Product Owner

The Product Owner represents the voice of the customer and links execution to the business vision. This role requires a high performing individual who is a thought leader able to balance multiple responsibilities and collaborate with multiple stakeholders.

This role will be key to helping achieve The Hartford’s Global Specialty International division’s ambitious growth goals of to double the size of the business over the next 3 to 5 years while maintaining top tier RoE. The transformation of the underwriting and operations practices and processes through technology and digital migration is key to unlocking new business opportunities and process efficiencies to drive business growth.  We are maturing our Enterprise Agility across technology and business to accelerate our strategy.

Overview

• Part of the International Strategy and Execution team.
• Develops the strategic vision for the digital products for all functions and all classes of business across Global Specialty International, including Underwriting, Operations, Exposure Management, Claims, Finance, and Actuarial.
• Has autonomy to guide the products to achieve the agreed objectives based on assessments of viability, feasibility and usability working with both in-house and external contractor developers.
• Key leadership role responsible for partnering with business and technology leaders to design solutions and ultimately implementing the technology changes to ensure we reach our goals.

Job Responsibilities

• Lead product execution with 1 to 2 agile team(s) delivering priority digital solutions for The Hartford International
• Autonomously responsible for ensuring solutions deliver business vision
• Engage with business and technology stakeholders to identify product opportunities and implications across all functions and all classes of business
• Partner with Product Managers and leaders for other Value Streams to leverage solutions across Global Specialty’s International and US divisions
• Stay current on internal, competitive, and industry technology trends to be a subject matter expert
• Represent the voice of the customer
• Provide perspective on portfolio / value stream vision and roadmap
• Articulate the product strategy and alignment to business strategy
• Provide product vision and develop features to achieve it
• Articulate product vision to key business and IT stakeholders to ensure alignment with direction
• Guide the team in determining Programme Increment objectives, linking execution activities to business intent
• Manage the programme backlog, breaking down epics into features and prioritizing features to maximise business valueDrive feature roadmapping
• Independently make prioritise/pivot/persevere decisions
• Accountable for the health and readiness of the programme backlog
• Ensure the teams understand the items in the programme backlog and their business value
• Write user stories, including defining acceptance criteria
• Accept completed features that meet the “definition of done” and quality expectations
• Validate that the solution and functionality meet the product vision
• Incorporate feedback from sprint demos
• Partner with the Architects, developers and business leads to ensure solutions will deliver the business vision. 
• Drive business readiness and change management plans for all key stakeholders and impacted users
• Monitor and share execution, benefit realisation, and post-release optimisation progress, including risks and impediments
• Analyse programme-level metrics to identify key trends and opportunities for continuous improvement within the team

Skills and Expertise

• Relevant experience in product related role, digital, technology, or related field
• Experience in the insurance industry preferred
• Proficiency in agile methodologies and frameworks such as Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Scrum, Kanban, XP, etc.
• Preferred experience with agile lifecycle management tools (e.g., Rally, JIRA)
• Proficiency with Excel, PowerPoint, and MS Teams
• Strong collaboration and influencing skills, including ability to manage and negotiate with multiple stakeholders
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability understand audiences, tailor messages and influence outcomes
• Experience with analyzing data to identify insights, create hypotheses for testing, and drive new and enhanced customer experiences
• Self-motivated individual with experience handling multiple high-priority demands, managing expectations, and achieving objectives
• Experience as an effective decision-maker