Technology Product Owner

ABOUT WESTERN STATES

Since 1956, Western States Equipment Company has been a leading employer across Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Wyoming. We are driven by our mission of solving our customers' toughest challenges, guided by our core values of Safety, Excellence, Teamwork, Integrity, Accountability, and Innovation.

By joining Western States, you commit to upholding these values while contributing to our purpose of building our communities for a better tomorrow. Safety and our Customer Care Commitment remain foundational to our mission and the standard by which we measure our success.

Safety

• Actively cares, promotes, manages, and advocates for safety at Western States.  As a team member in the organization, it is critical to ensure all employees, vendors, and clients have a safe work environment while adhering to all applicable safety policies, procedures and standards.
• Embraces our caring culture where we each care to adhere with applicable safety policies, PPE expectations and stop work authority.

Customer Care Commitments

• Convey Warmth and Empathy - Acknowledge customers and greet everyone with an authentic smile.
• Actively Listen - Give your full attention, make eye contact, avoid interrupting, and ask clarifying questions.
• Build Trust - Take ownership, act with urgency, and follow through on commitments.
• Say Thank you - Express genuine appreciation for effort, feedback, and collaboration.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS:

• Works with assigned departments' leadership and stakeholders to determine potential projects or products that will deliver value to our users, customers, or improve processes.
• Works with assigned departments' stakeholders to whiteboard and plan proposed projects or products to define the scope, resources needed, and timeline.
• Conducts backlog planning meetings with stakeholders to ensure product requirements and user stories are thoroughly defined and documented prior to development.
• Analyzes project or product proposals to determine project deliverables, milestones, and required activities and tasks.
• Manages the technology project and backlog scheduling for their assigned departments to maximize productivity of team development resources using Agile principles.
• Leads planning and standup meetings for their assigned departments' related projects or products.
• Establishes a plan and staffing for project activities, iterations or phases, and arranges for recruitment or assignment of project personnel.
• Monitors and drives product development and release progress.
• Implements and executes communication plans to ensure successful implementations of products and projects.
• Manages BETA testing teams and the BETA testing process to ensure end user engagement and enthusiasm.
• Assesses and escalates product bug resolutions.
• Works with Technology Leadership and stakeholders to ensure the backlog task priorities are aligned with corporate strategy.
• Gathers feedback from users and stakeholders to define value add features to be incorporated in products.
• Measures product performance as well as value delivered to the business to make adjustments where necessary.
• Assesses product value stream to identify areas that require improvements.
• Works with the technology infrastructure team as needed to define and deliver any product related requirements.
• Assists Technology Leadership to develop product roadmap strategies that will drive technology innovation.
• Regularly updates stakeholders on product development operations.
• Supports data governance efforts.
• Champions the use of Agile methodologies and supports other departments as they incorporate Agile into their processes.
• Stays current in knowledge and skills of Agile and scrum practices.
• Works within and promotes corporate vision, mission, and values of the organization.
• Other duties as assigned.

KNOWLEDGE SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Proven skills in facilitation, negotiation, project management, team development, communication, data analysis, and change management.
• Strong interpersonal, communication, and writing skills required, including presentations to stakeholders at all levels.
• Self-motivated, results oriented change agent who is an effective business systems thinker.
• Ability to manage risk and ambiguity on a project.
• Technically competent with various software programs, including but not limited to Microsoft Office 365, Azure DevOps, Jira, SharePoint, Trello, Power BI, Microsoft D365, Power Automate, and PowerApps.
• Knowledge of software development lifecycle: requirement gathering, design, implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
• General knowledge and understanding of relational database concepts and data warehouse designs.
• Ability to prepare budget proposals.
• Ability to structure ambiguous problems, analyze complex processes, synthesize data and results, and drive towards insight and solutions.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with others to include customers, vendors, employees, and the public.
• Ability to keep current with emerging trends, tools, and technologies in the software industry.
• Consistent attendance.

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Computer Science, Information Systems, or a related field required.
• Three Years of product owner or project management experience required.
• One year experience using Agile methodologies to manage a portfolio of products or projects is preferred.
• One year experience with Microsoft Dynamics (AX or D365) ERP software is preferred.
• Must be able to communicate (speak, read, comprehend, write) in English.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

• Ability to stand for long periods of time along with walking, sitting, repetitive climbing stairs, reaching (including but not limited to above-shoulder reaching), repetitive bending, stooping, pushing, pulling, leaning and twisting.
• Ability to lift up to 45 lbs.

Disclaimer: The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by employees assigned to this classification. It is not intended be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of employees in this classification.