Sr. Product Owner

NASCO is looking for a skilled Sr. Product Owner to join the Product Management team to partner across multiple product portfolios, driving the discovery and delivery of AI-enabled solutions that accelerate modernization, improve business outcomes, and create customer value.

The Product Owner assists the Product Manager in conveying a clear product vision to the Product Delivery team with an emphasis on effective communication and collaboration. The Product Owner is primarily responsible for managing a well maintained, groomed and effective product backlog through the creation of user stories that support the product and organizational objectives.

This role executes on the Product Roadmap by infusing the 'voice of the customer' in user stories and other requirements. This role is the liaison between the Product Delivery team and the Product Strategists and business leaders. The Product Owner has a strong business acumen and technical understanding to ensure the business need is achieved through development efforts. Communicates with manager on projects, goals and initiatives.

Release Planning: Creates and drives an execution plan for the Product Roadmap

• Translates the Product Strategist’s (Manager’s) roadmap (epics) into clearly defined feature sets & requirements, establishing goals and priorities per release
• Works with the Product Strategist to maintain the Product Roadmap and help determine the sequence features should be developed and released to customers
• Prioritizes backlog and product requests from multiple sources to deliver the most value to the organization

Voice of the Customer: Represents the ‘Voice of the Customer’ internally, serving as internal subject matter expert for development team:

• Communicates with current and potential customers on a regular basis to understand their processes and needs as they change over time, transposing those into requirements
• Leads customer advisors in product governance sub-committees
• Develops and maintains user personas

Requirement Creation & Management: Leads feature design, user interaction, requirement definitions, acceptance criteria, and prioritization to internal Development, QA, Architecture, and Security teams:

• Produces user personas, user stories, work-flows, prototypes, designs, data maps, and/or process maps to document the functionality and operation of all features, enhancements and new offerings for development teams
• Works with engineering to identify non-functional requirements and enabler stories; sequencing them appropriately into releases
• Works with QA team member(s) to identify test cases for automated testing

Release Lifecycle: Delivers and manages new feature development for successful releases:

• Maintains, manages, and prioritizes a well-groomed product backlog to support multiple Product Delivery teams to include Enabler Stories (Architecture, Exploration, Infrastructure), User Stories (Feature / Function), and Improvement Stories (Bugs, Defects, enhancements)
• Participates in agile and development ceremonies, assisting Scrum Master or Project Manager in Sprint reviews.
• Communicates both what is to be developed and why to Product Delivery teams; answering questions to clarify requirement and acceptance criteria
• Works with business customers and NASCO’s User Acceptance Testing team to conduct testing prior to and during development to ensure product functionality is aligned to user needs and will delight customers
• Demonstrates latest iteration to customers (pre-release) and gathers feedback.
• Manages entire release lifecycle from Sprint 0 to launch; inspecting progress of every sprint, accept or reject work, and explain why

Launch Readiness: Determines if product is ready to release, ensuring scope & quality of the release:

• Develops and implements GA and readiness plans
• Provides technical details and works closely with technical writers, training and marketing to develop market facing content and product documentation that reflect product enhancements and new feature benefits
• Supports go-to-market enablement activities such as go-live training

Budget & P&L: Ensure the financial viability of the product by:

• Manages scope and development forecasts to approved budget
• Captures, tracks and manages identified budget issues
• Ensures product feature implementation stays within acceptable cost of goods sold

Cross-Functional Responsibilities: Fosters and manages key stakeholder relationships:

• Communicates project status to key stakeholders; identifies and escalates risks in scope, cost, and timing
• Translates business strategy to internal teams
• Manages vendor / partner technical relationships

Required Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Training:

• Ability to use AI appropriately in the day-to-day work
• Must have a proactive work ethic, desire to challenge the status quo, and an attitude that focuses on the voice of the customer
• Sharp analytical and problem-solving skills
• Excellent oral and written communication and presentation skills required, including representing NASCO externally to our clients and the market
• Ability to conceptualize, negotiate and work with peers, Product Delivery teams and management
• Proven ability to influence cross-functional teams without formal authority
• Demonstrated success defining and launching excellent products

Required Experience:

• 10 years of experience as product owner, in product management or related functions
• 5+ years Business Analysts experience crafting detailed product requirements
• 10 or more years claims processing experience

Required Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, information technology, healthcare, or equivalent professional experience required

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Experience:

• Technical background with expertise and experience in SAFe/Agile/Waterfall development methods
• Experience in iterative and user-centric design practices to identify and collaborate on the best customer experience with the products
• Experience with design thinking practices to identify and collaborate on pain points and opportunities in the marketplace
• 3 years’ experience working in healthcare IT