A company will implement a new system using a hybrid of Scrum and Kanban. The product owner is unsure how to begin delivering the required functionalities. How should the project manager assist the product owner?

The correct answer is coaching the product owner on how to create a product backlog. In Agile and hybrid methodologies, the product backlog is the primary artifact for defining and prioritizing work. The product owner is responsible for managing this backlog, ensuring it contains clearly defined, prioritized, and estimated items (user stories or features) that deliver value. Coaching them on this fundamental responsibility directly addresses their uncertainty about delivering functionalities. Discussing responsibilities is too general; the product owner needs practical guidance on how to perform their core duty. Encouraging the team to subdivide tasks is premature; the functionalities themselves need to be defined first. Creating a WBS is a traditional project management tool and less aligned with the iterative and adaptive nature of Scrum and Kanban, where the product backlog serves a similar purpose but with more flexibility.