How to Become a Certified Scrum Product Owner

A Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) plays a vital role in Agile product development processes, helping organizations implement processes and create a product roadmap. CSPOs, who earn an official certification from the Scrum Alliance, are experts in Scrum principles and can expect a promising job outlook. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) expects employment for project management specialists, including CSPOs, to increase by 7 percent between 2023 and 2033 [1].

According to Digital.ai’s recent State of Agile Report, 71 percent of companies use Agile in their software development, with 63 percent naming Scrum as their preferred framework [2]. As a result, learning how to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner may boost your job prospects, increase your salary, and help you stand out to employers.

Discover more about Certified Scrum Product Owners, how to become one, and potential Certified Scrum Product Owner salaries.

What is Scrum?

Scrum is a project management framework that uses incremental steps and experimentation to help teams organize. It involves a series of principles, tools, and defined roles to help teams solve complex problems and iterate as they find solutions. Since Scrum is an empirical process, it emphasizes experience, self-organization, learning as you go, and adaptability. 

Scrum is a framework within the Agile methodology, a process that uses repetitive work cycles to release products and refine them based on feedback for continual improvement. This iterative approach to project management is based on the three pillars of transparency, inspection, and adaptation. It also relies on small, cross-functional teams that manage themselves and adapt readily to changes.

Benefits of Scrum

Scrum typically offers flexibility, faster development, and the opportunity to learn through experience. Users can adapt it to their own organizations and needs. Some benefits of Scrum include:

• Flexibility: Scrum is a framework that provides a structure to manage projects but allows for flexibility. A team can adapt Scrum to their needs and use it for greater adaptability as they encounter issues and learn more. 

• Continuous learning: The Scrum process motivates team members to learn through experience. It allows your team to improve and build upon past sprints continuously.

• Clear roles and responsibilities: Scrum clearly defines three roles—product owner, Scrum master, and Scrum team members or developers—in its Scrum Guide. In a well-run Scrum organization, team members often clearly understand their responsibilities and how they fit into projects.

• Collaboration and visibility: Scrum is a collaborative framework that encourages transparency and accountability. With frequent check-ins, team members adapt and learn together while also sharing progress so all stakeholders can see the project’s evolution.

• Get to market faster: Since Scrum emphasizes iterative and incremental steps, teams can typically get a product to market faster instead of waiting for each step to be perfect. Scrum teams usually want to deploy a product as quickly as possible to begin gathering feedback.

Why is it called Scrum?

The sport of rugby inspired the name of this product management framework. It refers to the “scrummage,” a formation where players gather tightly together to restart a play and push the ball forward. The first use of the term came in a 1986 Harvard Business Review paper that referred to Scrum as a “holistic method—as in rugby, the ball gets passed within the team as it moves as a unit up the field” [3].

What is a Certified Scrum Product Owner?

A Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) is a product owner who holds the CSPO certification from Scrum Alliance. On a Scrum team, the product owner takes complete ownership of the product for the business from developing its goals to maximizing its value and ensuring its success. 

Scrum teams typically view the product owner as the representative for the customer's needs and vital stakeholders. Some typical responsibilities and roles the Certified Scrum Product Owner plays include: 

• Use Scrum principles to guide product development

• Give guidance on product features

• Develop product goals

• Configuring and ordering the product backlog items

• Make all final product decisions for the team

• Defines product vision and scope 

What is the CSPO certification?

The CSPO certification is an industry-recognized credential offered by Scrum Alliance and designed for product leaders. The certification course proves your expertise and knowledge in product management, product development, and Scrum best practices on a project management team.

The CSPO certification can benefit product leaders and other Scrum team members. It may also expand your job prospects and earning potential and help you stand out to employers. Research from the Scrum Alliance shows organizations may pay 55 percent more for certified Agile professionals [4].

Scrum product owner certification: Cost and requirements

To earn your CSPO credential, you need to complete a certification course rather than pass an exam. The course has no prerequisites or strict enrollment requirements, and you can complete it online or in person. Courses range from $220 to $1,950 [5].

Who should get a Certified Scrum Product Owner Certification?

Anyone interested in product management or product development, especially those who work on a Scrum team, can benefit from the CSPO certification. It may help team members establish Scrum best practices and provide continuous learning for product leaders to stay up-to-date with valuable Scrum and product skills. 

However, whether or not you should earn the credential may depend on your job role and career goals. Some professionals who may benefit from CSPO certification include the following:

• Business analysts

• Product managers

• Product owners

• Project managers

• Data analysts

• Scrum team members or developers

How to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner

All you need to do is complete the CSPO certification course and accept your license agreement to become a Certified Scrum Product Owner. As of April 2025, no exam accompanies the course. You’ll need to renew your CSPO certification after two years by submitting 20 Scrum Educational Units (SEUs) that prove your continuing education and paying a $100 renewal fee [6]. 

After you complete the CSPO certification, you’ll be eligible to continue the product owner certification track with Scrum Alliance. The Advanced Certified Scrum Product Owner (A-CSPO) is the next step, and Scrum Alliance typically recommends this certification course once you have a year of experience as a CSPO. Next is the Certified Scrum Professional Product Owner, an option for more advanced product leaders.

What does the Certified Scrum Product Owner course include?

This two-day program requires roughly 16 hours of learning. Scrum Alliance offers courses globally, both in-person and live online. The CSPO course follows several learning objectives from the Scrum Guide, Scrum values, the Agile manifesto, and feedback gathered by the Scrum Alliance. While individual coaches may add additional topics, all CSPO courses include the following five learning objectives:

• Product owner core competencies: This objective focuses on the key responsibilities of a product owner and the challenges they may face. You’ll also learn techniques to help guide your product toward its goals.

• Goal setting and planning: You’ll learn the relationship between a product vision and product goals. You’ll also have hands-on practice creating goals and planning sprints.

• Understanding customers and users: This objective covers segmenting customers and users and the best practices to address customer needs.

• Validating product assumptions: You’ll learn how Scrum supports validating product assumptions and common approaches.

• Working with the product backlog: You’ll learn what a product backlog is, how a product owner orders a backlog, and the relationship between outcome and output in a backlog. You’ll also practice developing your own product backlog.

Certified Scrum Product Owner salary

According to Payscale, the average base salary in the United States for a CSPO is $118,000 [6]. However, the CSPO certification can be beneficial for many different roles. Some positions that may ask for the CSPO credential, as well as their average US base salaries, include the following: 

• Project manager: $83,821 [7]

• Product manager: $103,026 [8]

• Product owner: $106,646 [9]

• Business analyst: $83,559 [10]

• Data analyst: $73,886 [11]

Prepare for your Scrum product owner certification on Coursera

The Certified Scrum Product Owner certification is a globally recognized credential that validates your expertise and knowledge in product development and Scrum best practices. Learn more about Scrum product owners and how to master Scrum principles with the IBM Product Owner Professional Certificate, which allows you to master the Scrum principles while learning job-ready product owner skills. 

With the IBM Project Management Professional Certificate, you can discover more about Scrum and Agile methodologies and how to use them in project management. You’ll have a chance to learn about Agile concepts, iterative development, and continuous improvement in this beginner-friendly series.