Product Owner - Farmer Solutions at Safaricom Kenya

Reporting to the Tribe Lead, the role holder will be responsible for building and scaling a digital agriculture product to meet the needs of smallholder farmers. He/she will be responsible for defining and managing the squad’s priorities and delivering a viable product in-market that is aligned with the tribe’s goals.

This role is an additional “hat” alongside squad member duties, carried out in 20-40% of overall capacity (squad is typically 5-9 FTEs)

Key Responsibilities

Leading and owning the end-to-end product

• Define product and squad vision based on customer and market insights, and manage the product roadmap
• Develop user stories, clarify product requirements/dependencies, and manage squad backlog
• Manage squad priorities to deliver against business goals on-time and within budget
• Oversee all stages of product development and progress towards goals, lead sprint planning, daily standups and retro sessions
• Develop product KPIs and partner with finance on commercial viability of the product (pricing, revenue, costs)
• Build and manage key partnerships to deliver on product requirements
• Act as a liaison to align all stakeholders, and manage expectations
• Participate as an active squad member, bringing your expertise to the squad and working day-to-day on squad priority tasks
• Interact with other squads and tribes to plan and implement cross-squad tasks

Building a high performing team

• Define set of necessary competences in squad and ensure efficient resource management; build a culture of growth and development within the team
• Act as a role model by creating an atmosphere of innovation, confidence, trust and fun in the squad
• Participate in regular meeting of Product Owner, Chapter Lead & Agile Coach (POCLAC) and squad performance review
• Live the values to personally grow and develop, and expand own impact

QUALIFICATIONS

Must have technical / professional qualifications:

• Business related degree
• At least 7 years’ experience in agriculture industry, focused on smallholder farmers; agri-tech an added advantage
• Product development experience focused on new/early-stage products
• Strong customer insights, critical-thinking and problem-solving skills
• Analytical, detail-oriented and organized 
• Entrepreneurial, innovative, and comfortable working in unstructured environments
• High level of self-initiative and drive to lead a team to execute
• Proven management and collaboration skills, and ability to grow and develop teams