Evolve GIB Product Owner

Role purpose

• Own execution readiness for General Insurance Business (GIB); maintain domain backlog priority within delegated PM direction; align requirements, design, engineering, QA and program inputs; and ensure each commitment reaches an evidence-based exit gate or is formally changed. The role protects business-process integrity, customer usability and delivery predictability while keeping roadmap and commercial authority with the appropriate leaders.

Strategic outcomes

• A prioritised backlog aligned to approved outcomes
• Build-ready stories with testable acceptance criteria
• Dependencies, blockers and ageing visible with owner and date
• Reduced ambiguity-related rework and avoidable carryover
• UAT, demo and release packs complete before the gate
• Formal acceptance/rejection decisions made promptly
• Quotation-to-policy work is sequenced and testable
• Underwriting rules and referrals are traceable
• Policy issuance and servicing evidence is complete
• Claims and recoveries dependencies surface early
• Coinsurance and reinsurance flows have approved rules
• Customer proof progresses through formal gates

Key responsibilities

Product-domain execution

• Maintain the execution view across General Insurance Business (GIB) value packs and capabilities.
• Translate PM-approved priorities into sequenced work and explicit exit evidence.
• Protect end-to-end journey coherence, rules, data, integrations and operational controls.

Backlog, stories and acceptance

• Own backlog hygiene, priority order and ageing within delegated authority.
• Ensure stories contain context, user outcome, rules, dependencies, designs and testable acceptance criteria.
• Apply Definition of Ready before sprint commitment and reject half-ready work.

Discovery, requirements and design

• Bring ambiguity, rule gaps and decision questions to PM/BA/design early.
• Maintain traceability from approved scope to requirements, stories, tests and acceptance.
• Prevent unapproved customer changes from entering build.

Sprint and delivery support

• Bring ready and sequenced work to refinement and planning.
• Answer product-intent questions within agreed SLA and record decisions.
• Track returned items, carryover and causes; initiate corrective action.

Dependencies and blockers

• Maintain product-level dependency and blocker records with owner, date, impact and escalation.
• Surface critical blockers before sprint, UAT or release.
• Follow through until verified closure, not merely reassignment.

UAT, proof and release

• Prepare product inputs for QA, UAT, demos and release readiness.
• Support triage, confirm acceptance alignment and record product acceptance/rejection.
• Distinguish prototype, demo, QA, UAT, acceptance, production and adoption.

Quality, reporting and improvement

• Audit backlog, story and evidence quality weekly.
• Publish accurate weekly status, risks, decisions and recovery actions.
• Use defect, return, ageing and stakeholder evidence to improve the operating system.

Key Deliverables and Quality Standards

• Domain backlog: Prioritised, current, sequenced; stale/duplicate items removed.
• Story packs: Context, user outcome, scope, rules, designs, dependencies and testable criteria.
• Definition of Ready checklist: Completed before commitment; exceptions approved and visible.
• Capability/value-pack map: Capabilities, journey, stage, owner, dependency and evidence current.
• Traceability view: Approved scope -> requirement -> story -> test -> decision.
• Dependency/blocker log: Owner, age, SLA, impact, due date, escalation and verified closure.
• Sprint-readiness pack: Committed scope, DoR evidence, dependencies, risks and decision gaps.
• UAT/proof/release pack: Scenarios, data, environment, product truth, known issues, fallback and sign-offs.
• Weekly execution report: Actual movement, RAG, evidence, decisions, recovery and next gate.
• Post-release learning register: Defects, usage feedback, benefits signal and backlog action.

Stakeholder-management expectations

• Prepare meetings with facts, decisions required and evidence links.
• Record decisions, changed scope, owners and dates within one working day.
• Escalate when a P0/P1 blocker is unowned, an SLA will be missed, product truth is disputed, or customer/release risk is material.
• Use professional Kenyan/British English and communicate product status without exaggeration.
• Route customer changes through PM/BA governance before backlog commitment.
• Resolve priority conflict by exposing business impact, dependency, evidence and trade-off - not by silently reordering work.

Skills, Competencies and Experience

• Experience: Typically 3-7 years in Product Owner, Business Analyst, delivery analyst or comparable enterprise-product role.
• Domain: Working knowledge of General Insurance Business (GIB) processes, controls, users, data and integrations; insurance/fintech experience preferred.
• Delivery: Agile planning, refinement, Jira/workflow tools, UAT, release readiness, dependency and defect control.
• Technical literacy: Can reason about APIs, data, business rules, environments, security/NFRs and integration dependencies without owning solution design.
• Communication: Clear writing, facilitation, customer-facing discipline, decision records and timely escalation.
• Behaviour: Ownership, curiosity, evidence discipline, integrity, collaboration, urgency and calm under delivery pressure.
• Education/certification: Relevant degree or equivalent experience; Product Owner/Agile certification desirable, not a substitute for evidence of execution.