Product Owner II

at  University of South Florida

Dept Number/Name: 0-3510-000 / Information Technology
College Division: Info Tech-Information Tech
Salary Plan: Administrative
Job Code/Title: 9924 / Product Owner II
Hiring Salary/Salary Range: $80,000
Position Number: 00058103

ORGANIZATIONAL SUMMARY:

Located in the vibrant and diverse Tampa Bay region of Florida’s gulf coast, the University of South Florida (USF) is a Preeminent State Research University with campuses in Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee. Rated as one of the top places to live in the U.S., Tampa Bay offers a high quality of life, year-round sunshine, and easy access to top-rated entertainment. USF is one of the nation’s largest public universities, serving more than 50,000 students with an annual budget of $1.8 billon. Over the past five years, USF has been the fastest-rising university in the nation, public or private, on the U.S. News and World Report’s list of best universities, which it ranks as the 44th best public university in America.
USF is proud to be an innovating partner within the Tampa Bay region, listed by Forbes as the top emerging tech city in the country.
USF Information Technology (USF IT) provides technology services and support for the University of South Florida. The IT team, led by the Vice President and CIO, provides the following services: Administrative Services, Client Support, Communication Services, Teaching and Learning, Analytics and Reporting, Mobile and Web Services, Consulting Services, Cybersecurity Service and Research Technologies. For more information, please visit: Information Technology | University of South Florida (usf.edu)

POSITION SUMMARY:

This position will act as Product Owner II on a production team utilizing Scrum methodology and implementing Agile ideology. The Product Owner II serves as a bridge between the product development process, business stakeholders, and clients. The Product Owner’s primary goal is to provide value for the business/customers and align the business needs with the overall business strategy. These responsibilities include meeting with stakeholders, developing and adapting product vision, writing user stories, prioritizing and grooming the backlog, release planning, etc. This position attends daily stand up, sprint planning, and retro. The ultimate goal of an Agile team is to understand business needs and develop optimal business and/or IT solutions in partnership with department stakeholders and functional experts.

SPECIAL SKILLS/TRAINING:

Two years of experience as a Product Owner or working in a Scrum Environment
Experience using tools such as JIRA and Confluenc

Customer/ Stakeholder Relations: Serves as a liaison between stakeholders, vendors and senior management. Works with the Stakeholder and Strategic Product Owner to define and articulate a clear product vision aligned to the overall strategy for the product. Negotiate and mediate problems with stakeholders. Identify problems that require more strategic analysis and work with Strategic Product Owner to mediate or escalate. Communicate the needs of all internal stakeholders and work with the team to identify solutions based on the need of the audience. Identify barriers that impact customer service.
Project Management and Product Backlog: Lead small to medium programs or projects with moderate to complex tasks in support of one or more projects that require a singular area of expertise. Identify domain constraints (characteristics of the business environment specific to the application domain) that limit the functionality or performance of the system or product to be built. Conducts Strengths and Weaknesses portion of SWOT internal analysis. Employs MoSCoW, Scorecard, Kano Analysis and other prioritization techniques to build and refine the product backlog. Use Story Mapping on small projects, create Impact Maps. Write and communicate well written User Stories and Acceptance Criteria.
Review/Testing:
Write and approve Acceptance Criteria.
Provide final acceptance of the User Story.
Create and validate prototypes.
Agile Project Management:
Understand and keep abreast of Scrum and other Agile methodologies.
Work closely with the Scrum Master who is the owner of the Scrum process.
Mentorship:
Provides ongoing feedback to entry level Product Owners.
Transfer knowledge to less experienced Product Owners.
Performs other duties as assigned.