Product Owner

Do you have a passion for creating compelling and meaningful digital experiences? Are you a creative problem-solver and communicator? Do you want to help lead the transformation of a company and an industry?

If you answered a wholehearted yes to all these questions, we want to talk to you.

We are looking for a forward-thinking and passionate AVP-level Product Owner to be a part of Canada Life’s Group Customer Digital Labs. The Product Owner will partner closely with our business development, operations, product development, AI and efficiencies teams to drive the end-to-end strategic direction for one of our key digital products.

You will play a key role in leading our organization through the associated change, and realize the ROI for the business.

About our Digital Labs

Our development teams are designing, developing and delivering new digital products that improve the experience of members, sponsors and advisors. We bring human centered design, agile methodologies and modern digital practices to life.

Our multi-functional teams of Designers, Developers, Technical leaders, Scrum Masters and Product Owners all collaborate together in an open, innovative and inclusive culture.

Responsibilities

• Accountable for the end product and key business decisions
• Provide overall product guidance and leadership to the team Set an ambitious and clear product vision
• Develop a product roadmap that aligns to corporate, technology & BU strategies
• Communicate a product story effectively to key team members
• Build & continuously improve the backlog of product features
• Capture maximum customer value and optimize technology efficiencies
• Advocate and ensure a focus on customer-driven design
• Consistently seek to understand user pain points, and ensure design effectiveness through appropriate testing
• Write user stories and carefully articulate acceptance criteria
• Approve each feature and provide timely and regular feedback for the team
• Establish KPIs that monitor, measure and identify when outcomes / business value is not being delivered as planned.
• Collaborate with business partners to ensure operational readiness, drive change management, adoption strategy and tactics
• Commitment to driving both digitization and related process efficiencies to reduce manual handling wherever possible.
• Actively support and champion technical efforts to build modular and reusable solutions that offer future benefits for all Canada Life and eliminate redundant efforts.
• Ensure inherent risk with the business roadmap is identified, assessed, prioritized and appropriately mitigated.
• Support and alignment to CTR program and technology risk reduction

Key Skills

• Solid knowledge of group industry dynamics, customers and trends
• Empathy and understanding for user demands and pain points
• A strong communicator with ability to simplify complex messages, describe trade-offs and create a compelling story
• Articulate with an ability to influence a diverse group of stakeholders
• A strong problem solver who will lead the team and push for creativity
• A driver that approaches each release with a sense of urgency
• Strategic mindset and the ability to link digital product value to business ROI
• Highly collaborative, strong advocate for win/win solutions, and able to build close relationships with key stakeholders
• Curious and eager to adopt new ways of working
• Ability to confidently and quickly make priority calls and trade-off decisions
• Solid judgement to identify when escalation is appropriate
• A bias toward data-based decision making

Agile/Digital Experience

• Extremely comfortable and conversant in technology/IT concepts – especially with regard to risk assessment and risk management
• Understanding of various technical roles and the value they bring
• Experience in an Agile environment – preferably attained through past Product Owner experience
• Confident in building, leading and managing the backlog of work

Mindset & Behaviours

• A challenger with a passion to question the status quo, find new solutions, and drive out of the box ideas – loves and embraces change
• A leader - confident and non-hierarchical – believes in a culture of collaboration, transparency and trust across the team
• A doer – someone who is not afraid to ‘roll up their sleeves’
• A learner – someone who is willing to step outside their comfort zone and who will push the team to do the same
• An experimenter – who will drive innovation and take measured risks