Product Owner

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Role Purpose/Business Unit:

The Product Owner plays a crucial role in the product development process, particularly within Agile and Scrum frameworks. Their primary purpose is to maximize the value of the product resulting from the work of the development team
Setting the Product Vision: They define and communicate the product vision and goals to ensure the team understands the direction and purpose of their work
Managing the Product Backlog: This includes creating, prioritizing, and maintaining the product backlog items to ensure the most valuable features are developed first
Stakeholder Management: They act as a bridge between stakeholders and the development team, gathering requirements, and ensuring that stakeholder needs are met while aligning with the product vision
Defining Acceptance Criteria: They provide clear acceptance criteria for the development team to ensure that the product meets the required standards and delivers value
Continuous Improvement: They gather feedback from users and stakeholders to continuously improve the product and adapt to changing needs
Profit and loss management of respective products
The Product Owner's role is pivotal in ensuring that the product development process is efficient, focused, and aligned with the overall business strategy

Your responsibilities will include:

Strategy and Vision
Product Strategy: Develop and communicate a clear product strategy aligned with company goals and market demands.
Vision: Define the long-term vision for the payment wallet product, incorporating emerging technologies and market trends.

Product Development and Management
Roadmap Planning: Create and maintain the product roadmap, prioritizing features based on customer feedback, market research, and business objectives.
Feature Definition: Work closely with stakeholders to define product features and specifications, ensuring alignment with user needs and business goals.
Agile Leadership: Implement agile methodologies for product development, ensuring efficient and timely delivery of features and improvements.
Release Management: Oversee the release process, coordinating with development, marketing, and customer support teams to ensure smooth product launches.

Customer Focus
Customer Research: Conduct market research and gather customer feedback to identify opportunities for product enhancement and new feature development.
User Experience (UX): Collaborate with UX/UI designers to create intuitive and user-friendly interfaces that enhance the overall customer experience.
Customer Support: Work with customer support teams to address product-related issues promptly and effectively, maintaining high customer satisfaction levels.

Business Alignment
Revenue Growth: Drive initiatives to increase product adoption and revenue generation, collaborating with sales and marketing teams on go-to-market strategies.
Competitive Analysis: Monitor competitors and industry trends to identify competitive threats and opportunities for differentiation.
Financial Management: Manage the product budget effectively, ensuring resources are allocated appropriately to meet business objectives.

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Cross-functional Collaboration
Stakeholder Management: Build strong relationships with internal stakeholders (e.g., engineering, marketing, sales) to ensure alignment and support for product initiatives.
Team Leadership: Provide leadership and mentorship to the product team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and accountability.
Engagement: Create a high level of employee engagement to deliver best in class digital payments solutions
Communication: Clearly communicate product plans, status updates, and performance metrics to senior management and across the organization.

Compliance and Risk Management
Regulatory Compliance: Stay informed about regulatory requirements related to fintech and payment processing, ensuring the product meets all necessary compliance standards.
Risk Assessment: Identify potential risks associated with product development and operations, implementing mitigation strategies as needed.

Innovation and Continuous Improvement
Innovation: Drive innovation within the product team, exploring new technologies and features that can differentiate the payment wallet in the market.
Iterative Improvement: Continuously iterate on the product based on performance data, user feedback, and competitive analysis to enhance functionality and user satisfaction.

Reporting and Analytics
Performance Monitoring: Define key metrics to track product performance and success, analysing data to make data-driven decisions and adjustments.

The Ideal Candidate for this role will have:

Must have technical / professional qualifications: 
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Business Administration, or other related field
A total of eight or more years experience of which at least 5 or more years are in the successful delivery in Product Ownership (or equivalent role) across full product lifecycles, from MVP to marketable products in iterations, including support transition
Experience in successfully Leading and mentoring agile / DevOps teams in Large multi-team environments
Experience in agile methodologies, such as Scrum, Kanban, Extreme Programming (XP), Test Driven Design and Behavioural Driven Design
Experience in successful delivery against financial / resource constraints
Experience in the use of analytics and AB / multivariate testing
Experience with requirements definition and use case modelling
Professional experience and knowledge of the Telecommunications & Mobile Money and Value Added Services industry is strongly preferred

Core competencies, knowledge and experience:
Excellent problem solving skills, with the ability to minimize overhead tasks for the team and manage interdependences with other teams
Excellent relationship building and influencing skills, with the ability to foster an inclusive team culture
Excellent business acumen and understanding of the role of the capability in contributing to business value
In-depth understanding of both the current Telecommunications and digital. services market and emerging business and technology trends
A strong customer-centric focus, with an entrepreneurial and ROI mindset. Ability to function with a high degree of autonomy
Strong financial management skills and acumen
Excellent product development and product management skills
Strong time-management skills, with the ability to juggle multiple balls, and comfortable working under pressure 
Excellent verbal and written communications and collaboration skills, with the ability to work closely with the delivery team to deliver user stories 
Flexible with planning and work estimation, managing and empowering the team (without needing to micromanage), able to continuously balance between the customer and commercial needs 

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Digital/software product ownership in large scale environments
User story definition and refinement 
Expertise in Agile software development environment and methods
Market research, design thinking, and lean start-up methods; business modelling
Customer experience design of digital products and services
Analytics / AB / multivariate testing and related tools
Data-driven decision making

We make an impact by offering:
Enticing incentive programs, competitive benefit packages, and an exclusive 13th cheque
Retirement funds, risk benefits, and medical aid benefits
Cell phone and data benefits, advantages fibre connection discounts, and exclusive staff discounts offered in collaboration with partner companies

Closing date for Applications:18 October 2024

The base location for this role is,Vodacom Campus Midrand

The Company s approved Employment Equity Plan and Targets will be considered as part of the recruitment process. As an Equal Opportunities employer, we actively encourage and welcome people with various disabilities to apply.
Vodacom is committed to an organisational culture that recognises, appreciates and values diversity & inclusion.