PRODUCT OWNER - PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
(Full Time, Salary, Exempt)
Looking to join a growing company dedicated to helping others? We offer that, plus competitive salaries, a culture of learning, and a fast-paced environment. This is a hybrid position with 3 days in-office. Join our team to help make a difference in the lives of others!
About Continental General:
The Continental General family of companies has provided insurance, including life and long-term care policies, to individuals and groups for over 30 years, and currently supports over 200,000 policyholders. Both our insurance company, Continental General Insurance Company, and our third-party administrator, Continental General Services, are committed to the continuous development of our infrastructure, processes, and people. The group is actively growing through expansion of both its insurance portfolio and its administrative services. With each opportunity, we take a collaborative approach to address challenges and provide unique solutions.
Position Summary:
We are seeking a highly skilled and dynamic Agile Product Owner to join our fast-growing TPA (Third-Party Administration) organization. The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the business value delivered by value stream teams. You will lead the prioritization and management of the product backlog, foster collaboration, and drive delivery of high-value solutions.
In this role, you will leverage deep expertise in insurance products and agile methodologies to effectively manage the full product lifecycle. As the owner of a focused domain within a value stream, you will translate complex business needs into actionable, development-ready work and ensure successful delivery of key business priorities. You will work closely with cross-functional teams to manage dependencies, address risks, and maintain seamless business continuity across the value stream.
The Domain focus for this role is Product Development.
Key Responsibilities:
1. Backlog Ownership & Flow Management
- Clearly articulate and communicate the product vision and feature roadmap to the agile team, ensuring alignment with organizational strategy and objectives.
- Own and lead the prioritization of the value stream backlog; facilitate ongoing backlog refinement to ensure clarity, readiness, and proper sizing of work items.
- Collaborate with stakeholders to break down initiatives into epics, features, and user stories with clear acceptance criteria.
- Act as the primary point of contact for the value stream and delivery team on product requirements, scope, and priorities.
- Review, accept, or reject completed work based on defined acceptance criteria and overall product expectations.
- Be readily available to the team, actively participating in daily Kanban/flow meetings and removing roadblocks to maintain smooth throughput.
- Participate in Kanban/Agile ceremonies, such as backlog replenishment, daily flow reviews, and regular retrospectives to improve how work moves through the system.
2. Stakeholder Collaboration
- Partner with business, marketing, technology, project management, and other stakeholders to align priorities within the value stream and across related initiatives.
- Communicate product progress, risks, decisions, and changes to stakeholders at all levels in a timely and transparent manner.
- Facilitate discussions around dependencies, vendor involvement, and cross-team coordination, including alignment with other value stream Product Owners.
- Continuously iterate on the product based on stakeholder input, customer feedback, and data-driven insights.
3. Compliance and Risk Management
- Ensure that product development activities adhere to regulatory requirements, industry standards, and internal company policies.
- Maintain awareness of and alignment with state and federal insurance regulations applicable to the product.
- Identify and escalate risks related to compliance, customer impact, or operational stability, and support mitigation planning.
4. Continuous Improvement and Performance
- Monitor product performance using key metrics such as policy uptake, output efficiency, lead times, throughput, and customer satisfaction, and use data to drive product and process enhancements.
- Partner with tech leads to improve flow efficiency, reduce bottlenecks, and enhance quality.
- Stay current on Kanban and Agile practices, life insurance and insurance industry trends, regulatory changes, and emerging technologies that can improve the product and the team’s workflow.
- Demonstrate innovative thought by identifying opportunities to streamline through automation or AI and then drive to completion.