This person's real job is to keep things moving: answer questions quickly, resolve competing priorities, and represent the business's goals consistently. When decisions route through a committee or an absent stakeholder, momentum dies and timelines slip.
For a small business this is often the founder or a manager. For a larger one it may be a dedicated product owner. Either way, naming that person and giving them real decision-making authority is one of the simplest predictors of a project that ships.
Updated July 2026
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