A vacancy exists for a Product Owner (Data) within Kazang – Micro Merchant Division in Century, City, Cape Town.
At Kazang, we’re proud to offer innovative products that meet the needs of our base. The purpose of this role at Kazang is to help us continue expanding the data product offerings and improve our data products (internally and externally). You will need an innovative mindset and proven ability to strategize and manage the full lifecycle of a data product, from conception to release. You will need to be confident and guide cross-functional teams in the creation of products that improve stakeholder and customer experience.
Responsibilities of the role include:
Product Vision, Strategy and Ownership
- Define Data Vision, roadmap, and growth opportunities.
- Align data product strategy to business goals.
- Define data positioning strategies for various large initiatives.
- Prioritize development and change request queue.
- Own the product and take responsibility for the success and failure of a product.
- Nurture and shape the organization’s data products from concept to realization.
Stakeholder Communication
- Act as the liaison/point of contact between development teams and Business Owners / Stakeholders.
- Manage stakeholders and potentially conflicting priorities. Knowing how to balance and manage competing priorities.
- Communicate releases with the wider business.
Requirements Management and Planning
- Build business requirement documents (BRD) and prepare Return On Investment estimates (ROI).
- Participate in Scrum ceremonies including backlog grooming, refinement, sprint ceremonies
- Work with a cross-functional team in planning a product release.
- Active driver of the product and timely resolution of related dependencies.
- Assist with long-term (Quarterly Product Increment) and short-term (Sprint) Planning
Collaborative work management
- With the Technical Product Owner (Development Manager) to align product development to strategic objectives and ensure long-term success.
- With the Business Analyst for requirement management activities such as gathering, analysing, defining, and prioritizing.
- With the Scrum Master for enhancing team communication and delivery tracking.
- With the Business Product Owners of other squads for cross-squad collaboration.
Product Backlog Management
- Creating and maintaining the product backlog.
- Applying “progressive refinement” and thin slicing.
- Controlling epics and user stories.
- Prioritizing backlog items based on anticipated client needs, business value, or return on investment.
- Making adjustments in response to changing business needs and user feedback.
- Ranking the order of user stories in the product backlog.
- Ensuring an adequate amount of development “Ready” user stories with well-defined acceptance criteria
In order to be considered for the position, the following requirements must be met:
- Degree or Diploma in Business Management or Commerce.
- Relevant qualification: Scrum Product Owner Certification is preferred.
- 3-5 years’ experience in a data-focused role.
- Computer literate in MS Office, knowledge of SQL and BI dashboarding
- Proven experience as a product owner or similar role, with a track record of successfully delivering complex projects in a fast-paced environment.
- Experience working closely with software product development teams.
Competencies Required:
- Solid Agile methodology experience/exposure.
- Solid understanding or hands-on experience in software development and testing.
- Working knowledge of Microsoft Office.
- Adaptability to new kinds of software.
- Working knowledge of Atlassian suite, especially Jira and Confluence.
- Reporting skills.
- Project Management skills.
