Senior Product Owner - Transformation

at  Allianz UK

WHO WE ARE

Allianz is a global insurance company serving across 70 different countries, but from the very first day you join our team you’ll know that your contributions are valued. We offer world class learning and career development opportunities, while we celebrate an inclusive culture.
The purpose of this role is to provide strong product ownership for the dedicated team(s) and support a broader programme/portfolio of change. You will help set and communicate the direction, vision and support change throughout the full development process from concept to delivery. You will evaluate all opportunities and decide what gets built and delivered through a clear concise backlog.
You will collaborate closely with a diverse range of stakeholders (Business Architecture, Change) to gather input and feedback. You will regularly discuss plans and progress with stakeholders.

KEY ACCOUNTABILITIES

Stakeholder Management

• Understand the technology product / application you are the senior product owner for and be prepared to apply and develop business knowledge as well as identify and manage stakeholder’s understanding of its functionality.
• You will be responsible for multiple products / applications that span multiple customer journeys.
• Ensure delivered value will be able to be measured against business KPIs and ensure the business understand their responsibilities in delivering change.
• Maintain awareness and challenge dependencies on other ARTs to deliver valuable change to stakeholders.
• Be prepared to regularly demo Scrum team progress with support from the team to ensure the business areas are aware of change ahead of releases.
• Strong communication skills working very closely with your Scrum Master and managing cross team changes with other Product Managers and the Release Train Engineer.

PI Planning

• Member of the extended Product Management team brining your experience to deliver success.
• Prepare for the Program Increment planning by reviewing and contributing to the Product vision, roadmap and content presentations as well as defining Business Services and Functionality maps.
• Actively engage with story definition, provide clarifications to enable the Scrum team to create their story estimates and sequencing.
• Work with Scrum team to determine the team PI objectives for the upcoming PI.

Backlog Maintenance

• Act as the customer proxy to define and prioritise stories in the team backlog.
• Ensure the backlog is appropriately prioritised and refined ahead of sprint planning.
• Make decisions on behalf of the business on which user stories are accepted or rejected and in which sprint they will be developed, but being mindful of the need for a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) with greatest business benefit and some elements that are time driven.
• Maintain awareness of wider Portfolios to ensure the backlog accurately reflects support of wider initiatives which may require additional resource support and require priority. This will be achieved via close collaboration with both the Product Manager and other Product Owners.

Scrum Team Engagement

• Influence and provide direction to the Scrum team to ensure they actively engage with backlog refinement and user story writing and make yourself available to answer their questions.
• Confirm the definition of “Done” as agreed by the Scrum team is in line with your expectations and nothing is obviously missing.
• Ensure the relevant SMEs/Knowledge Management Experts are made available to support the sprints and that they are aware of their roles and the expectations of them from the Scrum team.
• Align with fellow Product Owners, Business Owners and Programme Leads to ensure design, build and test cycles are aligned.

Decision Making

• Sign off of all development work completed in the sprints, ensure quality of delivery and fit for purpose in line with the definition of ‘Done’.
• Be available to the Scrum team and able to think clearly on your feet to give quick concise decisions to help the team pivot and change direction rapidly when required.
• Maintain a knowledge of future change items in a well-defined backlog in order that these can be considered by the team when planning future sprints and PIs.

Escalation

• Take responsibility to escalate and own deviations/blockers/dependencies within the domain to ensure company visions are met and delivery plans remain on track.

Coaching and support management

• Help to provide coveCoaching more junior Product Owners as required.
• Support training of more junior Scrum team members.
• Raise team knowledge challenges and possible solutions to the Agile coach/Chapter leads. r/support to other scrum teams in Transformation when the aligned Product Owner is away from the business.