Product Owner

If you’re a data-driven strategist energized by solving customer problems, spotting opportunities, and turning big ideas into real impact, you might be the perfect fit!

You’ll join the Independent Agent Distribution team, where we’re focused on creating a best-in-class sales experience that delights agents, drives new business, and sets a new market standard. As a Product Owner, you’ll partner cross-functionally to develop journey maps, define OKRs, and gather feedback that informs your roadmap.

This is a highly-visible role charged with redefining capabilities core to the thousands of Independent Agents using the new Q&I sales experience. You'll be a core part of the team driving a significant modernization effort poised to make lasting impact, and optimizing it over time. Additionally, you will support the portfolio with cross-functional partnership to create runway for the portfolio as a whole, balancing qualitative insights and quantitative data to guide decisions, shape product vision, and drive incremental delivery.

Responsibilities

• Accountable for collaboratively creating product vision and alignment with strategic priorities with stakeholders. Contributes to the development of the portfolio vision. Communicates the vision as a product strategy to their squad/team and other squads/teams outside their portfolio & functional area as well as executive leadership.
• With the squad, accountable for developing and achieving product level KPIs. Manages product(s) with high 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. Contributes to priorities for and actively participates in 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.
• Leads IT and business leadership to align development and business goals and priorities while working with stakeholders and squad/team to remove roadblocks to execution.
• Monitors and maintains the product health. Designs additional monitoring to support enhanced understanding of product health. Proactively monitors impact of their product on others in the ecosystem.
• Analyzes and reports on feasibility, cost of delay ramifications, economies, or other aspects of planned or potential changes to the product.
• Drives alignment with stakeholders to understand the impact that their products' regulatory, compliance, and other industry constraints will have on other products in the portfolio. Negotiates with internal and external squads/teams to set aligned priorities among squads/teams both within and outside the portfolio.

Ideal candidate will have:

• Strong strategy and visioning:  To become independent agents' carrier system of choice, you dream big and act boldly by listening to agents, incorporating business objectives, and articulating a clear strategy.
• Curiosity and tenacity:  You deeply understand opportunities and rally cross-functional teams to execute.
• Analytical foundation:  Data informs and supports your work, and you recognize that a data-driven mindset is imperative to identifying and solving problems at scale.
• Comfort in ambiguity:  You are a self-starter and a leader, impacting outcomes through collaboration.
• Stakeholder management:  You are a strong storyteller with the ability to influence both executive and technical audiences.

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.

• Advanced knowledge of Agile development methodologies as typically acquired through a Bachelors’ degree in relevant field (business, computer science, humanities etc.), 7 years in business, technology, or consulting with 5 to 7 years direct experience with agile teams
• Master's degree preferred
• High level of proven business expertise needed to set clear priorities for product and understand business value impacts
• Develops strong stakeholder relationships and influencing across multiple organizational boundaries
• Demonstrated experience leading varied audiences through the development of complex ideas, issues and designs
• Ability to lead varied audiences through census building
• Proven experience with Agile practices and expectations
• Comfortable with making decisions with some level of uncertainty
• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal
• Knowledge of insurance industry preferred
• Knowledge of relevant products and portfolio strongly preferred
• Strong experimental mindset to drive innovation amongst uncertainty and exploit market opportunities