Product Owner

We re looking for an experienced ambitious and driven Product Owner to join us in changing the way people send and receive parcels a cross functional collaborator and go getter who can bring all the pieces of the puzzle together. As Pargo s Product Owner you will lead discovery development and the gotomarket plans for product iterations. You will take the lead on interfacing between engineering and product help to bring new products to market manage existing products and work closely with the Head of Product to deliver against the product roadmap and strategy.

This is the perfect opportunity for an experienced Product Owner who is looking for an opportunity that has the potential for enormous growth as well as high impact.

We offer a dynamic work environment competitive remuneration and a chance to be part of a fastgrowing business that is busy disrupting the logistics landscape in South Africa and the rest of the continent.

What you will do

• Create and manage the product release roadmap for your areas in alignment with the overarching product and company vision and goals and user insights.
  

• Oversee all stages of product development: including discovery design development release to market and monitoring of adoption and success.
  

• Managing and prioritising the product development backlog based on changing requirements and priorities of business as well as other factors such as development capacity considerations and balancing of tech debt vs new feature developments.
  

• Work closely with design engineering sales & marketing implementation delivery operations and finance and data to inform your direction and ensure new developments are successfully adopted by all teams.
  

• Work on feature development on frontend web applications backend API services API portal and API gateway capabilities.
  

• Manage implementation of new features by outlining plans and specifications such as how where and when each component would work.
  

• Participate in Scrum ceremonies and foster continued alignment between product and the engineering and QA team.
  

• Interact with existing clients and endusers as well as internal Pargo teams to identify problems and needs and validate them using data.
  

• Gather product requirements and turn them into workable epics stories and tasks for the design and development team with clear themes that can inform sprint goals and clear acceptance criteria.
  

• Groom and prioritize the development backlog in collaboration with other product and engineering stakeholders.
  

• Oversee the discovery and design phase of solutions to ensure simplified intuitive solutions to often complex problems before development is undertaken. Where relevant this would extend to prototype testing with real users in collaboration with the product designer
  

• Oversee the development of new features and product solutions by planning and coordinating resources and working closely with the engineering team during the development phase from grooming through to testing and production release.
  

• Ensuring internal stakeholders are familiar and trained on newly released functionality including sales operations pickup point teams finance marketing etc. and encouraging and tracking adoption of new releases by users.
  

• Engage with thirdparty logistics providers to ensure seamless service delivery of our endtoend product as required.
  

• Stakeholder management you are the glue between all internal stakeholders and our products and will be responsible for getting buyin on your product plans and for delivering updates to stakeholders of your product area. This will require listening and distilling the needs surfaced by stakeholders (internal and external) to ensure simple solutions are created and delivered upon.
  

• You will be responsible for providing context getting buyin and setting designers developers and QA up for success in terms of delivering on the product enhancements. You will act as the primary contact between the scrum team the product team and internal stakeholders.
  

Requirements

Because we are a fastgrowing startup you need to be able to work efficiently and expediently to achieve outcomes rapidly cope with change and have an entrepreneurial mindset. We are looking for someone that meets the following requirements:

• 3 years of relevant product experience
  

• Relevant tertiary qualification
  

• Experience managing multiple projects/products from concept to deployment.
  

• Good technical competency and knowledge of the software development lifecycle web technologies and APIs.
  

• Very strong EQ and business acumen
  

• Great logical problemsolving skills.
  

• Exceptional ability to prioritize effectively.
  

• Ability to simplify complex problems.
  

• Excellent cross functional collaborator.
  

• Excellent oral and written communicator with the ability to listen and distil the root causes of user challenges and take action on them by providing clear briefs.
  

• Ability to assess data both qualitative and quantitative to inform product direction as well as the adoption of newly released work.
  

• Experience working in an Agile Scrum environment with crossfunctional teams.
  

• An unparalleled bias for action with an ability to operate in an ambiguous dynamic robust and fast paced environment with tight deadlines and high levels of context switching.
  

• A keen and coachable continuous learning mentality will be beneficial.
  

• Creative thinker that is willing to think outside the box to bring innovation to Pargo s offering.
  

What were looking for

Someone who is aligned to our values and approach and is:

• Self motivated and excited by the possibilities of Pargo s technology.
  

• Team player and collaborator with a bias towards action.
  

• Exceptional communication skills.
  

• Ability to say no and the intuitive ability to prioritise high value features whilst saying no to features that do not move the needle for users or business.
  

• A good storyteller that can bring the product vision to life and bring others on the journey.
  

• Ability to act strategically operationally tactically depending on the audience and task at hand.
  

• Entrepreneurial at heart with an understanding that perfection is the enemy of progress.
  

• Appreciation for good design and ability to recognise and guide in this domain.
  

• Is driven to complete tasks beyond expectations.
  

• Thinks deeply listens attentively explain carefully.
  

• Ability to simplify complex problems (KISS).
  

• Not afraid to innovate and think outside the box to give Pargo an edge whilst solving real problems.
  

• Can follow a systematic approach with an analytical mindset.
  

• Actively participates in continuous improvement.
  

• Is flexible and open to suggestions from others.
  

• Focuses on the business value as well as the customer/ user value.
  

• Upgrades their knowledge constantly.
  

• Enjoys their work and colleagues enjoyable to work with.
  

• Based in Cape Town and can be in our office in Gardens.
  
  

Benefits

We have a great young team of hardworking colleagues who enjoy the following benefits

• Valuable learning opportunities from seasoned professionals with an entrepreneurial spirit
  

• Insight into the runnings of a high growth innovative startup
  

• Competitive remuneration
  

• Compelling bonus structure
  

• Contribution to medical aid and life cover
  

• Flexible work hours
  

• Encouragement of own initiatives
  

• Space for selfgrowth
  

• Enrolment into personal training programs
  

• Exciting office space located in Woodstock and remote working options
  

• Monthly team activities
  

About Pargo

Pargo () is a logistics solution focused on customer convenience that allows people to send and receive parcels at dedicated pickup points throughout the country. We are addressing headon the challenges of lastmile distribution. People dont want to wait at home all day for the delivery of a parcel and missing it is even worse. Relying on the opening hours of the local post office doesnt seem to work either. Pargo solves these problems and allows people to send or collect their parcels when it suits them best. In just 5 years weve set up a network of over 3000 Pargo points across South Africa.

roadmaps and ensuring we deliver a phenomenal product