Product Owner at Ozow

• As a Product Owner: Payments at Ozow, you will be the voice of the customer to the development team. You are an essential member of the agile scrum team, by providing the vision, information and roadmap so that we can deliver a highly sustainable product at first pass.  
• Your role includes managing the product/proposition design and timely development throughout the organisation's teams. Drive product/proposition objectives with supporting initiatives. Assist in marketing and sales requirements for branding, communication and sales to achieve and maintain product objectives. Assist with product strategy development, commercial activity, and business case development approval for new initiatives.  Develop in-depth knowledge of competitive products, their strengths and weaknesses, global and local product/proposition best practices and current product/proposition consumer trends. Help with product/proposition research initiatives. Help with stakeholder management internally and externally. Establish and manage product/proposition performance metrics. Manage activities to meet the financial targets of the products and services that have P&L objectives. Work closely with an agile development team and R&D to deliver on initiatives. 

Your responsibilities include:

• Defining and managing the product vision and strategy, based on customer and stakeholder needs and research.
• Creating and prioritizing a product backlog (a list of features and requirements) that aligns with the product vision and goals, and continuously refining it based on feedback and changing business needs.
• Ensuring that the product backlog items are clearly defined, well understood, and properly estimated by the development team.
• Making tough decisions on what features to include in each sprint or release, based on the value they will deliver to customers and the business.
• Acting as the primary point of contact for all stakeholders (e.g. customers, partners, executives, and other departments) on matters related to the product.
• Continuously monitoring the product's performance and gathering feedback from customers and stakeholders, using data-driven insights to make informed decisions and prioritize future improvements.
• Maintaining a deep understanding of the competitive landscape, emerging trends, and new technologies that may impact the product's success.
• Ensuring that the product is compliant with all relevant regulations and standards, and managing any legal or ethical considerations related to the product.
• Demonstrating leadership and ownership of the product, and inspiring others to share and contribute to the product vision and goals.

Activities we need to get involved in:

• Research
• Competitor analysis
• Defining your product vision

Product Scoping

• User requirements scoping.
• Making sure all teams have had an opportunity to scope their requirements in to the team.
• Working with the BA’s to get the specs complete.
• MPV refinement [commercial viability of the product]
• POC and Go to market planning for MVP when required.
• Phasing in development for the entire product.
• Creating / Managing and optimizing the backlog.
• Backlog prioritization.
• Working 2 sprints ahead of the development team.
• Building a road map for each product and tracking development against planned roadmap.
• Backlog Grooming / refinement
• Sprint planning [Two sprints ahead]: Defining clear sprint goals
• Reporting back on your products development progress in the product steerco.
• Defining user stories and grooming them, along side tech.
• Executing roadshows on your product.

Requirements

• An appropriate degree or equivalent qualification. 
• Knowledge of the product lifecycle, with at 3 to 5 years of product experience in a digital or payments environment .
• Demonstrated project management ability for a single product or a set of products.