Product Owner

Role Summary

The Assistant Product Owner (APO) supports the Lead Product Owner in managing the product backlog, refining requirements, and ensuring product development efforts deliver maximum value to the business and end-users. The role bridges the gap between business needs and the development team, contributing to clear prioritization, stakeholder collaboration, and successful product delivery throughout the agile life cycle.

Key Responsibilities

1. Backlog & Requirements Management

• Maintain a transparent, prioritized, and continuously refined product backlog.
• Collaborate with stakeholders and users to gather requirements, translating them into actionable user stories with acceptance criteria.
• Ensure backlog items meet the principles: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.

2. Prioritization & Planning

• Assist in prioritizing user stories based on business value, customer needs, and technical constraints.
• Participate in backlog refinement sessions and sprint planning to ensure alignment with release goals and capacity.

3. Agile Delivery Support

• Actively engage in agile ceremonies — stand-ups, sprint planning, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.
• Provide clarity to the development team on requirements and priorities.
• Monitor sprint progress and help resolve blockers related to requirements or priorities.

4. Acceptance Criteria & Validation

• Collaborate with the development team to define acceptance criteria for all user stories.
• Participate in sprint reviews to validate completed stories against agreed criteria.

5. Release & Documentation Support

• Assist in release planning by documenting confirmed features, known issues, and upcoming priorities.
• Ensure release documentation is accurate and available for stakeholders.
• Understand CI/CD principles to support efficient deployment cycles.

6. Stakeholder Engagement

• Act as a liaison between business stakeholders and the development team to gather feedback and clarify requirements.
• Support product demos and provide updates on product progress.

7. Continuous Learning & Improvement

• Proactively develop skills in agile product management practices, tools, and domain knowledge.
• Seek opportunities to optimize processes for better delivery outcomes.

Behavioral Competencies

• Teamwork & Communication: Values collaboration and promotes transparency across teams.
• Curiosity & Passion: Seeks continuous improvement in self and team performance.
• Accountability & Professionalism: Takes ownership of tasks and outcomes.
• Customer Focus: Always considers business and end-user impact in decision-making.

Skills & Qualifications

Skills

• Knowledge of Agile software development practices and frameworks.
• Strong requirement elicitation, documentation, and communication skills.
• Understanding of user story creation and backlog management.
• Familiarity with Agile tools such as Jira, Confluence, or similar platforms.
• Analytical thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Business, or related field.
• Agile and Product Owner certifications preferred (e.g., CSPO, SAFe PO/PM).

Experience

• More than 6 months years in a product or business analysis role.
• More than 6 months years in insurance domain experience (preferred).
• Demonstrated understanding of agile principles and product delivery processes.
• Experience bridging communication between business stakeholders and technical teams.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Backlog Management

Backlog Hygiene Rate

% of backlog items updated, prioritized, and refined weekly

≥ 90%

User Story Quality

Compliance Rate

% of user stories meeting criteria

≥ 95%

Sprint Readiness

Grooming Preparedness Score

% of stories fully defined before sprint planning

≥ 85%

Stakeholder Engagement

Feedback Incorporation Rate

% of stakeholder feedback incorporated into product backlog

≥ 90%

Release Documentation

Release Note Completeness

% of releases documented with features, fixes, and known issues

100%

Agile Participation

Ceremony Participation Rate

Attendance and engagement in all agile ceremonies

100%

Validation & Acceptance

First-Pass Acceptance Rate

% of user stories accepted in sprint review without rework

≥ 90%

Collaboration & Responsiveness

Average Query Response Time

Time taken to respond to development team queries on requirements

≤ 24 hrs

Continuous Improvement

Learning & Certification Milestones

Completion of training/certifications within agreed timelines

≥ 90%