“A distant product owner works separately from the team. But distance comes in many forms and degrees. It starts with working on the same site in different rooms, and it ends with the product owner and the team being separated across continents and time zones. I have found recurring issues with distant product owners, including mistrust, miscommunication, misalignment, and slow progress.” – Roman Pichler

To work with a distant product owner, the team has to stay in constant communication to avoid any gaps in the INFORMATION being processed. Distant product owners should be on-site at least for the sprint planning, review, and retrospective meetings. They should have frequent video conferencing to help with face-to-face interactions, this not only instills confidence but also HELPS with getting the RIGHT product shipped. The teams having ‘Distant Product Owners’ should resolve their queries as and when they receive because any lag will cost them time in a sprint. It is always better to move from Distant to Co-located product owner as they are available runtime to ANSWER the queries and help the teams follow the GOAL.