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Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield · 1 day ago

Associate Product Owner - Pharmacy

Des Moines, IA

Full-time

Hybrid

Mid Level

3+ years exp

Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield is a mutual insurance company focused on the well-being of its members. The Associate Product Owner is responsible for maximizing product value and ensuring the agile team's work aligns with customer needs and business objectives through effective collaboration and communication with stakeholders.

Financial ServicesHealth InsuranceInsurancePersonal Health

No H1B

U.S. Citizen Only

Responsibilities

Maximize the value of the product and the work of the agile team by working with the team to ensure that they have a clear vision of the priority and value of the work

Act as a strong, informal, dotted-line leader and mentor to the agile team through effective two-way communication, helping employees learn new skills, identifying and managing resistance, and being an advocate

Serve as the voice of the customer by creating a shared understanding of the product vision and customer needs through consistent communications with the team

Active leader in the agile team’s scrum events, including agile ceremonies such as stand-ups, story refinements, backlog grooming, and team retrospectives

Lead iteration review meetings to demonstrate the outcomes achieved to the product team’s stakeholders or customers

Ensure the team understands the product priorities and executes the highest value work through lean and agile product prioritization methods (e.g, WSJF, MoSCoW)

Obtain insights, prioritize, and balance multiple stakeholder priorities, and synthesize complex information, to maintain product team alignment with the vision

Partner with stakeholders and customers to curate the product vision, product stack, and features to ensure that the next increment of value is executed

Author the product roadmap features by creating well-defined product requirements, including features, user stories, and acceptance criteria

Partner with stakeholders to assess value and prioritize features and stories to ensure work focuses on those with a maximum value aligned to the product strategy

Manage against and participate in the refinement of Objectives and Key Results (OKR’s) defined for the product team during each planning interval

Evaluate progress at the end of each iteration, including the ability to define Minimum Viable Products (MVP)

Seek quantitative and qualitative information to comprehensively understand where the product team’s solutions are not optimizing value

Apply change management practices and tools in pre-planning and planning (features and user stories) to ensure impacted stakeholders and employees are prepared and equipped to adopt changes; consult with the Change Practitioner supporting Agile Release Train (ART) to monitor change readiness and adoption across the ART

Understand the impact the assigned product has on the customer and work collaboratively to ensure any change is properly managed

Obtain objective insights through research and analytics to analyze how a customer of the product is adopting, consuming, and benefiting from the product features

Other duties as assigned

Qualification

Product managementAgile methodologiesChange managementCross-functional collaborationPharmacy-related experienceSAFe agile certificationSoftware Development LifecycleAnalytical skillsConsulting skillsMicrosoft Office proficiencyCommunication skillsProblem solvingFacilitation skillsTeamworkTime managementAttention to detailNegotiation skills

Required

Bachelor's degree or direct and applicable work experience

Minimum 3+ years' experience in a combination of: Proven project management experience including managing project scope and schedule, utilizing industry standard project management methodologies

Eliciting detailed business requirements

Experience in a change management capacity aligned to an industry standard methodology

Exposure to the development and execution of user acceptance test plans, scenarios, and cases utilizing industry standard testing methodologies

Wellmark business acumen for specific product or division of this role

Demonstrates ownership and commitment to projects; drives tasks and milestones toward successful completion and holds themselves accountable for project performance

SAFe agile certification (e.g., Product Owner) obtained within 3 months

Possess or is willing to pursue certified Product Owner Certification

Experience successfully leading others through change

Demonstrated facilitation and influencing skills to drive decision making among stakeholders with diverse perspectives and priorities

Ability to work well in a team environment and be capable of building and maintaining relationships with other team members, departments, and customers

Demonstrated ability to communicate complex information in a condensed manner to various stakeholders verbally and in writing to achieve shared vision and goals

Strong problem solving and analytical skills

Ability to identify risks and deploy appropriate mitigation strategies to meet stakeholder/functional requirements

Strong group facilitation skills and presentation skills demonstrated through successful experience

Consulting skills required with excellent communication, collaboration, and interpersonal skills

Proficient in Microsoft Office suite

Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC) knowledge

Preferred

Bachelor's degree

Pharmacy-related experience

Prior experience supporting cross-functional teams (either formal or informal). Ability to coach and mentor others through guidance or feedback

Executive presence and comfortability influencing and gaining consensus among executive stakeholders

Product development, product management, or similar experience that reflects general knowledge of the product development lifecycle (including measurement and management), strategic planning, and ability to collaborate with multi-disciplinary teams to create innovative, data-driven solutions. Understanding of customer (client and member) needs and ability to translate these into competitive products and services

Prior experience in a Product Owner role (either formal or informal) operating within a SAFe organization, including demonstrated experience with agile and/or lean product management competencies of value measurement, optimization, and eliminating waste. Experience using agile requirements management tools (e.g., Jira or Azure DevOps)

Experience with agile business analysis, including documentation of features, user stories, and acceptance criteria. Ability to perform, document, and/or guide others through a series of related steps and take action to improve existing systems and processes. Flexible and adaptable to change

Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to articulate complex information or solutions to stakeholders. Exposure to negotiation skills and techniques

Ability to identify issues or inconsistencies; obtains relevant information, relates and compares data from different sources and identifies alternative solutions

Demonstrated critical thinking, problem solving/troubleshooting and continuous process improvement skills

Proactive self-starter with effective time management skills and the ability to independently organize and prioritize based on value

Analytical problem-solving skills and attention to detail; ability to identify and approach complex problems from different angles and apply technical knowledge to policies/procedures