Product Owner

The Product Owner (PO) is responsible for tactical execution and delivery of product initiatives by owning the backlog, sprint-level prioritization, and day-to-day collaboration with the IT/development team. Working closely with the Product Manager (PM), the PO translates strategic priorities, epics, and business requirements into clear, detailed, and actionable user stories, ensuring on-time, high-quality delivery of fintech products such as POS lending, revolving credit, and mobile consumer finance applications.The PO owns the “how” and “when”—managing backlog refinement, agile ceremonies, and sprint execution—while ensuring that delivered features meet business objectives, user experience standards, technical quality, and regulatory requirements relevant to the Egyptian consumer finance market.Key Responsibilities1. Backlog Management and RefinementCreate, maintain, and groom the product backlog, breaking down high-level epics and requirements from the PM into detailed, actionable user stories with clear acceptance criteria.Prioritize backlog items at the sprint level based on PM-provided strategic direction, technical feasibility, dependencies, and immediate business value (e.g., optimizing loan application funnels).Continuously refine and reprioritize the backlog to ensure it reflects current needs, incorporating feedback from stakeholders and development team insights.2. Requirements Detail and User StoriesRefine high-level requirements handed over by the PM into granular user stories, tasks, and technical specifications suitable for the IT/development team.Define detailed acceptance criteria, edge cases, and definitions of done for each story to minimize ambiguity and ensure quality output.Collaborate with UX/UI designers, analysts, and developers to detail features like mobile app enhancements or integration with credit bureaus.3. Agile Ceremony Leadership and Team FacilitationLead day-to-day agile ceremonies, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, and retrospectives.Act as the primary point of contact for the IT team, clarifying requirements, resolving blockers, and answering questions to maintain development velocity.Inspect increments at the end of each sprint, accepting or rejecting work based on quality, functionality, and alignment with acceptance criteria.4. Delivery and On-Time ExecutionEnsure on-time and high-quality delivery of committed features by managing sprint commitments, tracking progress, and mitigating risks within the IT team.Coordinate testing (e.g., QA, UAT) and support smooth releases, including hotfixes for critical issues in production environments like mobile lending apps.Monitor and address technical debt, dependencies, and integrations (e.g., payment gateways or AI credit scoring tools) to sustain delivery pace.5. User Experience and Quality FocusCollaborate closely with design and development teams to ensure excellent user experience (UX) in digital products, such as intuitive journeys in the mobile application.Incorporate user feedback, support team insights, and testing results into backlog refinements to iteratively improve usability and accessibility.Define and track UX-related metrics (e.g., session abandonment, NPS) at the feature level to validate improvements.6. Performance Monitoring and MetricsDefine and monitor sprint-level KPIs and product metrics (e.g., feature adoption, bug rates, conversion impacts) in collaboration with the PM.Analyze post-sprint performance data to inform retrospectives and future backlog prioritization.Support A/B testing execution and gather insights for ongoing optimizations.7. Risk, Compliance, and Stakeholder AlignmentEnsure backlog items comply with regulatory requirements and the company's risk standards during refinement.Identify and escalate delivery risks (e.g., technical or dependency issues) to the PM or relevant stakeholders.Facilitate alignment with cross-functional teams (e.g., risk, compliance, operations) on detailed implementations.8. Collaboration with Product ManagerReceive strategic priorities, roadmap updates, market insights, and business rationale from the PM, translating them into tactical backlog priorities for the IT team.Provide regular updates on delivery status, team velocity, risks, and sprint outcomes to the PM during syncs or high-level reviews.Jointly refine handovers: Accept epics and priorities from the PM, deliver detailed stories and executed features back, ensuring tactical efforts align with broader product vision and P&L goals.Participate in escalations—e.g., if reprioritization is needed due to market changes, refine and implement adjustments while owning on-time delivery.Foster a partnership where the PO owns the "how" and "when" (detailed execution and IT team delivery), complementing the PM's "what" and "why" (strategic direction and business outcomes).Qualifications & Experience7-10 years as a Product Owner or Business AnalystExperience in fintech, payments, or lending platforms is a must.Strong Agile / Scrum experienceKey SkillsAgile product deliveryRequirement documentationStakeholder communication