Manager Intake Call Notes:
- Location: Remote
- Duration: 9 - 12 months with possible extension
- Contract to Hire: Possible
- Interview Details: Two 30 min interviews
- Is this supporting any specific project: Personal Lines Servicing experience application; specifically with change policy / endorsements.
- What is the most important skillset/What stands out on a resume: Requirement gathering and writing; workflow mapping via systems; stakeholder management and partnership
- Any immediate disqualifiers: Overqualified or no insurance background
- Is there a preference for industries the candidates have worked in: Personal Lines Insurance
- Can you tell me what the person's day-to-day will be like:
- Research and mapping current system and process flows
- Pain point identification and design collaboration
- Clarify business and customer needs.
- Write and refine user stories and acceptance criteria.
- Conduct testing on requirements, acceptance criteria, and user experience
- Support dependencies, risks, and roadblocks.
- Participate in Agile ceremonies, demos, and planning.
- Gather feedback and support delivery of new product capabilities.
Personal Lines Insurance Professional Service Experience Portfolio:
Product Owner 1 Insurance Professional Endorsement Experience
We are seeking a Product Owner 1 to support two Product Owners in building and enhancing our insurance professional endorsement experience. This role will help translate business and customer needs into clear, actionable product requirements and support delivery from discovery through testing.
Key Responsibilities
- Map current and future-state process flows and identify opportunities for improvement.
- Write and maintain user stories, acceptance criteria, and functional requirements.
- Partner with research and design teams to understand user needs and shape intuitive experiences.
- Collaborate with business, technology, and delivery partners to support prioritization and execution.
- Run test scenarios with end users, document findings, and help validate that solutions meet customer and business needs.
- Track issues, risks, and decisions, escalating questions or blockers as appropriate.
- Support the two Product Owners with backlog refinement, planning, stakeholder communication, and delivery activities.
Overall Product owner roles:
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.
In these roles you can expect to:
- 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. Collaborate 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.
Requirements
- 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.