Product Owner

UFG is currently seeking a Product Owner to be accountable for specific business objectives based on the area and/or Product they are focused on.  The Product Owner creates a Product roadmap and defines the strategic vision for their team driven by the overall organization vision.  He/she will have a deep understanding of the target market/industry and build close relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that the team’s effort is aligned with overall strategy.  A Product Owner manages dependencies with other team’s functions while identifying, building and managing strategic partnerships across the different areas.  They work closely within their team to ensure business value and user feedback is translated into new development.  The Product Owner must also continually engage with customers and stakeholders on a regular basis and leverage new information to maintain and prioritize the product backlog.

Responsibilities:

• Develop Product vision, OKRs, roadmap, synchronize it with the Tribe, and clearly communicate this with stakeholders
• Scope the MVPs considering existing resource constraints and sustained development of the Product
• Define the business value for the Product and support messaging, communication and customer outreach as necessary
• Build Product Backlog (user stories), prioritize the backlog based on business value, and continuously keep the backlog up to date
• Accept sprint results at sprint review and ensure the appropriate stakeholders are involved
• Ensure team members understand the stories in the backlog and the business value they deliver
• Collaborate with Tech Leads to define the technical roadmap for the Product (several sprints ahead of them)
• Engage with customers and stakeholders on a regular basis to gather feedback and refine the future of the Product as a result and adjust the backlog as needed
• Raise dependencies and roadblocks to Tribe Lead, STL with support of the Scrum Master and help resolve them if needed
• Empower teams to be autonomous and self-organizing; does not micro-manage and role models servant leadership by helping to remove impediments to accelerate teams
• Conduct/ participate in sprint ceremonies as needed and work to support the team on a daily basis

Qualifications: 

Education: 

• Four-year college degree preferred
• Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Certified Scrum Practitioner (CSP) or Certified Scrum Coach (CSC) preferred – any persons in this role will receive formal Product Owner training for certification
• Employees are expected to participate in additional Agile training, in-house training programs, and insurance coursework throughout their careers.

Experience: 

• Product Management or similar work experience preferred
• Experience working in an iterative delivery environment (Agile, Scrum, etc.) preferred
• Experience with business analysis, requirements writing, or technical documentation preferred
• Project management experience preferred
• Experience in backlog development (e.g., prioritization and grooming, writing stories)
• Experience with basic development and technology concepts preferred
• Experience in the business domain aligned to the product backlog they are Product Owner of preferred

Knowledge, skills & abilities: 

• Proven knowledge of standard concepts, practices and procedures within the relevant business function
• Understanding and knowledge of various internal roles (both business and technology) and how they interact with their product
• Strong network and ability to influence decisions within the business function
• Strong business mindset covering skills around data driven decision-making, managing up, financial impacts of decisions, and being able to say no to requests that do not align with product and company vision
• Strong collaborator with cross-functional teams from tech, design, and business
• Strong leader, team player and individual contributor
• Strong communication skills with comfort in speaking with business stakeholders
• Strong organizational skills managing requests from various sources and apply them to a continuously refined backlog
• Effective problem solver with ability to manage and lead the team to push the solution
• Strategic thinker capable of envisioning the future of the product
• Passion to challenge the status quo and find new solutions, drives outside the box thinking, embraces change
• Believes in a non-hierarchical culture of collaboration, transparency, safety, trust
• Not afraid to “roll up the sleeves "and seeks to go outside of his/her comfort zone to learn; pushes teams to do the same
• Empowers others to fail, learn, and grow
• Experimental mindset to drive innovation

Working Conditions: 

• General office environment