Digital Channels Product Owner at Turnkey Africa Kenya

The Product Owner (PO) owns and manages 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 lifecycle.

Key Responsibilities

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Continuous Learning & Improvement

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

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, or related field; Master’s degree in information technology or a technology-related discipline preferred
• Agile certification
• Product Owner certification

Experience             

• 2-3 years in a product role or equivalent
• Minimum 2-3 years insurance domain experience, preferably working within an insurance company or insurance technology solutions sector
• In-depth knowledge of Agile process and principles
• Outstanding interpersonal, communication, presentation and leadership skills
• Experience with technology and ability to facilitate communication between business and tech teams