Product Owner

HME has been creating innovative products for the drive-thru and pro-audio industries since 1971. From the very beginning, we've known these solutions would never have happened without the customer-focused people who make up our company. HME has a team environment with a culture of collaboration, learning, and growth. With subsidiaries located in California, Missouri, Canada, UK, India, and China, companies around the world depend on HME for clear, reliable communication solutions. From setting the standard for drive-thru headsets and timer systems in the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry to developing professional audio equipment used in the Olympic Games, HME strives to create the newest, most innovative products on the market while providing quality care and attention to its customers. At HME you will have the opportunity to learn and grow while developing our future products. Come join our team!

We are currently recruiting for a Product Owner.

What you will do in the position:

• Creates, maintains, and fully owns the detailed requirement/user stories and acceptance criteria based on the high-level requirements and epics from multiple sources.
• Captures hardware, firmware, software, cloud, installation, and support requirements in user stories and acceptance criteria
• Fully embedded with the respective product development/scrum teams to set the sprint goals and ensures the requirements are understood, clarified, and executable.
• Owns sprint and release execution and works with Project Management to track timelines and scope. Plans releases and upgrades and addresses production issues during sprints as needed
• Protects the intended User Experience throughout the product life cycle
• Validates usability during build with users and stakeholders to confirm the intended experience
• Works with other members of the Product Management team to understand the roadmap and intent
• Works on tradeoff analysis and requirements reconciliation with input from multiple stakeholders
• Acts as the voice of the customer in the scrum/development team and escalates to the product manager when necessary
• Brings field and customer feedback into the backlog, working with field testing and support teams
• Owns the backlog at the detailed level, grooming of the backlog, and real-time priority setting
• Is the authority on story acceptance and sprint and release planning within the Product Manager’s release strategy
• Coordinates user acceptance testing (UAT) and provides sign-off before release
• Works with the development team on defect management, technical debt prioritization, and impact analysis
• Where necessary interacts with internal and external customers to understand requirements, business needs, problems to be solved, pain points, as needed
• Proactively maintains a multi-sprint roadmap to create reasonable visibility of feature releases consistent with the roadmap
• Keeps track of technology developments relevant to the product and identifies continuous improvement opportunities
• Raises, documents, and tracks Engineering Action Requests (EARs) for the assigned product, linked to the backlog and release plans; escalates requests affecting scope, cost, schedule, or customers to the Product Manager for approval, and confirms fixes in the field
• Maintains hardware kit configurations, SKUs, and bills of material in D365 in line with the Product Manager’s kit and pricing decisions, coordinating changes with Engineering, Supply Chain, and Operations
• Provides technical input on last-time buys and component end-of-life (affected products, alternate parts, redesign impact) and captures resulting work in the backlog
• Develops technical training for new products and releases, delivers train-the-trainer sessions for Tech Support and field teams, and provides technical content for Sales and Corporate Accounts training

What you will need to succeed:

• QUALIFICATIONS
• Product Owner and/or product management experience is required
• Relentless focus on world-class user experiences
• Technical knowledge of hardware, firmware, software, and cloud development required
• Product Owner experience in multiple environments
• Proven track record of successfully bringing new products to market
• Self-starter and self-driven attitude.
• Ability to work in a team environment, and build rapport with Engineering, Sales, other cross-functional teams, customers, partners, market luminaries, and other external parties
• Ability to handle concurrent projects in a fast-paced environment and to adapt to schedule changes and re-prioritized responsibilities
• Agile product owner/development experience - required
• Experience with backlog management tools (Jira, Azure DevOps, or equivalent) Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) or SAFe POPM certification – Preferred; Pragmatic Institute certification a plus
• EXPERIENCE
• 4+ years
• EDUCATION
• BA/BS Degree (4 years college) - Required in Business, Marketing, Engineering, Computer Science, or Related Field
• TRAVEL
• 10-20%, including customer sites for field validation and UAT

The posted pay range, $85,300 - $113,700, is what we reasonably expect to pay for the role. This may vary depending on experience and other factors. Our benefits package includes tuition reimbursement; 3 weeks paid vacation your first year, paid holidays, medical, vision, and dental coverage, pet insurance, life insurance, and 401K contributions.

The physical demands and work environment described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions. The employee will occasionally lift and move up to 10 pounds.