Product Owner (Intelligent Colleague Operations)

Job description

Job Description:

Drive forward the Intelligent Colleague Operations product by developing the product roadmap to support our store colleagues in performing store operations effectively and efficiently. Actively seek out opportunities for the appropriate use of technology to drive efficiencies through systemising and automating task supported by data analysis. Translate the product roadmap into a deliverable product backlog working closely with architecture and support communities to ensure that the product remains stable, available, secure and aligned with the wider technology strategy. Work with the other Product Owners to define and prioritise stories for products within the portfolio and wider enterprise. Focus on continuously improving the product for the customer whether our colleagues, other product teams or the M&S customer. Develop strong working relationships with M&S business stakeholders, Head of Technology, Technical Solutions Lead, Principal Architect and fellow Product Owners for domain specific technology expertise and M&S business context.

Key accountabilities and measures
• Working with Business counterparts, set vision for your products using industry knowledge and your understanding of the M&S business context. Support the business owner in defining business objectives that will influence the product vision
• Initiate and translate the product road map into a manageable product backlog and prioritise delivery based on value, risk and service considerations
• Support the articulation of sprint goals by providing product vision and business objectives
• Work with the Head of Technology and strategic supplier to define, prioritise and break the feature backlog into stories, including clarification and acceptance criteria
• Liaise with key stake holders and delivery partner to ensure the acceptance criteria of stories is met and support the release planning and sprint planning exercises
• Understand Agile estimation approaches and support the delivery team in being self-managing
• Combine awareness of the relevant business area, the retail market, our customers and other consuming technology product teams to ensure products satisfy all three
• Understand the primary activities and supporting process activities for value maximization
• Know our market, our competition and our business models. Identify trends within customer segments and product segments for new products or enhancements for existing ones
• Keep abreast of new technical developments which could enhance or revolutionise the product and customer experience
• Create a culture of customer value driven development
• Promote a cross-team spirit amongst Product Owner peers
• Support the operationalisation of the product into the mainstream organisation
• Support our transformation by proactively educating colleagues within technology and wider M&S about agile methodologies and product management
• Work closely with big data and insight teams to bring data science techniques into the store operations space both driving and prioritising the roadmap and embedded in our solutions
• Support the delivery of products from wireframes to product launch to measuring engagement, working closely with the strategic supplier engineering team
• Actively engage with business process architects and retail business operations teams to understand new opportunities for delivering value to our colleagues and M&S

Key skills
• Over 2 years’ experience in business relationship management in an IT environment
• Industry experience in retail operations with a passion for improving processes and driving efficiency
• Able to clearly articulate the evolution of products through design thinking and user story mapping
• Senior IT management skills and experience
• Strong experience of managing successful delivery in an Agile software environment and in delivering waterfall projects to deliver customer-led outcomes
• Proven experience in establishing and growing products
• Excellent knowledge of relevant business portfolio
• Excellent Business stakeholder and supplier management skills
• Strong track record of strategic and innovative thinking
• Proven track record of driving service and delivery improvement
• Commercial management experience and financial literacy
• Excellent communication skills – relatability to non-technical business users and technical resources
• Excellent people management skills
• Strong analytical skills and knowledge of big data techniques
• Ability to work with multi-discipline development teams with a mixture of onshore and offshore colleagues

Key relationships and stakeholders

• Relevant business leadership team
• Business Change Manager
• Technology Leadership Team (TLT)
• Product Owners
• Head of Technology
• Technology Solutions Lead
• Commercial Manager
• Principal Architect
• Service Performance Management
• Supplier Delivery / Engineering Manager
• Supplier Architects