Thanks for the clarification. I was certain that I wanted to be a product owner, but ended up taking a different role. I noticed that the product owners around me are frequently stressed and miserable, including those at partner companies.

I also felt baffled at those who had been given the product owner title — frequently engineers or technical managers who lacked the customer experience or commercial knowledge to take on the role.

(Of course, that can be acquired, but it’s a source of the stress.)

I was surprised at how low the salaries seemed to be in comparison with the same title at tech companies. In one instance, I even asked the recruiter if there had been a mistake.

Now I understand: they are not product owners in the true sense at all. I never wanted to be a SAFe product owner, just a Scrum one.