Product Owner I

Overview

Why Business Automation at GM Financial?

The Business automation team is a future-minded, detail-oriented department focused on the advancement of the entire GMF organization. "Maximizing efficiency" is our middle name - we are committed to empowering innovation using automation tools such as Automation Anywhere, Microsoft 365, and Azure DevOps. We enjoy identifying impactful problems on our Intake Team, managing complex projects on our Delivery Team, empowering non-programmers to build their own bots on the Citizen Developer Team, analyzing data on our Business Intelligence team.

In business automation, our colleagues are our customers. We facilitate making their lives much, much easier. If you enjoy a "customer" facing role working with developers, IT specialists, and project managers, this is an awesome department for you.

• The PO acts proactively to consistently deliver on commitments with little supervision
• Analyze and communicate customer requirements to provide innovative solutions and recommend system, product and process enhancements
• Identifies, evaluates and introduces new approaches/technology to use in product development
• Explore alternative ways to view and solve problems to achieve results beyond what is required
• Leverage innovation tools, creative processes, and diverse cross-functional experts to generate ideas
• Focus on constantly improving processes, products, and services and exploring innovative ways to do the job
• Takes advantage of opportunities to try unique ways of doing things and tests promising ideas to find new solutions
• Asks provocative questions to understand current practices and the customer's experience before moving to problem solving
• Seeks to understand and experience the full array of stakeholders' (eg, internal partners, suppliers, customers) behavior, needs, concerns, and desires to unlock new opportunities for innovation
• Communicates potential benefits of new ideas to stakeholders
• Influences others by creating a participative, empowered environment to gain acceptance of ideas or plans using appropriate interpersonal styles and methods
• Takes immediate action when confronted with a problem or when made aware of a situation
• Work collaboratively with the Program/Product Managers to advise on the creation and partners to communicate product road map initiatives to the teams that result in great experiences for our customers
• Create novel solutions with measurable value for existing and potential customers (internal or external)
• Partner with vendor(s) and internal departments to ensure tasks are defined and documented with timely deliverables and within SLA
• Communicate with all levels of leadership, internal business partners and external vendor(s) regarding project status and production performance
• Ensure clear communication and coordination across business to manage the scope of each product launch for on-time delivery of key features
• Work with the Agile team to craft high quality customer-centric user stories that exceed customer expectations
• Responsible for leading the prioritization of the product backlog in partnership with product management
• Measure product performance using key information, processes and systems to ensure accountability for achieving business results

• Working knowledge of risk management, loss control management and coordinating vendor relationships
• Thorough understanding of Vision/Roadmap creation, Portfolio/Program/Team Backlog creation, refinement and prioritization
• Proficient understanding of XML/JSON based APIs, Cloud Technologies, Service Virtualization, Test Data Management, and Data Driven Decision making
• Working knowledge of the Agile/SAFe Lean enterprise concepts and best practices and how they are applied in the workplace
• Experience working within a matrix organization, collaborating with business stakeholders, user experience teams, project managers, product managers, developers and others
• Ability to effectively define Product roadmaps and identify requirements
• Able to demonstrate Servant leader management principles and practices
• Ability to deliver best in class product experiences utilizing Design Thinking and Lean methodologies
• Advanced interpersonal, communication (verbal and written), cross-collaboration skills, including the ability to interact with team members at all levels
• Advanced problem solver who can clearly identify, analyze, and resolve issues as they arise
• Ability to manage multiple projects simultaneously
• Proficient persuasive and negotiation skills
• Proficient presentation skills

• High School Diploma or equivalent required
• Bachelor's Degree or additional equivalent work or military experience preferred
  • 0-2 years experience as a Product Owner/Manager on an Agile Scrum team preferred

• Agile certification (PSPO, CSP-PO, or POPM/APM) preferred