Product Owner

Schneider Electric•Andover, Tennessee

12d•Remote

About The Position

Product Owners are key positions in a global organization, delivering value to the business and customers while maintaining a clear view on customer needs and what needs to get done. Product Owners represent the customer and act autonomously to communicate the right vision of the product within the Squad while fostering strong relationships with stakeholders (customers / commercial / plant / internal sponsors). They partner with League Leaders to set priorities (define, own and maintain the backlog), drive the strategic intent of the product and maximize the value of the work done with the Squad. They create a conducive and collaborative environment through effective leadership. The Product Owner (PO) owns the product vision (when there is no Offer Marketing Owner), has content authority over it and is responsible for maximizing the value of the product through the backlog (list of customer requirements for the product, software or service in development). PO's regularly interacts with the scrum team (small agile team) as needed and acts as the voice of customers and stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor’s degree and 4 years of product or project development experience, or 3 years of project development experience on an Agile Team or an equivalent combination of education and work experience
Experience presenting to Customers & Leaders, and experience in saying 'No' when required
Experience in successfully building and leading teams in a matrix environment.
Exemplifies and promotes Agile values and principles
Outstanding communication, facilitation, negotiation, and coaching skills
Knowledge of an agile framework or method (i.e. Scrum, Kanban), an in-depth knowledge of traditional project management principles would be an advantage
Planning and problem solving with product management and delivery teams

Responsibilities

Define value proposition & set product strategy, in alignment with League vision & to ensure team achieves strategic goals (when there is no Offer Marketing Owner role)
Spend time with customers & stakeholders to identify value drivers
Understand customer values, application, competitive environment, market trends, go to market and anticipate evolutions
Gather and analyze customer’s needs by meeting customers and collaborating regularly with business stakeholders
Evaluate the strategic value of the offer
Define and validate the offer value propositions (UVP, business models, go to market)
Understand technical trends to identify valuable innovations in the product environment
Lead and contribute to the customer interaction strategy
Define, create & maintain global reference tariff levels, ensuring offers are priced following value based pricing principles and portfolios are rationalised. (Only in circumstances where there is not an Offer Marketing Owner or League Marketing Lead)
Build, follow-up and support business in collaboration with zones (when there is no Offer Marketing Owner role)
Co-build or analyze business cases with zones
Create, prioritize & communicate with Squad members the Squad backlog, release map & roadmap.
Challenge and evaluate requests (from business, quality,...)
Periodically review critical quality issues and associated mitigation plans
Build, manage and prioritize the product backlog (note : Backlog should be transparent, visible & understood)
Communicate backlog refinement
Streamline the execution of priorities while maintaining the conceptual and technical integrity of the features or componements for the team.
Define, update and validate the offer/marketing requirement (in sync with companion Squads and Leagues guidelines / strategy) within backlog product prioritization
Build the releases plan and global roadmap according to technology, feasibility, budget, resources, TTM
Communicate the product roadmap to all stakeholders
Periodically review customers demo feedback to assess new needs
Periodically review with internal stakeholders (including management agreement)
Lead the offer requirement trade-offs
Define with Squad members the sprint strategy and achievement criteria. Take accountability in sharing outcomes with stakeholders:
Organize iterative deliverables for each sprint based on release objectives
Ensure team understands and refines backlog items before committing to them
Ensure sprint objectives contribute to value for customer (backlog) and product/process robustness
Define and update achievement criteria
Consider retro session outcomes in the iterative sprint definition
Guide the Squad to set-up and re-prioritize realistic but ambitious enough sprint objectives : squad velocity
Support the Squad to deliver on sprints & “rendezvous”, acting as obstacle troubleshooter :
Be the voice of the customer for the squad questions
Support the squad on all obstacles (including capacity issues)
Periodic analysis of the product cost to deliver the right level of product cost
Define the best trade-offs between all parameters (e.g. : Squad budget, schedule, product cost and business stake, quality, time to market, innovation)
Ensure product/process robustness (according to « major rendezvous »)
Review periodically main acceptance criteria with the Squad.
Synchronize with companion Squads
Create a conducive and collaborative environment through effective leadership :
Organize, lead, challenge and motivate the Squad
Be the voice of the Squad in case of trade offs and success needs with stakeholders outside of the Squad
Provide transparency to key stakeholders
Be part of the Agile rendezvous
Celebrate team's success