Product Owner

Key Responsibilities

Product Vision and Strategy:

• Develop and communicate a clear product vision and strategy that aligns with the overall business goals & strategies.
• Stay informed about industry trends, emerging technologies, and competitor products to ensure our solutions remain competitive and innovative.

Stakeholder Collaboration:

• Collaborate with key stakeholders, including business leaders, key anchor tenant customers, and development teams, to gather and prioritise product requirements.
• Act as the primary point of contact between stakeholders and the development team, ensuring a shared understanding of product goals.

Roadmap Planning:

• Create and maintain a comprehensive product roadmap that outlines the timeline for feature releases and product enhancements.
• Prioritise features based on business value, customer impact, and development feasibility.

User Stories and Requirements:

• Define in collaboration with the Sales lead and other relevant colleagues, detailed user stories and acceptance criteria to guide the development team in building high-quality features.
• Embed the use of customer usage and information tools (PowerBI reports, HubSpot, Google Analytics, Hotjar) in understanding user needs and making data-driven decisions.
• Work closely with UX/UI designers to create intuitive and user-friendly interfaces.

Cross-functional Collaboration:

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including developers, designers, and QA, to ensure successful product delivery.
• Conduct regular sprint planning, reviews, and retrospectives to optimise development processes.

Product Testing and Quality Assurance:

• Work closely with the team to ensure rigorous testing of product features and functionalities.
• Ensure alignment on testing outcomes requirements, depth and rigour of testing that results in approval.
• Conduct user acceptance testing to validate that the product meets user expectations.

Product Launch and Adoption:

• Plan and execute product launches, including communication strategies, detailed training materials, and customer support processes. Work closely with UX/UI and
• Marketing to produce and release adequate multichannel collateral to this effect.
• Monitor product adoption and user feedback to identify opportunities for improvement, leveraging Support, Training and technical monitoring infrastructure and channels.

Performance Analysis:

• Define key performance indicators (KPIs) and regularly analyse product performance against these metrics.
• Use data-driven insights to make informed decisions and identify areas for optimization.

Experience and Qualifications

Qualifications

• Degree/Diploma in relevant field
• Role-related certification in Agile and Product Ownership

Experience required:

• B2B product PO experience required
• 3+ years? experience as a product owner

Experience Advantageous:

• Managed a product/ products through all stages of the product lifecycle
• Experience with measurement tools relating to software product management (e.g. Hotjar, Google Analytics, PowerBI reports, HubSpot, others)
• Experience with business client connection & research tools, such as shadowing, focus groups,
• Experience with experimentation techniques, AB-testing, prototyping
• Experience producing Product Strategy, Roadmaps, Business cases
• Experience running teams with Agile Methodology, SCRUM, KANBAN

Required Skills and Knowledge

• Deep understanding of real estate processes preferably from a South Africa market context, general market dynamics, and varied real estate niche customer needs.
• Strong analytical, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Agile/Scrum knowledge and experience working in an Agile development environment.
• Familiarity with project management tools and product management software.

In addition, a successful Product Owner in the PropTech industry should possess a range of skills to effectively navigate the complexities of the real estate technology landscape. Here are some additional skills that would be beneficial:

• Domain Knowledge: Real Estate Acumen: A deep understanding of the real estate industry, including property sales and related processes, is crucial for making informed decisions and prioritising features that address industry-specific challenges.
• Communication Skills: Stakeholder Management: Ability to effectively communicate with diverse stakeholders, including business executives, developers, designers, and end-users. Strong interpersonal skills are essential for building and maintaining positive relationships.
• Strategic Thinking: Visionary Leadership: The ability to think strategically and provide visionary leadership for the product. This involves aligning the product roadmap with the long-term goals of the business and anticipating future market trends.
• User-Centric Mindset: User Empathy: An understanding of user needs and the ability to empathise with end-users to ensure that the product meets their expectations. This includes gathering feedback, conducting user testing, and incorporating user insights into the product development process.