Product Owner - Agentic Voice Response (AVR)

Xcel Energy•Roseville, MN

2d•Hybrid

About The Position

The Product Owner is accountable for developing and executing the vision, strategy, and stakeholder alignment for Xcel Energy’s AI-enabled voice self-service (AVR) customer experience. The role builds relationships across the organization, aligns product decisions with broader objectives, and identifies opportunities for growth. As the subject matter expert with product decision rights, the Product Owner develops and delivers the product vision and roadmap, applies agile principles to lead an Xcel and vendor-partner development team, and prioritizes work for maximum value. The role also gathers customer feedback, tracks trends, and uses market and user research and relevant data to guide product decisions. The Product Owner leads AVR and related customer AI experiences, manages stakeholders and delivery, and supports change management and contact center readiness. They establish goals and KPIs, define user stories and requirements, communicate user needs to design and engineering teams, and test products for requirements, accessibility, responsible AI standards, and customer needs. They monitor delivery results, schedule, risks, and budget; assess vendor deliverables against acceptance criteria; and lead an agile scrum team of approximately 15 members, including coaching, performance expectation management, issue escalation, and sprint ceremonies.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, project management, design, or a related field, or a combination of education and experience providing equivalent knowledge.
At least 8 years of experience in business, marketing, project management, or product management, or 4 years of direct Agile product management experience.
Strong collaboration skills and a demonstrated ability to build and maintain senior-level relationships.
Ability to communicate effectively with varied audiences and break down complex scenarios.
Demonstrated leadership, including decision-making through ambiguity and influencing immediate and longer-term strategies.
In-depth knowledge of Agile processes and principles, including Scrum, SAFe, and Kanban.
Proven success working with cross-functional teams and stakeholders on large strategic and product management initiatives.
Experience implementing customer and/or employee digital solutions and processes.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing, deploying, or managing AI agents, such as conversational, voice, or generative AI agents, in a customer-facing environment.
Experience monitoring and improving AI agent performance in production, including evaluation, accuracy, drift, safe human handoff, and responsible AI controls.

Responsibilities

Lead the strategy and development of AVR and related Xcel Energy customer AI experiences, providing scalable, best-in-class capabilities.
Be responsible for product delivery team work and success criteria.
Manage business stakeholders and proactively develop solutions that address problems and meet objectives.
Work with stakeholders on effective change management, including contact center readiness, to support successful product delivery.
Create the product vision and oversee development of the product roadmap in alignment with the organizational digital transformation strategy.
Set goals and KPIs, including containment, customer effort, and cost to serve, reflecting customer needs and company strategy, with quality as the ultimate goal.
Define user stories and refine requirements and the backlog according to the product roadmap.
Communicate user needs effectively to design and engineering teams.
Test development to confirm it meets requirements, accessibility standards, and responsible AI standards.
Test products with end users to ensure they meet customer needs.
Monitor and document results to ensure product development activities achieve strategies, follow processes, maintain schedules, and manage risks and budgets.
Accept or reject vendor deliverables against defined acceptance criteria.
Lead an agile scrum team of approximately 15 members to implement initiatives and achieve goals; provide coaching, manage performance expectations, and escalate issues appropriately.
Lead sprint meetings as dictated by program or team charter, including sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and stakeholder demonstrations.