Product Owner I

Brookfield Wealth Solutions, Ltd•Chicago, IL

5d•Onsite

About The Position

A Product Owner leads the agile scrum team(s) and ensures product planning and effective prioritization. This includes managing the product throughout the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, and working closely with agile teams to deliver value. This position bridges the gap between product strategy and development. It is responsible for health and management of the product backlog, organizing sprint activities, and is expected to answer questions from developers as needed. Additionally, this position works with support partners to ensure that revenue, customer satisfaction goals, and other outcomes are met in alignment with the product’s overall strategy and goals. Product Owner II: This is the standard level of product ownership. Product Owners at this level work closely with the development team, define user stories, prioritize the backlog, and ensure the team delivers value according to user needs. They have established themselves as a subject matter expert with respect to their product.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, or relevant field.
Two to four years of experience.
Supervisory/management experience not applicable.
At least three years of agile Product Owner experience in scrum and scaled agile environments.
Experience delivering software products using agile principles, including planning and estimating with a continuous improvement mindset.
Proven track record of bringing successful products to market on time, incorporating a variety of development and delivery strategies (third party, insourcing, outsourcing).
Proven success in leading, coaching, and motivating cross-functional empowered teams.
Experience with market research, competitive analysis, and technology trend analysis.
Ability to assess the impact of new product initiatives on the delivery team environment.
Demonstrated understanding and empathy for customer needs and pain points, amplifying the voice of the customer throughout product development and delivery.
Facilitation and collaboration skills, including ability to facilitate decision-making and broker agreements among diverse, differing, and/or conflicting perspectives/priorities.
Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal communication skills, particularly with establishing and advocating for both customer and delivery team points of view.
Experience communicating and presenting complex information to multiple levels of the organization, translating data into understandable, actionable information and recommendations.
Ability to make timely and independent decisions while working in a fast-paced and results-driven environment, making adjustments, and course corrections in close partnership with delivery teams.

Nice To Haves

At least six years of experience in one or more of the following: product management, product development, strategic planning, process management, change delivery, or as an agile product owner.
Ability to meet deadlines, achieve goals, manage risk, solve problems, and work under pressure in a dynamic and complex environment.
Expertise in navigating matrixed organizations and teams with proven success in leveraging the right people and resources at the right time for consistent and dependable delivery of optimal value to the customer and the business.
Knowledge and understanding of product management in the regulated financial services industry.
Ability to evaluate risks and the impact of decisions on the product line, generating creative alternatives and understanding trade-offs.
Excellent analytical skills and orientation in making data-driven technical decisions.
One or more of the following agile certifications: Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Agile Certified Practioner (PMI-ACP), Certified Agile Product Manager (CAL-PM), SAFe Product Owner/Product Manager (SAFe POPM), or Certified LeSS Practioner (CLP).
Ability to train and coach all levels of the organization.
Experience with software development lifecycle management and tooling (Jira Align or Azure Dev Ops knowledge a plus).

Responsibilities

Breaks down overall product strategy and roadmap into program increment (quarterly) and sprint level goals and priorities (in partnership with the Product Manager).
Connects with customers and internal stakeholders needs to inform the product strategy and roadmap. This includes relevant competitive knowledge and industry trends.
Maintains the content and integrity of the product team’s backlog of stories, enablers, and defects. Ensures stories are well informed and represent the intent of agile release train (ART) level features.
Prioritizes the sequence of the backlog items and communicates that sequence to the product team during backlog refinement and iteration planning.
Models servant leadership to the product team and incorporates feedback and suggestions made during team retrospectives into future delivery activities.
Ensures working product demos are presented to key stakeholders for awareness, transparency, and input.
Collaborates with other leaders across the ART to ensure transparency of work, dependencies are understood and properly sequenced, working methods are consistent across the teams, and priorities are aligned-on.
Evaluates the individual agile team members for effectiveness and contributions and ensuring the teams are high performing. This includes making recommendations to remove or add team members as needed.