Product Owner

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co; New York (NY); On-site; USD 110,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in New York, NY, is seeking a Product Owner to collaborate with a cross-functional team on a K-8 innovative practice platform. You will manage priorities, define user stories, and ensure on-time delivery of high-quality functionality.

You will participate in daily Scrum, maintain backlog, and communicate with engineering, editorial/learning architecture, design and QA. Strong Agile experience and education technology familiarity are preferred, with a focus on

Qualifications

• 4+ years participating in or managing cross-functional product development teams.
• Strong organizational, communication, and multi-tasking skills.
• Innovative team player with the ability to proactively and creatively solve problems.
• Passion for creating innovative technology solutions for students and teachers.
• Experience with Agile methodologies and project management tools (e.g. JIRA, MS Teams).
• Knowledge of education technology (K-12) industry and classroom needs.

Responsibilities

• Manage priorities and project deliverables to support delivery of high-quality functionality on schedule that meet customer needs.
• Contribute to Agile product development team, attending daily Scrum, backlog maintenance, sprint planning and reviews.
• Gather requirements, write user stories and acceptance criteria for new functionality.
• Determine feature priority following Pragmatic Marketing guidelines, including school visits and stakeholder collaboration.
• Sign-off features prior to production release.
• Liaise between project teams and internal stakeholders to collect feedback and manage schedules.
• Work with engineering to clarify requirements and ensure timely delivery.
• Perform risk assessments and make trade-offs to maintain educational integrity of products.
• Communicate status and documentation to stakeholders to ensure on-time deliveries.

Skills

Cross-functional teamwork

Organizational skills

Communication skills

Multitasking

Agile methodologies

Tools

JIRA

MS Teams

Kanban Boards

Job description

Location Designation:

Strategically Onsite

Job Title:

Product Owner

Location:

New York, NY, US, 10016

As Product Owner, you will participate in cross-functional product development team to enhance a K-8 innovative practice program. As a team member, you will manage priorities for specific components within an integrated platform experience. This includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:

• Manage priorities and project deliverables to support delivery of high-quality functionality on schedule that meet customer needs.
• Contribute to Agile product development team as Product Owner, attending daily Scrum meetings, keeping Scrum artifacts visible, helping resolve impediments to the team, and assisting with backlog maintenance, sprint planning and review meetings. Gather requirements, write user stories and acceptance criteria for new functionality.
• Determine feature priority through Pragmatic Marketing framework guidelines, including school visits, collaborating with Product Management, Product Development, and other key stakeholders.
• Responsible for sign-off of features prior to production release.
• Liaise between project teams and internal stakeholders (e.g., engineering, editorial/learning architecture, design, QA, etc.) to collect and synthesize feedback, manage/align project schedules, and motivate team.
• Work collaboratively with the engineering team to articulate and clarify requirements.
• Perform risk assessments and analyses to prioritize and make trade-offs to ensure on time project completion while maintaining educational integrity of products.
• Proactively communicate with internal and external stakeholders at all levels including project documentation, follow up, and status reports to ensure on-time product and/or feature deliveries.

EDUCATION & EXPERIENCE

Required:

• 4+ years participating in or managing cross-functional product development teams
• Strong organizational, communication, and multi-tasking skills
• Innovative team player with the ability to proactively and creatively solve problems
• Passion for creating innovate technology solutions for students and teachers

Knowledge and Skills:

Required

• Prior experience working on cross-functional teams utilizing Agile methodologies and project management tools (e.g. MS Teams, JIRA, Kanban Boards)
• Demonstrated success managing projects
• Proven success acting as a liaison between technical and business stakeholders
• Knowledge of education technology (K-12) industry, user experience (educators and students), and classroom needs
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite

Preferred

• Pragmatic Marketing Framework Certification or knowledge
• Agile Scrum Master Certification and/or Instructional design experience a plus

Physical Requirements

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing).
• The person in this position needs to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and online meetings.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is a learning technology company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K-12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students' potential and extend teachers' capabilities. HMH serves more than 50 million students and 3 million educators in 150 countries. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com .

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an equal employment opportunity employer and participates in E-Verify. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.

Nearest Major Market:

Manhattan

Nearest Secondary Market:

New York City

Job Segment:

Learning, Instructional Designer, Education, Publishing, Human Resources, Marketing