Product Owner

Product Owner

The Product Owner will lead the product management function for a small team of developers delivering features to market.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities:

• Efficiently manage and prioritize the product backlog to ensure clarity and alignment on what will be built, with an emphasis on understanding and fulfilling customer needs and company goals.
• Craft comprehensive one-page user stories and articulate clear acceptance criteria to communicate the desired outcome of product features for the development team.
• Keep the amount of unfinished work (WIP) small to streamline productivity and ensure continuous progress.
• Safeguard that code is released only after meeting all established milestones and quality checkpoints to maintain high standards.
• Be available for the team, yet flexible to attend conflicting but necessary meetings when required.
• Collaborate with developers to outline the product’s design, handle issues as they arise, set priorities in the backlog, and refine feature work.
• Guide the development of a walking skeleton into a Minimally Viable or a Scalable Viable Product (SVP), encouraging growth through consistent, incremental, and impactful iterations.
• Lead the setting of objectives and track metrics to ensure the product is tracking toward goals and objectives.
• Maintain a regular cadence of meetings with stakeholders, customers, and leadership to drive features toward creating customer value swiftly.
• Continuously test new features and enforce a high quality threshold to meet the company’s standards of excellence.

Minimum Education & Work Experience:

• 3+ years of proven experience as a Product Owner, or similar role in product management, within a fast-paced software development environment.
• 2-3 years of experience with Primary qualitative and quantitative research methods and data analysis in a business or academic setting is preferred.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Business Administration, or a related field. A Masters degree is in business, technology management is a plus.
• Certification in Product Ownership or Agile methodology (e.g., CSPO) is a plus.

Key Skills and Qualifications:

• Strong knowledge of Agile principles and methodologies, with practical experience in Scrum/Kanban frameworks.
• Proficiency in common research methodologies used to identify, validate and quantify customer requirements, business priorities, and competitive trends.
• Excellent communication and leadership skills, with the ability to engage and influence cross-functional teams and stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to manage product development cycles and understand technical requirements.
• Experience with backlog grooming, product planning, and iteration processes.
• Analytical and problem-solving abilities with a customer-focused orientation.|

Physical Demands and Work Environment:

• The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
• Regularly required to sit at a desk in front of a computer and use hands to finger, handle, or feel objects, tools, or controls (including a computer keyboard and operating a telephone), lift and/or move up to 10 pounds.
• Frequently requires the use of hands and arms for reaching, as well as the ability to walk and communicate effectively through speaking and listening.
• Specific vision abilities required by this position include close vision, color vision, and the ability to adjust focus.
• Noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.
• Type on a computer keyboard and look at a computer monitor, and operate a cell phone or a computer-based phone.