Product Owner

Join USRM's Distribution Solutions team as a Product Owner (PO) supporting the Quoting Platform and our enablement of critical business priorities across both our Win Now and Frontier workstreams. As Distribution’s gateway to Liberty Mutual’s suite of insurance products, Quoting Platform plays an essential role in achieving Distribution’s 2030 vision to be the leading multi-line retail carrier in the US. The focus will be on delivering platform capabilities and reusable solutions that meet the needs of every Distribution channel and persona for all our current and future insurance products. This role will report to either a Sr Product Owner or Director PO in the Quoting portfolio, where our mission is to “Allow consumers to sell and service every product in every channel with ease, speed, accuracy, and intelligence.”

As a member of the Agile team, the Product Owner represents the voice of the customer and the organization through the delivery of business value. This person works closely with stakeholders (business and technology), including LOB leadership, to define and prioritize features and stories, ensuring alignment with customer needs and organizational goals. This person understands customers` problems in detail and ensures the problems are clearly defined, prioritized and the squad/team is focused on the most valuable work. The Product Owner is the team member always communicating with stakeholders to ensure an aligned understanding of how the squad/team can provide the highest value to the customer through the lens of the portfolio. This person collaborates with squads/teams, technologies and architects across portfolios to develop a deep understanding of the technologies and systems they support.

Ideal candidate will have: 

• Personal Lines Product Knowledge: Strong understanding of Personal Lines insurance products to ensure that APIs meet the business needs of transacting multiple lines of insurance products in multiple jurisdictions through multiple Distribution channels.
• Back-end experience: Background working on back-end systems, APIs, microservices, reusable capabilities, integrating a service-oriented architecture with consumers, or platform products.
• Platform Mindset: A strong focus on delivering outcomes by deeply understanding the associated software products, consumer needs, and an API-first design approach to develop effective and scalable solutions that support business objectives.
• Strong Communication Skills: Ability to depict complex ideas, issues and designs to varied audiences on the business vision and plan, and the impact of change. Ability to influence a diverse group of stakeholders through strong leadership skills.

Responsibilities

• Collaborates to create product vision and alignment with strategic priorities with stakeholders. Contributes to the development of the portfolio vision. Communicates product and portfolio vision to their squad/team and other squads/teams outside their portfolio/functional area.
• With the squad/team, collaboratively accountable for developing and achieving product level KPIs. Manages product(s) with a moderate degree of strategy, scope, and complexity.
• Owns and maintains the product backlog and is accountable for its contents and prioritization. Accountable for clear, actionable user stories.
• Sets priorities and actively participates in squad/team quarterly planning. Collaborates with more senior Product Owners to set priorities for portfolio quarterly planning.
• Sets expectations with stakeholders for delivery of new capabilities, features, and functionalities. Participates in squad/team demos, retrospectives, and all other ceremonies.
• Works daily with the agile working group, clarifying business requirements, removing roadblocks, constantly communicating, and supporting alignment around product strategy.
• Collaborates with IT and business leadership to align development and business goals and priorities while working with stakeholders and squad/team to remove roadblocks to execution. Resolves open issues/questions quickly and efficiently.
• Monitors and maintains the product health, supporting long-term product viability and efficiency, and balancing long and short term and costs with desired outcomes.
• Analyzes and reports on feasibility, cost of delay ramifications, economies, or other aspects of planned or potential changes to the product.
• Understands regulatory, compliance, and other industry constraints on the product and prioritizes accordingly. Negotiates with internal and external squads/teams to ensure priorities are aligned across squads/teams both within and outside the portfolio.
• Collaboratively builds the squad/team product roadmap, contributes to strategy inputs from stakeholders. May contribute to program/portfolio level planning. Influences stakeholder expectations for delivery of new capabilities, features, and functionalities.
• Communicates expected value and any changes in value to be delivered in each iteration (sprint, monthly, quarterly, etc.) based on the squad/team-determined capacity.
• Leads customer-driven design and usability testing for the squad/team. Collaborates on CDD and UT across the portfolio. Ensures a well-positioned product through market & industry analysis.

This position requires two in-office days per week for candidates who reside within 50 miles of Columbus, OH; Seattle, WA; Boston, MA; Portsmouth, NH; Indianapolis, IN; or Plano, TX.

• 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.