Evolve Life Product Owner

EVOLVE ROLE PACK

Evolve Life Product Owner JDdefinition

Role Information

Function: Growth & Innovation / Product
Product: Caava Evolve
Domain: Life Insurance
Reporting Line: Head of Product / PM
Executive Oversight: CGIO
Role Type: Delivery-facing, domain-specific Product Owner
Status: Proposed – Leadership and HR Validation
Version / Effective Date: Version 1.0 / TBC
Document Owner / Review Cycle: Head of Product / Annual or on material role change

ROLE MANDATE
The Evolve Life Product Owner converts approved product direction into ready, sequenced and testable work and protects execution readiness across both Individual Life and Group Life - covering acquisition and quotation, underwriting (individual and group free-cover), scheme setup and member administration, policy and scheme servicing, benefits and claims. Success is measured by clarity, evidence, controlled dependencies and predictable delivery - not by ticket volume.

Reference basis: Evolve PO Job Description/KPI/0-90 Day Plan and Evolve PO Detailed Induction. This role pack applies those common controls to the assigned domain.

1. Executive role summary

The Evolve Life Product Owner is the execution-readiness owner for Life Insurance across both the Individual and Group sub-domains. The role translates PM-approved outcomes into a clean, prioritised backlog; secures clear stories and acceptance criteria; exposes product-work dependencies; and supports sprint, UAT, customer proof and release readiness. Its principal users are individual customers, agents and advisers; employers, scheme sponsors, brokers and scheme administrators; and underwriters, medical teams, policy and scheme administration, claims, actuarial, reinsurance and finance teams.

Successful performance means that work enters delivery with clear intent and evidence, blockers are owned before they become late surprises, delivered work can be accepted or rejected quickly, and the assigned value packs move through discovery, design, build, QA, UAT, release and adoption without unsupported claims.

2. Role purpose

Own execution readiness for Life Insurance - Individual & Group; maintain domain backlog priority within delegated PM direction; align requirements, design, engineering, QA and program inputs; and ensure each commitment reaches an evidence-based exit gate or is formally changed. The role protects business-process integrity, customer and scheme usability and delivery predictability while keeping roadmap and commercial authority with the appropriate leaders.

3. Strategic outcomes

• A prioritised backlog aligned to approved outcomes
• Build-ready stories with testable acceptance criteria
• Dependencies, blockers and ageing visible with owner and date
• Reduced ambiguity-related rework and avoidable carryover
• UAT, demo and release packs complete before the gate
• Formal acceptance/rejection decisions made promptly
• Quick and Normal Quote work is build-ready
• Underwriting evidence and rules are traceable
• Policy-administration journeys are complete
• Servicing events have clear calculations and controls
• Benefits and claims are testable end to end
• Life proof moves with formal acceptance

4. Key responsibilities

Product-domain execution

• Maintain the execution view across Life Insurance value packs and capabilities.
• Translate PM-approved priorities into sequenced work and explicit exit evidence.
• Protect end-to-end journey coherence, rules, data, integrations and operational controls.

Backlog, stories and acceptance

• Own backlog hygiene, priority order and ageing within delegated authority.
• Ensure stories contain context, user outcome, rules, dependencies, designs and testable acceptance criteria.
• Apply Definition of Ready before sprint commitment and reject half-ready work.

Discovery, requirements and design

• Bring ambiguity, rule gaps and decision questions to PM/BA/design early.
• Maintain traceability from approved scope to requirements, stories, tests and acceptance.
• Prevent unapproved customer changes from entering build.

Sprint and delivery support

• Bring ready and sequenced work to refinement and planning.
• Answer product-intent questions within agreed SLA and record decisions.
• Track returned items, carryover and causes; initiate corrective action.

Dependencies and blockers

• Maintain product-level dependency and blocker records with owner, date, impact and escalation.
• Surface critical blockers before sprint, UAT or release.
• Follow through until verified closure, not merely reassignment.

UAT, proof and release

• Prepare product inputs for QA, UAT, demos and release readiness.
• Support triage, confirm acceptance alignment and record product acceptance/rejection.
• Distinguish prototype, demo, QA, UAT, acceptance, production and adoption.

Quality, reporting and improvement

• Audit backlog, story and evidence quality weekly.
• Publish accurate weekly status, risks, decisions and recovery actions.
• Use defect, return, ageing and stakeholder evidence to improve the operating system.

5. Key Deliverables and Quality Standards

• Domain Backlog: Prioritised, current and sequenced; stale or duplicate items removed.
• Story Packs: Include context, user outcome, scope, rules, designs, dependencies and testable criteria.
• Definition of Ready (DoR) Checklist: Completed before commitment; exceptions approved and visible.
• Capability/Value-Pack Map: Capabilities, journey, stage, owner, dependencies and evidence kept current.
• Traceability View: Approved scope → requirement → story → test → decision.
• Dependency/Blocker Log: Owner, age, SLA, impact, due date, escalation and verified closure recorded.
• Sprint-Readiness Pack: Committed scope, DoR evidence, dependencies, risks and decision gaps documented.
• UAT/Proof/Release Pack: Scenarios, data, environment, product truth, known issues, fallback and sign-offs documented.
• Weekly Execution Report: Actual movement, RAG status, evidence, decisions, recovery actions and next gate.
• Post-Release Learning Register: Defects, usage feedback, benefits signals and resulting backlog actions.

6. Stakeholder-management expectations

• Prepare meetings with facts, decisions required and evidence links.
• Record decisions, changed scope, owners and dates within one working day.
• Escalate when a P0/P1 blocker is unowned, an SLA will be missed, product truth is disputed, or customer/release risk is material.
• Use professional Kenyan/British English and communicate product status without exaggeration.
• Route customer changes through PM/BA governance before backlog commitment.
• Resolve priority conflict by exposing business impact, dependency, evidence and trade-off - not by silently reordering work.

7. Skills, Competencies and Experience

• Experience: 3–7 years in Product Ownership, Business Analysis, Delivery Analysis or a comparable enterprise-product role.
• Domain: Working knowledge of Life Insurance processes, controls, users, data and integrations; insurance/fintech experience preferred.
• Delivery: Experience in Agile planning, refinement, Jira/workflow tools, UAT, release readiness, dependency and defect management.
• Technical Literacy: Ability to understand APIs, data, business rules, environments, security/NFRs and integration dependencies without owning solution design.
• Communication: Strong writing, facilitation, customer engagement, decision documentation and timely escalation skills.
• Behaviour: Ownership, curiosity, integrity, collaboration, evidence-based decision-making, urgency and composure under delivery pressure.
• Education/Certification: Relevant degree or equivalent experience; Product Owner/Agile certification is desirable.

8. Role acceptance and sign-off
Employee Name: ____________________   Signature: ____________________   Date: ____________________   

Head of Product / CPO: ____________________  Signature: ____________________   Date: ____________________   

CGIO: ____________________   Signature: ____________________   Date: ____________________   

HR: ____________________    Signature: ____________________   Date: ____________________