Associate Product Owner

ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Summary

• Point the Product development team to the product strategic perspective
• Serves as a communication hub and a strategic guide for everyone involved with the product
• Possesses a deeper understanding of the product and market
• Creating and maintaining the product backlog
• Collaborates with the development team and other stakeholders to ensure the product is delivered on time and meets quality standards.
• Oversee the actual product throughout the development cycle

Typical Roles & Responsibilities

• Backlog Management: Assist the Product Owner in maintaining and managing the product backlog. This includes organizing user stories, refining requirements, prioritizing backlog items, and ensuring the backlog is visible and up-to-date.
• User Story Definition: Collaborate with stakeholders, end-users, and the development team to define clear and well-written user stories. Ensure that user stories capture the desired functionality and value, and adhere to the INVEST principle.
• Requirements Gathering: Assist in gathering and analyzing requirements from stakeholders and end-users. Conduct research, interviews, and feedback sessions to understand user needs and incorporate them into the product backlog.
• Prioritization: Collaborate with the Product Owner to prioritize user stories and backlog items based on business value, stakeholder input, and development team capacity. Provide input on prioritization decisions and participate in backlog refinement sessions.
• Sprint Planning: Participate in sprint planning meetings to contribute to the selection of user stories for the upcoming sprint. Assist in estimating the effort required for user stories and help ensure that the sprint backlog is feasible and achievable.
• Agile Ceremonies: Actively participate in Agile ceremonies such as daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives. Provide updates on the product backlog, contribute to discussions, and address any questions or concerns from the development team.
• Communication and Collaboration: Collaborate with the development team and stakeholders to ensure effective communication and collaboration. Act as a liaison between stakeholders and the development team, helping to clarify requirements, gather feedback, and address any issues or concerns.
• Acceptance Criteria and Validation: Work with the development team to define acceptance criteria for user stories and ensure that they are testable and meet the definition of done. Assist in validating and accepting completed user stories during sprint reviews.
• Documentation and Reporting: Help maintain documentation related to the product backlog, user stories, and other relevant artifacts. Assist in generating reports and metrics to track the progress and performance of the product development process.
• Continuous Learning: Actively seek opportunities for learning and growth in the Product Owner role. Learn from more experienced Product Owners, participate in training or certification programs, and stay up-to-date with Agile practices and methodologies.

BEHAVIOURAL COMPETENCIES

• Values team success over individual success (Team work & Communication)
• Continuously improves (self and team) (Curiosity & Passion)
• Holds themselves and others accountable (Professionalism & Passion)
• Thinks about business impact (Customer focus)

QUALIFICATIONS

• High-level knowledge of agile software development
• Experience in project management
• ​Ability to define any and all user stories
• Excellent communication skills, especially with customers and leadership
• An understanding of computer science principles (for software products)
• Continuous problem-solving ability
• Some experience with functioning within agile teams

Education

• Bachelor’s degree in information technology, computer science, or related field
• Agile certification
• Product Owner certification

Experience           

• 2-3 years in a product role or equivalent
• Minimum 2-3 years insurance domain experience, preferably working within an insurance company or insurance technology solutions sector
• In-depth knowledge of Agile process and principles
• Outstanding interpersonal, communication, presentation and leadership skills
• Experience with technology and ability to facilitate communication between business and tech teams
• Excellent organizational and time management skills
• Sharp analytical and problem-solving skills
• Creative thinker with a vision
• Attention to details