Product Owner at Interswitch

Responsible for executing the strategy for allocated products, by planning and coordinating resources to enable the timely development and implementation of quality solutions and products. Drive the scope of the product development and optimisation, including breaking down this scope into specifications, features, and user stories in collaboration with cross-functional stakeholders and act as an ambassador for the product and a primary contact for related queries.

Responsibilities

• Support creation of machine learning algorithms by applying standard statistical analysis or data preparation methods
• Support data-driven analysis to identify opportunities for product / service improvement
• Serve as an advocate for data-driven product design, evangelise insights on what is working and what is not to help drive incremental gains in pipeline and revenue
• Gather and analyse data and information to assist in the ideation, design, and continuous improvement of product specifications, features and roadmap developed by the engineering teams
• Identify product training needs and develop product training courses to fill gaps in existing programmes, methods, or tools and run training programmes for specific areas using prepared content
• Serve as the first point of contact, to resolve queries from internal or external customers or suppliers by providing information on complex processes and the related policies, referring to others where necessary for interpretation of policy
• Provide advanced product / service information and respond to complex customer questions about the product / service
• Support the formulation of the annual planning based on roadmaps and the development of business cases in support of the governance process
• Lead, plan and replan product releases as they are produced to ensure timely updates and to deliver the planned benefits as early as possible in the product life cycle
• Identify, understand, and share customers’ needs during scrum meetings to translate them into product measurable features; map customer journey to get a sense of their motivations, future needs, and pain points to improve the customer experience and deliver business value
• Communicate product strategy and functionality across Interswitch, review product documentation and collateral
• Assist in managing the product throughout its life-cycle, while ascertaining business relevance, adoption and continuous improvement
• Identify shortcomings in existing processes, systems and procedures, and use established change management programmes to address them
• Drive the continuous upgrading and enhancement of the product and the operating environment to maintain currency with technological progress, industry trends, competitive intelligence, economic change, and all business needs
• Develop internal communications and work collaboratively with colleagues to build strong external customer relationships and meet customer needs
• Manage and maintain efficient flow of just-in-time story elaboration activities (user story refinement) throughout team execution, typically maintaining iterations (sprints) worth user stories available and ready in team backlog
• Coordinate the piloting of new products or features with clients, feedback the reviews, issues and defect to the project team for resolution to ensure the deployment of a fully functional and reliable product

Requirements

• University First Degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Business or Finance related field
• At least 6 years' experience in Product Owner / Management roles ideally within reputable financial institutions or the payments industry
• Data Collection, Analysis, Review and Reporting skills
• Policy, Regulation, Procedures and Compliance
• Planning and Organizing skills
• Project governing
• Project tracking and reporting skills
• Products / Services Management and Development
• Customer and Market analysis