What are the responsibilities and job description for the Application Product Manager position at Hastings Insurance?
Hastings Insurance is looking for an Application Product Manager to join its Central Business Operations (CBO) Team! The Application Product Manager will maximize the value of the system development team’s work for an assigned application through a clearly defined product roadmap, ensuring the product delivered aligns with the organizational needs of all business groups with minimal impact on future upgrades and maintenance. In addition, they will also be responsible for ensuring consistency in the look, feel, and functionality of systems and business processes across all lines of business.
Position Location & Work Format
This role is flexible in its location. Hastings will entertain candidates who reside within our five-state territory (Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, or Illinois) to work in a remote capacity. Candidates who reside within the greater Hastings, MI area can work either a full-time onsite or hybrid work arrangement. Regardless of the location, this role will generally work within our standard office hours of Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Hastings may consider candidates who reside in states outside of our five-state territory if other elements of their application are strong.
Position Duties & Responsibilities
- Defines and drives the roadmap and strategy for an assigned application while managing the details from top to bottom.
- Work closely with stakeholders across the organization to ensure the application roadmap supports the short- and long-term goals.
- Responsible for consistency in business process documentation for all lines of business in an assigned application.
- Approve or reject User Stories, Test Case Scenarios, Quality Assurance Testing Plans, End-to-End Testing, and User Acceptance Testing.
- Prioritizes backlog using business value, return on investment, and cost of delay estimates to ensure the system development team delivers optimal business value.
- Creates and communicates User Acceptance test plans and scripts to determine optimal application performance according to specifications; revise as needed.
- Review new features and approve or reject them per business needs to minimize upgrade costs and maintenance.
- Inspects progress throughout the system development life cycle and works with primary stakeholders to accept or reject work.
- Attends and participates in requirement meetings to understand system requirements and enable informed decision-making.
- Attends Scrum of Scrum, Daily Scrum, and other meetings associated with the ongoing system development life cycle and project initiatives.
Candidate Requirements & Qualifications
- A Bachelor's degree in a Business or Information Technology designation or equivalent experience is required.
- Knowledge of the Property & Casualty insurance industry product(s), customer, and processes is strongly desired.
- Prior experience as a Product Owner, Business Analyst, Senior Business Analyst, etc., is required.
- Prior supervisory experience is strongly desired.
- Demonstrated strategic and conceptual analytical thinking as well as excellent decision-making skills.
- Demonstrated ability to build teams and generate a spirit of cooperation while coordinating diverse activities and groups and negotiating skills within a team environment.
- Excellent interpersonal skills; the ability to collaborate positively with people from different disciplines and varying degrees of technical experience.
- Competent in delivering clear, concise, and tactful communication with senior management, stakeholders, and peers.
- Proven ability to manage deadline pressure, ambiguity, and change while being flexible and adaptable.
- Experience working within the Guidewire insurance suite (PolicyCenter, BillingCenter, ClaimCenter) preferred.
Hastings Insurance is not currently looking to partner with any third-party staffing agencies for recruitment regarding this role or any other open positions.
About Us
At Hastings Insurance, our balanced corporate strategy focuses on implementing emerging technologies, cultivating strong independent agency relationships, and providing the right products to our policyholders.
We seek to strategically grow our product lines and continue to expand geographically while maintaining our financial stability and innovative nature.
Our talented employees are dedicated to providing excellent customer service to our agent partners and policyholders. Many of our employees have been identified as industry experts, and we value the knowledge and skill that they contribute to our success.
For more than 135 years, Hastings has helped our customers protect their valued assets and rebuild after devastating losses. We are proud to be rated an A (Excellent) insurance carrier by A.M. Best Company.
Our Commitment as an Employer
Hastings Insurance seeks to provide reasonable accommodation to disabled individuals in the hiring process in compliance with federal, state, and local law. Candidates requiring accommodation to complete their job application or participate in the interviewing process are asked to notify the Talent Acquisition Specialist or contact us at 800-442-8277.