Product Owner

Job Brief:

Steppingblocks’ vision is to level the playing field for students and job seekers through the information that gives everyone the same shot at building a successful career. We are building an information ecosystem to empower the workforce of the future by empowering students and educators with data-driven graduate outcomes insights. We’re seeking an experienced product owner to help lead this mission. The ideal candidate will have big ideas and strategies that foster an environment of collaboration and creativity. We are seeking someone with an entrepreneurial mindset for distilling business value and goals into roadmaps and refined product backlogs. Most importantly, we need a product owner to help us build products and features people love to use.

The ideal candidate, after proving their proficiency as a product owner, will be given the opportunity to gradually assume product management responsibilities.

Immediate Responsibilities:

• Manage and prioritize the product backlog.

• Develop detailed product feature specifications and ensure relevant teams clearly understand them.

• Work closely with the product manager and stakeholders, take their initiatives,  break them down into stories or actionable chunks of value, and work with the engineering team to implement them.

• Work closely with the tech team to help balance engineering and product goals.

• Help the team define new product-led automation opportunities to help the company scale.

• Work directly with UI/UX Designer(s) to build fully functional mock-ups. 

• Serve as a liaison between product and development

• Periodic management of user activity and reporting using FullStory

Assist Product Manager with:

• Lead the product-release plans and set expectations for the delivery of new functionalities.

• Serve as product ambassador internally and externally, sharing knowledge and answering questions.

• Define product vision, roadmap, and growth opportunities, and communicate with stakeholders throughout the project.

• Collaborate with internal and external contacts to analyze needs and align product roadmap to strategic goals.

• Work closely with product managers and business teams to create and maintain a product backlog according to business value or ROI

Skills Required:

• Passion for product development and student success

• Five or more years of experience in product development

• In-depth knowledge of agile methodology for project management.

• Outstanding communication, presentation, and leadership skills

• Ability to proactively research the higher education and EdTech ecosystem. Gain knowledge of the market, customer persona, and product strategy.

• Ability to create presentations and report to management periodically.

• Proficiency with appropriate project management tools and technology (Jira, Aha, Product Plan, Figma, Miro, FullStory)

Preferred Skills Required:

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in related discipline

• UI/UX experience

• Knowledge of Accessibility standards and best practices

• Mobile Product experience

• Experience with Data as a Product (and Big data)

• Agile certification a plus