your role remains to carry the vision and prioritize what brings value.
Tech and SEO should remain tools at the service of your decisions. It’s great to have several strings to your bow, but you need to know which one to pull at the right time so you don’t lose sight of the end user.
In short, being a hybrid PO with a tech and SEO culture is clearly a huge asset. It allows for more consistent, high-performing, and, above all, more profitable products in the long run. It’s just a matter of balance to stay effective on all fronts.
