Business Product Owner

Ascend Learning - Phoenix, AZ

Full-time - Mid Level

Remote - Phoenix, AZ

Management of Companies and Enterprises

About the position

As a Business Product Owner (BPO) at Ascend Learning, you will play a pivotal role in translating customer needs into actionable requirements that drive the design, build, testing, and launch of innovative solutions tailored for health and health sciences programs across the country. This position is integral to the successful delivery of our strategic product vision, requiring you to work cross-functionally with various teams including Product Managers, technical product managers, and content managers. Your focus will be on ensuring alignment with the overall strategy while leading the tactical execution plan to bring products to market effectively. In this role, you will be responsible for participating in the product and solution discovery process, where you will gather insights into customer needs and market requirements. You will collaborate closely with UX teams to visualize concepts and document business requirements comprehensively. As the direct representative of the business with delivery teams, you will advocate for the customer’s perspective, ensuring that their needs are met throughout the product development process. Your responsibilities will include prioritizing requirements, resolving delivery challenges, and monitoring all phases of product development to ensure deadlines are met. You will also support go-to-market strategies, communication, and training plans in collaboration with marketing, sales, and operations teams to ensure a successful product launch. Additionally, you will oversee minor product enhancements and manage product-related expenditures against the budget, ensuring the ongoing health and stability of in-market products.

Responsibilities

• Translate product market requirements into actionable business requirements, functional specifications, and acceptance criteria for development and content.
• Participate in the product and solution discovery process to understand customer needs and market requirements.
• Partner with UX to visualize concepts and drive business requirement documentation.
• Serve as direct representative of the business with delivery teams, representing and reinforcing the customers' perspective.
• Work cross-functionally with product, technology, content, and other functions to drive successful execution of product.
• Prioritize requirements and collaborate across teams to resolve delivery problems to ensure successful on-time delivery.
• Monitor all phases of product development and help to resolve roadblocks to ensure deadlines are met, in collaboration with product management, PMO and development leads.
• Support go-to-market/launch, communication, and training plans, working with marketing, sales, operations/service, and development teams to ensure readiness and launch success.
• Oversee the execution of minor product enhancement upgrades and other business-as-usual (BAU) activities to sustain in-market product health, including new features, defect fixes, stability and security needs, product backlog etc.
• Support tracking/managing of product-related expenditures against budget.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in related fields such as Business, Marketing, Education or Healthcare combined with relevant work experience is required.
• Minimum of 3 years combined experience in product management, product owner, or project management (project management alone is insufficient).
• Proven ability to gather and translate market requirements into actionable business requirements and viable product solutions.
• Proven experience gathering requirements for product launches and managing all stages of the product lifecycle.
• Experience working in an agile environment preferred.
• Education product management experience is strongly preferred.
• Healthcare product management experience is strongly preferred.
• Experience using one or more product management and development tracking tools (JIRA preferred).
• Strong project management skills, including ability to manage deadlines, prioritize product requirements, and identify issues and mitigate/manage risks.
• Technical aptitude to partner effectively with Technology stakeholders.
• Ability to travel up to 15% for client meetings, conferences, and other engagements.

Nice-to-haves

• Additional training or certifications in areas such as product management, strategic planning, leadership, or project management may enhance the candidate's qualifications.
• Pragmatic and/or Agile Product Owner Training preferred.

Benefits

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• Hybrid work
• On-site workout facilities (Leawood, Gilbert, Burlington)
• Community outreach groups
• Tuition reimbursement