Product Owner - Travel

Customer Capital is at the forefront of providing innovative Product as a Service solutions, tailored to meet the needs of large enterprises. We specialize in creating commerce platforms including shopping, travel, and deals—that are seamlessly integrated with loyalty programs to serve the end customers of our clients. Our solutions enhance customer engagement and loyalty for the end customers of our enterprise clients.

Responsibilities:

Drive the vision and development of an industry-leading online travel portal where customers can redeem loyalty points for merchandise, by effectively prioritizing features, gathering feedback, and delivering maximum value to both users and stakeholders

1. Vision & Roadmap: Establish a clear product vision for the online travel portal and create a roadmap for the first year.

Targets: Vision to be completed within 1st month and roadmap (with quarterly milestones) to be completed within 3 months.

2. Backlog Management: Create and consistently maintain a prioritized product backlog, ensuring all items are well-defined, actionable, and aligned with the product vision.

Targets: Create an initial prioritized product backlog by the end of the first month. Ensure that at the start of each sprint, there's a well-defined, actionable, and prioritized set of items ready for the development team by the start of 3rd sprint. Ensure continuous refinement, with the backlog always prepared for at least the next two sprints (to be done within first 2 months).

3. Stakeholder Alignment: Foster collaboration and maintain alignment between stakeholders (like clients, client servicing, customer support) and the development team. Regularly collect feedback from stakeholders, Address concerns promptly, Ensure continuous improvement in product delivery.

Targets: Initiate bi-weekly stakeholder alignment meetings from the first sprint. Achieve an average CSAT score of >= 8 (on 10) across stakeholders.

4. Delivery Oversight: Ensure timely and quality delivery of features by closely working with the dev team, addressing impediments and clarifying requirements.

Targets: By the end of the first month, ensure that at least 90% of committed backlog items are delivered to "Done" status by the end of each sprint. Address and resolve any impediments or clarifications raised by the development team within the sprint itself (close issues within 1 day). 90% of planned features were released as per agreed roadmap. Sprint must start on time with 100% refined/estimated stories.

5. Value Delivery: Understanding of the platform you are working on and ensure the features developed are giving tangible value.

Targets: Must have functional/technical understanding of every new feature/module being developed. For new joiners, within 6 months, should have full functional/technical understanding of the platform. Achieve tangible KPI improvements each quarter – 5% in Q1, 10% quarter on quarter afterwards. Aiming for an overall 40% improvement (in metrics like user conversion and revenue) by the end of the year.

Competencies:

1. Visionary Thinking: Ability to envisage and articulate a compelling future state for the product.

2. Decision Making: Strong capability to make swift, informed decisions, balancing business needs and technical feasibility.

3. Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills for diverse audiences, from developers to high-level stakeholders.

4. Technical Understanding: Familiarity with the technical aspects of online portals, ensuring realistic and efficient backlog items.

5. Agile & Scrum: Profound understanding of Agile methodologies, particularly Scrum, with a clear grasp of the Product Owner's responsibilities.

6. Stakeholder Management: Proficient in aligning, managing expectations, and negotiating with a variety of stakeholders.

7. User-Centricity: Always keeping the end-user in mind, ensuring the product is user friendly, functional, and valuable.

8. Collaboration & Leadership: Demonstrates leadership within the team and fosters a collaborative environment. 

Experience & Background:

1. Travel Expertise: 

a. At least 5 years of experience working in or with an online travel platform, preferably in a B2C environment.

b. Demonstrable knowledge about industry trends, key players, and customer preferences.

2. Product Ownership:

a. Minimum of 5 years of experience in a Product Owner role, preferably within tech-driven environments or digital platforms.

3. Agile Environments:

a. Proven track record of successfully working in Agile environments, with a preference for those who've worked in Scrum frameworks.

b. Should be very familiar with JIRA/Confluence 

4. User-Centered Design & Feedback:

a. Previous involvement in user-centric product design, including collecting and actioning user feedback,  with a preference for those who've led or been part of user testing sessions.