Akaina Talent
Product Manager / Product Owner - FTC
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Product Manager / Product Owner (12-Month FTC)
Description
We are looking for a Product Manager / Product Owner to work closely with engineering teams, store colleagues, and other end users to drive execution, manage backlogs, and ensure high-quality product delivery. This role is ideal for someone who thrives in the day-to-day mechanics of product development, owning tickets, shaping requirements, and partnering deeply with Tech to deliver value consistently and efficiently.
This is not a pure Product Manager role, nor a pure Delivery Manager role – the ideal candidate sits between Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst, and Delivery, and is comfortable taking broad, epic-level problems and working directly with engineers and end users to shape them into clear, deliverable work, without needing every requirement fully defined upfront. This role would suit someone earlier in their product career who is ready for more ownership and scope, rather than someone used to a narrow remit with a large support team around them.
Backlog Ownership and Prioritisation
- Own and manage the product backlog ensuring it is well-structured, prioritised, and aligned to business goals.
- Work closely with stakeholders to translate requirements into actionable backlog items.
- Apply prioritisation frameworks such as ICE or equivalent to balance impact, effort, and urgency.
- Continuously refine and reprioritise the backlog based on new insights, dependencies, and delivery constraints.
- Ensure clear visibility of priorities and trade-offs across stakeholders.
Ticket Writing and Requirements Definition
- Write clear, concise, and well-structured user stories, tickets, and acceptance criteria.
- Ensure tickets are ready for development (definition of ready) and minimise ambiguity for engineers.
- Maintain consistency in ticket structure and documentation across teams.
- Collaborate with engineering to ensure requirements are technically feasible and well understood.
- Break down larger initiatives into manageable deliverable increments.
- Work directly with store colleagues, customers, and other operational teams to understand real-world problems before defining requirements.
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Delivery and Execution
- Work closely with engineering teams throughout the delivery lifecycle to ensure smooth execution.
- Participate actively in agile ceremonies, including stand-ups, sprint planning, retrospectives, and backlog refinement.
- Track progress against sprint goals and proactively address blockers.
- Partner with Tech Leads and Delivery Managers to manage dependencies, risks, and timelines.
- Ensure delivered work meets acceptance criteria and quality standards.
- Support release planning and coordinate launches where required.
Product and Technology Ways of Working
- Help standardise ways of working across Product and engineering teams.
- Ensure consistency in backlog management, ticket quality, and delivery processes.
- Work with Delivery Managers to improve reporting through better ticket labelling and tracking of velocity.
- Support estimation processes, ensuring work is appropriately scoped and sized.
- Drive effective sprint planning and backlog refinement sessions.
- Contribute to continuous improvement of delivery processes and team efficiency.
Collaboration with Engineering
- Build strong working relationships with engineers and Tech Leads.
- Stay closely aligned with what is being built, providing clarity and support throughout delivery.
- Help resolve ambiguities, answer questions, and make timely decisions.
- Understand technical constraints and incorporate them into planning and prioritisation.
- Support teams in identifying and unblocking dependencies and issues.
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Working with End Users and Operational Teams
- Build rapport with store colleagues, home consultants, and other operational teams, understanding how they work day-to-day.
- Identify pain points and opportunities directly from end users, customers, and store colleagues.
- Translate real-world operational challenges into practical, deliverable product solutions.
- Support the evolution from store colleague-focused tools towards greater self-service capability for customers.
Data and Continuous Improvement
- Use data and feedback to inform backlog prioritisation and iteration.
- Define success criteria for features and ensure outcomes are measurable.
- Support testing approaches, including A/B testing where relevant.
- Work with data teams to ensure appropriate tracking and visibility of product performance.
- Contribute to post-release analysis and continuous improvement cycles.
Requirements
- Proven experience as a Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst, or in a similar hybrid delivery role, working closely with engineering teams.
- Experience working directly with non-technical end users or operational teams, understanding how they work day-to-day, and translating that into practical solutions.
- Comfortable working in ambiguity, without needing every requirement fully defined upfront.
- Strong experience managing backlogs and writing high-quality user stories and tickets.
- Solid understanding of agile delivery practices and ceremonies.
- Experience working with tools such as Azure DevOps, Notion, or similar.
- Ability to translate business requirements into clear technical deliverables.
- Strong organisational skills and attention to detail.
- Comfortable working in fast-paced, delivery-focused environments.
- Strong communication and stakeholder management skills.
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