Product Owner

Job title: Product Owner
Reporting to: Product Manager
Location: Cape Town (Hybrid)

**ALL STAFF APPOINTMENTS WILL BE MADE WITH DUE CONSIDERATION OF THE COMPANY'S EE TARGETS**

**WHAT WE DO**

Lula is an innovative and human-focused FinTech company on a mission to help small businesses optimise their cash flow. Our purpose is to help SMEs manage their businesses better, faster, and more simply, so they can spend more time doing what they love.

If you're looking for a new place to call ‘home' that believes in the potential of the broader SME landscape in South Africa and a place where you'll work with awesome people - then Lula's the place for you

**We're making business banking fast, human, Lula**

**OUR VALUES**
- **Collaborative**_- we're a clan and work together as a team, always towards a common goal_
- ** Committed**_ - we're accountable and follow through no matter the challenge_
- ** Curious**_- we look for better ways to do things and make a positive difference_
- ** Connected**_ - we stay close to, learn from and look to understand each other and our customers_
- ** Compassionate**_ - we go out of our way to care about our colleagues, our customers and our community_

**OVERALL PURPOSE**

This role will see you collaborate with cross-functional teams to define and manage our product backlog, ensuring we deliver a best-in-class product. Working collaboratively with Product Design, Marketing, Data Science & Engineering, you will be responsible for our product and its end-to-end features. We're looking to build a high quality frictionless, beautiful end-to-end digital experience, helping SMEs thrive in a tough market. These products, services and features need to be seamless, considerate and WOW.

Responsibilities will include (but is not limited to):

- **Driving the delivery of Lula's roadmap**
- Creating clear and actionable feature specifications by gathering requirements, defining functionality, and setting goals
- Collaborating with Lula's Tech teams (Engineering, Design, etc.) to iteratively and quickly deliver product functionality that accomplishes our goals
- ** Gaining a deep understanding of our customer's needs and what progress for them looks like**- Using data and product analytics to generate actionable insights and turn these into measurable and impactful business outcomes
- Gathering and using customer feedback to understand how users engage with our products to drive meaningful outcomes for the business
- ** Aligning our bigger picture and strategy to daily work and deliverables**- Driving business impact by mapping product functionality and commitments to the strategic objectives of our channels and the business
- Defining a clear roadmap of highly prioritised features and initiatives that deliver against our business vision
- ** Collaborating and building excellent relationships**- Proactively working with stakeholders to factor their requirements into product decisions
- Influencing peers and direct reports with the goal of enabling them to successfully deliver on their product areas, to continuously grow their product craft and deliver meaningful business outcomes
- Influencing and persuading Lula's senior managers and executives to help achieve goals, remove blockers and deliver meaningful business outcomes

**THE COMPETENCIES WE'RE AFTER**
- User-centric and customer focused approach
- Knowledge of customer desires and behaviours
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills
- Confident decision-maker
- Excellent attention to detail
- Ability to roll up your sleeves, execute and get things over the line
- Strong collaboration skills and a passion for working with people
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills
- Good prioritisation and time management skills
- Deadline driven - you know what success looks like and how to measure it
- Positive, high energy and committed to live, demonstrate and get excited about the Lulalend values

**THE SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE WE'RE LOOKING FOR**
- Bachelor degree in a relevant field or equivalent
- 3+ years of working experience as a Product Owner, with a focus on banking products and services
- Product owner certification an added bonus
- Experience with prototyping, testing, and validating product hypotheses
- Experience defining, prioritising and communicating a product roadmap across the organisation
- Managing and building out a backlog with a focus on iterative and continuous delivery
- Hands-on experience working with Engineering teams in an Agile environment with an understanding of agile development process
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills with a proven ability to work with cross-functional teams
- Technical acumen and genuine passion for technology
- Understanding of core concepts related to UI/UX design
- Experience with product management tools such as JIRA, Confluence, Trello is a plus