Associate Director (Product Owner)

Must have Skills : Business Orientation (Strong), Business Solutioning (Strong), Native Japanese Language Proficiency, Business analysis,

Summary: 

Seeking an experienced business leader with 14+ years of experience and a rich experience in a breadth of roles across product ownership, product management, business analysis and pre-sales. Preferably from a good management consulting background. Prior roles running a business as an entrepreneur is a plus. Ability to think along and provide strategic context, provide a solution roadmap, have an entrepreneurial streak, understand go-to-market strategies in different contexts. Ability to articulate complex concepts, convert abstractions to a workable plan, business solutioning, planning, conducting facilitation sessions in business-driven consulting areas. Ability to identify, appreciate and understand business problems and be able to structure solutions accordingly. Manage solution lifecycle. Be able to prioritize deliverables. Work in agile fashion and be able to craft solutions that meet the cost and time requirements. Strong communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively communicate with senior stakeholders. Ability to effectively collaborate with cross-functional teams and stakeholders.

Key Responsibilities:

Product & Solution Vision: Develop and maintain a clear vision that aligns with the overall goals and objectives. This includes understanding market trends, customer needs, and business goals to define the direction and scoping of the solution.

Communication and Collaboration: Play the role of the problem solver, solution provider. Be the primary point of contact between the stakeholders and solution providers. This involves facilitating communication, managing expectations, and ensuring alignment between all parties involved in the whole solution journey.

Understanding the problem: Communicate with client stakeholders to identify problem areas/ symptoms. Identify the business problem(s). Understand the client industry landscape and understand the problem areas. If required, conduct workshops to gather the detail. Articulate the problem statement. Where problem statement is clearly articulated, collaborate with stakeholders to gather and document requirements. This includes conducting user interviews, workshops to identify the problems to solve. Also requires user research, analyzing feedback, and translating customer needs into actionable user stories or features for the development team.

Business Solutions: Identify possible solutions to the business problem(s) identified. Prioritize the business problems to solve and the solutions that can be applied to solve the business problem. The solutions can be in the form of advisory, processes, technology build, technology product implementation or a combination. Where accelerators are used in the solution space, develop a deep understanding depending on the application to the domain.

Backlog Management: Maintain and prioritize the backlog, ensuring that it reflects the latest priorities and requirements. This involves working closely with stakeholders to gather feedback, prioritize features, and make trade-off decisions based on business value and user impact.

Iterations Planning: Work with the stakeholders to plan and prioritize solution cycles based on the overall roadmap and business priorities. Continuous Improvement: Gather feedback and continuously evaluate and identify opportunities for improvement. This includes monitoring key metrics, conducting required analysis. In case of technical solutions, plans for iterating on the product to enhance its value and usability over time.

Stakeholder Management: Build and maintain strong relationships with stakeholders, including customers, business owners, consulting colleagues. This involves actively seeking feedback, addressing concerns, and ensuring that all stakeholders are engaged and aligned throughout the solution lifecycle. 

• Native Japanese language proficiency.
• Graduate degree in a relevant field such as Computer Science, Engineering, Business Management or related field.
• A business management post graduate qualification is a plus.
• Proven experience as a Product Owner or similar role in software development or product management.
• Strong understanding of Agile methodologies and practices, including Scrum, Kanban, or Lean.
• Certification in Agile or Product Management (e.g., Certified Scrum Product Owner, Agile Certified Product Manager) is a plus.
• Experience with product management tools such as JIRA, Trello, or Asana, SAFe.