Product Owner

Position title:

Product Owner

Employment status:

Full time

Location:

TBC

Reports to:

Senior Program Manager/Portfolio Manager

Date position last reviewed:

March 2023

Overall objective of the position:

The purpose of the Product Owner is to work with our firms to ensure they successfully increase the value of their digital development efforts. This is achieved by defining, designing and prioritising digital product features of the programs/services (APT, IAM and Global Portal) provided by BDO Global IT.

The Product Owner translates the product vision into the product roadmap and weighs the different requirements coming from different stakeholders to realise the highest business value. Product Owners lead the Product Teams and are accountable for developing, managing, and supporting their Product(s). The product owner is responsible for:

• Managing the relationship with their Business Owner.
• Working with Business Owner on prioritisation of the backlog.
• Setting the roadmap for their Product to determine the inclusion of feature releases in each version.
• Managing the Team to support their Product (you make it, you own it, you fix it).
• Delivering any upgrades or enhancements required for their Product.
• Facilitating any required user acceptance of upgrades to minimise business disruption.
• Communicating and articulating the benefits of any new features and how they can help BDO deliver on its strategic goals.
• Assisting in the adoption of new features to empower the users of their Product.
• Maintaining the quality of their Product.

Each Product Owner will be accountable for recommending the tools their Team will require to successfully support and develop their Product(s). These tools will be reviewed in the context of an agreed and approved set of tools to ensure consistency in process, capability, and delivery.

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Key accountabilities:

Performance and progress in the following areas will be the priorities for this position:

Product management

• Develop a clear vision about the direction of the product, that will ensure a maximum business value of the product and realizing ROI in alignment with the most important stakeholders of the product
• Own the design and build of the BDO Global IT products and services, including maintaining and prioritising the product backlog of features, enablers and defects
• Determine the product vision and roadmap within the boundaries defined by the Global IT vision
• Develop and maintain an appropriately prioritised backlog of user stories for implementation
• Develop appropriately detailed specifications for product features so that they are clearly understood by the development teams
• Use data analysis and reporting to drive product decisions, stakeholder engagement and backlog prioritisation
• Coordinating between Global IT technology teams and firms' technology teams to deliver the product or service
• Prioritise and maintain the product backlog, ensure refined backlog is always ready for the development team
• Successfully deliver high quality content & design that provides substantial and measurable business outcomes for firms.

  
  Scheduling & communications

• Responsible for communicating the vision to the scrum team; this extends fromauthoring user stories and specs thatdeliveran outstanding user experience tomaintaining a well-managed user story backlog and delivery process to maximise team velocity
• Ensure regular communication and scheduled meetings with individual firms to be appropriately advised, informed, and facilitated around their specific business requirements
• Communicate effectively, develop strong relationships, and collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to ensure time-effective bespoke content

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  Technical design & integration liaison

• Work closely with Architects and Integrators to ensure alignment, knowledge and awareness of ongoing deployments & changes.
• Responsible for working with architects and development teams to ensure that business, quality and functional goals are met with each product release
• Available during sprints to the team to clarify any issues surrounding bugs, feature and scope.
• Validate the solutions and verifies whether the quality is acceptable from a business and end-users perspective
• Act as an ambassador for the product internally and externally, and as the primary technical contact for queries related to the products
• Inspire and motivate the development teams to deliver innovative and exciting solutions with an appropriate sense of urgency

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  Troubleshooting & issue resolution

• Focus on delivering quality solutions in a timely and effective manner in close cooperation with the Service Desk.

  
  Reporting

• Clearly communicate the product roadmap to deliver against program vision, goals and priorities
• Milestone reporting on product status to the Program Delivery Manager
• Provide detailed written specifications for business, design and technical review

Qualifications, Experience, Skills:

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1. Tertiary qualifications in Information Technology or a related discipline (e.g. University degree), entry-level vendor-aligned certification (e.g. Scrum alliance/Scrum org.) required
2. At least 5 years' experience as a Product Owner in a complex, professional global environment
3. Data driven and demonstrated experience using big data, analysis and research to produce product decisions
4. Experience developing, analysing and designing digital products and software
5. Strong stakeholder management skills at all levels with excellent communication skills both verbal and written
6. Strong understanding of Agile/ITIL methodologies
7. Proactive self-starter capable of managing multiple priorities in a face-paced environment
8. Demonstrate expertise in product lifecycle, UX/CX design and analysis understanding
9. Knowledge of Microsoft Operating Systems (e.g. Windows 7/8/10)
10. Knowledge of MS Office productivity, communication & collaboration technologies (e.g. MS Office/Skype etc.)
11. Effectively demonstrate teamwork skills, problem solving skills, initiative and integrity
12. Excellent English language proficiency and good interpersonal communication skills.

Key Stakeholders:

This role requires strong working relationships with our firms and members of the BDO Global Leadership Team, Global Head of IT, Director of Program Delivery, IITC, IT Directors, Architects, Integrators, Vendors and Service Providers.

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