VP, Product Owner, Product & Pricing Speed to Market

North America (NA) Personal Risk Services (PRS) is seeking an innovative, visionary, and results-oriented individual with requisite experience and enthusiasm to implement strategic transformational initiatives.   As part of the PRS Business Transformation, we will improve our Personal Lines product and pricing speed to market with a focus on the modernization of our legacy policy system to reduce and/or eliminate the technical constraints of product versioning and product management and the rationalization of our current products into a future-focused flexible product structure that meets changing client and agent needs. 

Reporting into the NA PRS Business Transformation Architect, this newly created role will be the business lead for building and implementing specific elements of the PRS Product Transformation Roadmap. The roadmap will be a compilation of technology, product, and process improvements, to materially improve time to market for product and pricing changes, enabling us to advance our proven and diligent management of top and bottom-line results while meeting changing customer and agent coverage needs and enabling the evolution of our Product and Pricing operating model.

The ideal candidate must have a deep understanding of personal lines product development and management, the rate making process, data and analytics, industry best practices and competitor actions on the latest and next-up product innovations, the regulatory environment in the Personal Lines P&C industry, and a strong understanding of the interdependence of other functional areas within the organization that interact with or are impacted by product and pricing changes (underwriting, compliance, servicing, sales, etc.)  They will be responsible for the Speed to Market transformation roadmap, strategic implementation, and tactical project execution, while navigating competing priorities. They also will be a strong motivator and leader while showing empathy through the change management process. 

Key Responsibilities

• Drive the development of and execute on a multi-year business case and roadmap for PRS Product & Pricing Speed to Market transformation that aligns with strategic enterprise priorities and corresponding objectives and key results.
• Lead a team of 5-7 direct reports who are embedded in multifunctional, agile teams to deliver high quality work product via faster/shorter iterative cycles.
• Collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders e.g., PRS executive team, Product Management, Underwriting, Digital, Data & Analytics, Sales & Distribution, and IT, to establish, update, and deliver on the Speed to Market roadmap. 
• Drive decision-making and remove impediments to the team’s progress; influence key stakeholders, engage with other Product Owners (POs) to manage interdependencies, and escalate issues appropriately.
• Work with the business to understand and coordinate ranking and prioritization of business needs and plan solutions to ensure that each release provides optimized business results/benefits and value to users.
• Ensure initiatives optimize the objectives of competing priorities; work with stakeholders to understand the cost-benefit tradeoffs and lead the team to aligned priorities.
• Appropriately balance business needs and objectives with the transformation program objectives, budget, and timelines.
• Focus on driving toward standardization and automation to advance PRS’ transformation efforts while maintaining alignment to PRS’ profit, expense, and growth targets, operational strategies, and division-wide projects.
• Serve as the business owner of User Acceptance Testing and oversee acceptance criteria of testing output.
• Work with Learning Services to develop and deliver training on the use of new systems, tools, and processes.

Competencies 

• Deep understanding of Personal Lines Property & Casualty product management/development, pricing strategies, practices, systems, workflows, as well as product offerings. 
• Working knowledge of all key stakeholder areas including Underwriting, Data & Analytics, Product, Pricing, Sales & Distribution, Digital, and Risk Consulting.
• Design thinking, customer centric approach, digital mindset, data-driven decision making.
• Excellent organizational, project management, and problem-solving skills.
• Able to challenge current ways of thinking; nurture and develop future-focused mindsets.
• Strong verbal and written communication and effective presentation skills.
• Comfort in a matrix managed, dynamic, and fast-moving work environment.
• Nimble with an ability to adapt and pivot to day-to-day changes that occur in managing large initiatives.
• Appropriate balance of objective,