Product Owner II

As a member of an Agile team, the Product Owner represents the voice of the customer and the organization by enabling the delivery of measurable business value. This role will be aligned to Personal Lines Policy and will support Win/Now initiatives within the Agency space, with a particular focus on the HMR program and home product rollouts.

The Product Owner partners closely with business and technology stakeholders—including line-of-business leadership, agency partners, architects, and delivery teams—to define and prioritize features, capabilities, and stories that align with customer needs and organizational objectives. This individual develops a deep understanding of customer and business problems, ensures those problems are clearly defined and prioritized, and keeps the squad focused on delivering the highest-value outcomes.

The Product Owner serves as a key point of communication between stakeholders and the Agile team, creating shared understanding of how the squad can deliver value through the lens of the product and portfolio strategy. This role collaborates across squads, teams, technologies, and portfolios to develop a strong understanding of the systems and capabilities supporting Personal Lines Policy.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborate with stakeholders to establish product vision and alignment with strategic priorities; contribute to the development of portfolio vision and strategy.
• Communicate product and portfolio vision to the squad and to teams outside the portfolio or functional area.
• Partner with stakeholders and the squad to develop and achieve product-level KPIs.
• Manage products with a moderate degree of strategy, scope, and complexity, including capabilities supporting the HMR program and home product rollouts.
• Own and maintain the product backlog, ensuring it is appropriately prioritized, current, and aligned to customer and business value.
• Develop clear, actionable user stories and acceptance criteria that enable effective delivery.
• Establish priorities and actively participate in squad-level quarterly planning; collaborate with senior Product Owners on portfolio-level planning.
• Set clear expectations with stakeholders regarding the delivery of new capabilities, features, and functionality.
• Participate in and actively contribute to Agile ceremonies, including planning sessions, demonstrations, retrospectives, and backlog refinement.
• Work daily with the Agile team to clarify business requirements, remove impediments, resolve questions, and maintain alignment around product strategy.
• Collaborate with IT and business leadership to align development activities with business goals and priorities.
• Proactively identify and resolve issues, risks, and roadblocks that may affect delivery.
• Manage dependencies across squads, teams, portfolios, and external partners to support coordinated delivery and minimize disruption.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, facilitating effective communication, alignment, and decision-making.
• Monitor product health and support the long-term viability, efficiency, and sustainability of the product.
• Balance short- and long-term priorities, costs, capacity, risks, and desired outcomes.
• Analyze and communicate feasibility, cost of delay, economic considerations, and other impacts associated with planned or potential product changes.
• Understand applicable regulatory, compliance, and industry requirements and incorporate them into product priorities and delivery plans.
• Negotiate and align priorities across squads and teams, both within and outside the portfolio.
• Collaboratively develop the squad-level product roadmap and incorporate strategic input from stakeholders.
• Contribute to program- and portfolio-level planning as appropriate.
• Communicate the expected value and any changes in value to be delivered during each iteration based on squad capacity.
• Lead customer-driven design and usability testing for the squad, and collaborate on customer-driven design and usability testing across the portfolio.
• Support market and industry analysis to ensure the product remains well-positioned and responsive to customer and business needs.

Desired Qualifications and Attributes

• Product knowledge, preferably within Personal Lines, Policy, Agency, home insurance, or related insurance domains.
• Experience supporting product initiatives, strategic programs, or complex business and technology capabilities.
• Demonstrated ability to work effectively across business, technology, architecture, operations, and other functional teams.
• Strong dependency management skills, including the ability to identify interdependencies, assess impacts, and coordinate execution across teams.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to build alignment among diverse groups and influence decisions.
• Ability to translate customer and business needs into a prioritized roadmap, backlog, and actionable user stories.
• Ability to balance strategic objectives with day-to-day execution and delivery needs.
• Demonstrated ownership, initiative, and sound judgment in navigating ambiguity and moving work forward.
• A proactive, results-oriented approach, with the ability to anticipate challenges, engage the right partners, and drive initiatives to successful outcomes.
• Strong analytical, facilitation, negotiation, and problem-solving skills.
• Commitment to customer-focused delivery and continuous improvement.

• Knowledge of Agile development methodologies and IT project management as typically acquired through a Bachelors` degree in relevant field (business, computer science, humanities etc.) and a minimum of 3 to 5 years direct experience with agile teams as well as 7 years in business, technology, or consulting.
• Able to depict and explain the importance of complex ideas, issues and designs to varied audiences; educate SBU/department(s) on business vision and plan and the impact of change.
• Able to influence a diverse group of stakeholders; strong leadership skills.
• Able to make difficult and quick decisions daily.
• Strong problem solver with demonstrated ability to lead a team to push the solutions and progress.
• Experience in the insurance industry preferred.
• Knowledge of relevant products and portfolio preferred.
• Strong experimental mindset to drive innovation amongst uncertainty.