Product Owner

Varsity Brands•Farmers Branch, TX

8d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Owner supports and progressively expands ownership of the overall digital experience, product needs, and continuous-improvement priorities for one of BSN SPORTS' primary business channels: Club, Collegiate, or Institutional. This role serves as a primary product representative for the assigned channel, partnering with business stakeholders, executive leadership, Commercial teams, customers, frontline employees, and application-aligned Portfolio Product Owners. The position will identify opportunities, evaluate customer and business needs, contribute to prioritization decisions, and translate channel objectives into coordinated product initiatives across BSN SPORTS' digital platforms. Portfolio Product Owners are aligned to applications and platforms including BSNSports.com, My Team Shop, Sideline Stores, and Team Art Locker. The Product Owner will partner with the appropriate Portfolio Product Owners and senior Product Owners to ensure channel needs are understood, prioritized, and delivered through the relevant application roadmaps. Unresolved conflicts will be elevated to the executive steering committee for final direction. This role develops a strong understanding of how customer value, business priorities, and technical feasibility influence product decisions across the assigned channel. The Product Owner will support and contribute to product initiatives from discovery through launch and adoption. They will remain actively engaged in discovery, requirements, prioritization, testing, release readiness, and post-launch adoption, while maintaining lighter involvement during active software development and continuing to build expertise in product ownership, Agile delivery practices, customer discovery, and data-informed decision making. In addition to major initiatives, the role will maintain and prioritize a continuous backlog of smaller enhancements, customer pain points, defects, technical improvements, and operational-efficiency opportunities while developing the judgment and product management skills needed to independently own increasingly complex products and initiatives over time. Commercial teams retain accountability for revenue and business results. The Product Owner focuses on customer experience, product outcomes, adoption, usability, operational effectiveness, and translating channel needs into technology-enabled solutions. Working under the guidance of more senior Product Owners, this role develops the knowledge, judgment, and product management capabilities necessary to progressively assume greater ownership of product strategy, prioritization, customer outcomes, and product performance.

Requirements

Strong customer orientation and commitment to improving end-to-end digital and operational experiences
Ability to understand the needs of a business channel while recognizing broader enterprise and platform considerations
Ability to influence senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders without direct reporting authority through clear communication, preparation, and collaboration
Strong prioritization skills using customer evidence, data, strategic alignment, value, effort, risk, and dependencies
Excellent communication, presentation, negotiation, and facilitation skills with the ability to communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical audiences
Ability to navigate ambiguity, structure complex problems, and move groups toward clear decisions
Strong analytical skills and ability to interpret product, customer, operational, and commercial data
Understanding of product analytics, adoption measurement, customer feedback, conversion, utilization, and feature-performance evaluation
Ability to conduct or support customer interviews, user research, journey mapping, surveys, usability testing, and feedback analysis
Understanding of digital product management, product discovery, roadmaps, backlogs, prioritization, and product delivery lifecycles
Working knowledge of Agile practices, including epics, user stories, backlog refinement, sprint reviews, UAT, and release planning
Ability to collaborate with Product, UX, Business Analysis, Engineering, Architecture, Analytics, Delivery, Operations, Sales, and Commercial teams
Ability to understand technical concepts, system dependencies, integrations, APIs, data flows, and platform constraints at a level sufficient to support product decisions
Strong organizational skills with a high degree of ownership, follow-through, and accountability
Ability to manage multiple initiatives, stakeholders, dependencies, and priorities simultaneously
Ability to balance strategic transformation work with smaller continuous improvement opportunities
Strong judgment and ability to recognize when decisions or conflicts should be escalated
Demonstrated learning agility with the curiosity to continuously expand product, customer, industry, and business knowledge
Ability to write clear, concise user stories, acceptance criteria, business documentation, and product communications
Demonstrated customer-first mindset with a passion for understanding customer problems and improving user experiences
Highly organized with strong attention to detail and the ability to effectively manage competing priorities
Receptive to coaching and feedback with a commitment to continuous professional development
Ability to build trusted relationships and work effectively in a highly collaborative, cross-functional environment
Self-motivated with strong initiative and accountability for delivering high-quality product outcomes
Bachelor's degree in Business Administration, Product Management, Marketing, Information Systems, Business Analytics, Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience
High-potential early-career candidates with strong internship, co-op, capstone project, consulting, product management, business analysis, engineering, technology delivery, or equivalent experience
Demonstrated interest in digital products, customer experience, Agile delivery, or technology-enabled business solutions
Proficiency with Microsoft Office applications

Nice To Haves

Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Experience working in a cross-functional or matrixed organization
Experience supporting digital products, eCommerce platforms, enterprise applications, customer-facing technology, or business transformation initiatives
Experience working with business stakeholders, customers, frontline employees, product teams, and technology teams
Experience using analytics and customer feedback to guide product decisions
Experience supporting product launches, organizational change, training, communications, or adoption programs
Familiarity with Agile product management tools such as Jira, Azure DevOps (ADO), or similar platforms
Agile/Product Management certifications are preferred but not required, including: CSPO, PSPO, CSM, PMI-ACP

Responsibilities

Develop and maintain a comprehensive understanding of the assigned channel, including customers, users, business processes, operational needs, pain points, and strategic priorities
Serve as a primary product representative and advocate for the overall digital experience of the assigned channel
Partner with business stakeholders and executive management to understand channel priorities and support major roadmap decisions
Translate channel strategies, customer needs, and operational challenges into clear product opportunities and prioritized initiatives
Evaluate opportunities based on customer impact, strategic alignment, adoption potential, operational value, effort, risk, dependencies, and expected outcomes with guidance from senior Product Owners as appropriate
Maintain and continuously refine a channel-level roadmap identifying major initiatives, experience improvements, capability gaps, and cross-application dependencies
Ensure the channel experience remains cohesive when customer journeys span multiple applications, systems, and operational teams
Develop a strong understanding of how customer needs, business priorities, and technical feasibility influence product strategy and prioritization
Build strong working relationships with channel leadership, Commercial, Operations, Sales, Customer Service, Marketing, Finance, Technology, and other business functions
Facilitate discussions to understand competing needs, clarify tradeoffs, and contribute to prioritization decisions
Present recommendations, supporting analysis, options, dependencies, risks, and tradeoffs to executive management for review with guidance from senior Product Owners
Establish transparent prioritization criteria and ensure stakeholders understand how and why initiatives are sequenced
Communicate roadmap decisions, initiative status, product outcomes, constraints, and changes to appropriate stakeholders
Escalate unresolved cross-channel, cross-application, or resource conflicts to the executive steering committee through appropriate Product leadership
Support steering committee decisions with clear business context, customer impact, data, dependencies, and alternatives
Develop effective stakeholder management, communication, and influence skills while partnering across cross-functional teams
Partner with application-aligned Portfolio Product Owners responsible for BSNSports.com, My Team Shop, Sideline Stores, Team Art Locker, and other relevant platforms
Clearly communicate channel needs, desired outcomes, customer problems, priorities, and success measures
Collaborate to determine which applications, platforms, or services should deliver a requested capability
Ensure channel requirements are incorporated into appropriate application roadmaps and product backlogs
Coordinate initiatives requiring changes across multiple products, applications, or delivery teams
Participate in cross-portfolio planning to identify dependencies, sequencing requirements, shared capabilities, and conflicts
Balance channel-specific needs with enterprise platform strategies, technical sustainability, and the needs of other channels while developing an understanding of product tradeoff decisions
Elevate conflicts that cannot be resolved collaboratively to the executive steering committee for final direction through senior Product leadership as appropriate
Conduct regular discovery with customers, users, and frontline employees to identify unmet needs, recurring pain points, experience gaps, and improvement opportunities
Engage coaches, athletic directors, club owners, collegiate personnel, sales professionals, players, parents, customer-service teams, and operational users as appropriate
Use interviews, observation, surveys, journey mapping, usability testing, feedback sessions, support data, and analytics to gather insights
Validate that proposed solutions address meaningful customer or operational problems before significant development investment is made
Partner with UX, research, analytics, and business teams to develop customer journeys, personas, experience maps, and problem statements
Evaluate stakeholder requests against customer evidence, usage data, strategic priorities, and broader channel needs
Maintain an organized repository of customer insights, feedback themes, experience gaps, and validated opportunities
Continuously build expertise in customer discovery, product research, and data-informed decision making to strengthen future product recommendations
Lead assigned channel initiatives from initial concept through discovery, prioritization, approval, delivery, launch, and adoption for assigned products, features, or initiatives appropriate to the role's scope and experience
Define the business problem, target users, desired outcomes, scope, success measures, assumptions, dependencies, risks, and constraints
Partner with Business Analysts, UX, Portfolio Product Owners, Architecture, Engineering, and Delivery teams to establish clear requirements and execution readiness
Participate actively in discovery, solution definition, requirements reviews, roadmap planning, UAT, launch readiness, and post-launch evaluation
Maintain lighter involvement during active development while remaining available to clarify priorities, answer business questions, review material scope changes, and resolve escalated decisions
Review proposed solutions to confirm they address the intended channel need and preserve the desired customer experience
Support creation and approval of epics, business requirements, user journeys, business rules, acceptance criteria, and measurable outcomes
Participate in product demonstrations and key milestone reviews
Coordinate with stakeholders to ensure operational processes, policies, support models, and customer-facing experiences are prepared for launch
Identify and escalate risks, dependencies, decision gaps, and adoption barriers
Partner with Delivery and Engineering teams to understand schedules, constraints, and risks without owning engineering delivery dates or day-to-day development execution
Develop expertise in balancing customer needs, business priorities, and technical considerations while building end-to-end product ownership capabilities
Create, maintain, and prioritize a channel-level backlog of improvement opportunities
Balance strategic initiatives with smaller delivery-ready items
Include customer pain points, experience enhancements, defects, technical improvements, operational efficiencies, usability improvements, analytics needs, process improvements, and stakeholder requests
Refine backlog items based on new information, customer feedback, performance data, implementation learnings, and changing business priorities
Partner with Portfolio Product Owners and technical teams to identify smaller items that can be completed when capacity is available
Ensure backlog items contain sufficient context, desired outcomes, customer impact, priority rationale, and acceptance expectations
Retire, combine, or deprioritize items that are no longer aligned with channel strategy or supported by evidence
Promote continuous product improvement rather than relying exclusively on large projects
Develop sound product judgment by continuously evaluating customer feedback, business priorities, and product performance to support backlog refinement and prioritization decisions
Define success measures and analytics requirements for major initiatives and feature enhancements
Monitor revenue trends and revenue influence, conversion rates, customer and user adoption, feature utilization, customer satisfaction, Net Promoter Score or other experience indicators, customer feedback themes, user behavior and journey completion, defect and support volumes, operational efficiency, cycle time, feature performance, and release outcomes
Partner with Commercial teams to understand business-performance results while maintaining clear ownership boundaries
Use analytics to identify experience problems, adoption barriers, underperforming capabilities, and new opportunities
Develop dashboards, scorecards, or regular performance summaries that provide visibility into channel experience and product outcomes
Compare actual results with expected outcomes and recommend follow-up improvements when performance does not meet expectations
Ensure analytics and measurement needs are incorporated into solution requirements before launch
Combine behavioral analytics with customer feedback and operational insights
Develop proficiency in interpreting product, customer, operational, and business metrics to support evidence-based product decisions and continuous improvement
Develop an adoption strategy for new capabilities, features, and experience changes
Partner with Commercial, Sales, Marketing, Training, Customer Service, Operations, and other teams to prepare for launch
Help define customer and employee communications, training materials, enablement plans, support resources, FAQs, and launch messaging
Identify affected audiences and ensure they understand what is changing, why it matters, and how to use the new capability
Coordinate pilot programs, phased launches, early-adopter feedback, and readiness reviews when appropriate
Track adoption, utilization, customer response, operational impact, and support needs following launch
Investigate low adoption or deficient performance and lead corrective-action planning
Recommend adjustments to the product experience, communications, training, process, or rollout strategy based on post-launch results
Ensure delivered capabilities transition into an effective ongoing operating and support model
Use post-launch feedback, customer insights, and product analytics to identify opportunities that improve future releases and customer outcomes
Lead through influence in a matrixed organization without direct authority over business, technology, or delivery teams
Create alignment among stakeholders with different objectives, incentives, timelines, and levels of technical understanding
Facilitate productive meetings, decision sessions, prioritization discussions, discovery workshops, and executive reviews
Communicate complex product and technology topics in clear business language
Promote fact-based decision-making, customer-centered design, transparent prioritization, and accountability for outcomes
Contribute to BSN SPORTS' product operating model, governance processes, and product management practices
Share insights and reusable practices across Club, Collegiate, and Institutional channel teams
Continuously develop product leadership, business acumen, and influence skills while building trusted partnerships across Product, Engineering, UX, Business Analysis, and business stakeholders