Product Owner (SC Active required)

GCS Recruitment; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

GCS Recruitment is seeking a Product Manager to translate feature requests into a strategic product roadmap. You will review backlogs, write user stories with acceptance criteria, and set sprint goals to guide development.

You will also plan releases, write tests, and monitor progress during sprints while incorporating user feedback and industry trends to continuously improve the product.

Qualifications

• Must be able to translate feature requests into a coherent roadmap.
• Experience with agile development and sprint ceremonies.
• Ability to write clear acceptance criteria for user stories.
• Strong stakeholder communication and prioritisation skills.

Responsibilities

• Incorporate feature requests into a product roadmap.
• Review and prioritise backlog.
• Develop user stories and define acceptance criteria.
• Set sprint goals.
• Write acceptance tests.
• Plan releases and upgrades.
• Follow progress of work during sprints.
• Analyse end-user preferences and requests.
• Refine agile methodology based on results and client feedback.
• Keep track of industry trends.

Skills

Product roadmap

Backlog prioritisation

User stories & acceptance criteria

Sprint planning

Acceptance tests

Release planning

Agile methodology

User research & feedback

Job description

PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES

List up to 8 main accountabilities in order of importance that this role needs to do to ensure the role purpose is met. Outline what is done, to what, to achieve what.

1. Incorporate feature requests into a product roadmap
2. Review and prioritise backlog
3. Develop user stories and define acceptance criteria
4. Set sprint goals
5. Write acceptance tests
6. Plan releases and upgrades
7. Follow progress of work and address production issues during sprints
8. Analyse preferences and requests of end users
9. Refine our agile methodology based on results and client feedback
10. Keep track of industry trends

COMPLEXITY, PLANNING AND TIME SPANS

Specify the areas over which this role has management responsibility.

• Management of own workload and time.
• Coordinating delivery dates
• Tracking and monitoring of Development work
• Reviewing, collating, maintaining and highlighting changes to agreed feature requests
• Identifying, assessing and reporting product risks and issues, engaging with internal and external contacts where necessary
• Maintaining financial controls and systems for recording, monitoring, forecasting and budgeting development expenditure and resources
• Organising and facilitating release closures, as well as ensuring release notes and user guides are available at release
• Maintaining and communicating product management standards and best practices
• Assisting in the maintenance, reviewing, and improving of departmental and product management office policies and procedures
• Producing weekly and monthly performance/status reports for the IT SLT and Stakeholders

What time spans does the role operate under

• The role operates all year round - development sprints will vary depending on requirements.

DIFFICULTIES AND DEMANDS OF THE ROLE

What are the most difficult parts of the job?

• Balancing the changing demands of the business

What are the typical types of problems and challenges?

• Ensuring all elements of the product development are aligned to meet tight and demanding deadlines.

• Understanding and keeping on top of all the work that is going on across the business to ensure all work is aligned and doesn't' conflict.

How will these be resolved?

• Strong organisation skills and management of time and information gathering skills.

• Clear understanding of the systems and a clear understanding of what needs to be delivered.

TYPICAL DECISIONS MADE BY THE JOBHOLDER

List 2 examples of decisions the jobholder can take

• How best to implement a request and what impact it has on delivery.

• How to prioritise and weigh demands of requests from business based on impact and urgency.

List 2 examples of when decisions must be referred to the immediate manager or others.

• When a serious issue will delay the product release significantly or increase costs

• Where a major change in approach needs to be followed that will impact other teams working

FACTS AND FIGURES

Detail the main variables against which the role will be measured. These variables can include sales targets, costs, profits, turnover, etc.

Success will be measured successful by continued product development completed on time and on budget.

Principal Measures

• Quality of project and request completion
• Delivery of client agreed commitments
• Uptake of IT developments within the business.
• Amount of Re-work IT Development that needs to be undertook.

GCS is acting as an Employment Business in relation to this vacancy.