Lean Portfolio Director, Current Account and Payments, Barclays UK - 12-month FTC

The Lean Portfolio Manager is a key leadership role within CAP [Current Account and Payments], Customer Labs and the CAP Product and Proposition team.  The purpose of this role is to take overall responsibility of the planning, monitoring, reporting and fast-paced delivery of our key outcomes which ladder up into the CAP OKR’s. To do this you will be working closely with teams of product managers, journey owners and technology delivery leads to develop a cohesive roadmap, foster ways of working to accelerate the delivery and identify and negotiate issues impacting delivery.  You will be cultural champion and a driving force behind the radical adoption of ways of working for CAP.

Main duties and responsibilities

• Lead and facilitate all planning events, including strategic portfolio reviews, PI planning and intakes, with a view to develop a cohesive and transparent delivery plan which is able to map directly into the OKR’s and BUK objectives
• Develop and maintain a transparent view of the value creation that is being driven by CAP Customer Labs and identify opportunities to enhance and accelerate key deliverables
• Backlog oversight – continue to refine and enhance the approach to backlog prioritisation by using data and insights to prioritise value-based propositions /features/capability delivery
• Accelerate delivery - Using data and insights to drive velocity across all phases of the delivery cycle within CAP Customer Labs, with a core focus on significantly decreasing the time taken from idea origination to getting it into our customer hands and valued   
• Proactive identification and resolution of areas of conflict within the roadmap and led on the resolution within and across the various Labs 
• Drive the governance, reporting and analytics for the Customer Lab to ever increase the use of value driven decision making and the timely connection of people into the fast-paced process
• Oversee the compliance with LCT (lean control tribe standards) and TADs (technology application requirements)  governance across requirements.
• Proactive risk management throughout – ensuring all risk standards are well established and adhered to from a Lab to a feature team
• Expertise in taxonomy and tooling and share your enthusiasm with product and technology colleagues to accelerate the adoption of ways of working and tooling
• Leadership – embrace servant leadership to drive collaboration, results and value outcome focussed culture with high performing teams
• Culture leader driving the radical adoption of ways of working across the CAP Customer Lab and beyond
• Mentor Junior Product Owners/Managers towards product design and development good practice across teams, creating a culture of customer obsession and disciplined execution

Key Criteria

Essential Skills/Basic Qualifications:

•    Demonstrable experience in leading and managing product development teams, working with/to Agile principals and best practice

•    Strong background in product management or business analysis on customer facing applications

•    Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, comfortable working with technical delivery teams and presenting to Business Executives

•    Experience in people management across teams and departments.

•    A technical background in product development and decision making.

•    Business analysis skills and development lifecycle experience, working within IT, with proven delivery record and an ability to work in a demanding environment

•    Strong time management and ability to coordinate with various teams to action items

•    Strong experience of working in the financial industry or similar regulated industry

•    Ability to build ongoing work relationships across locations and teams

•    A practitioner understanding of the Agile methodology and how to implement it from scratch.

•    Good hands-on experience with JIRA, MS Visio, Project, Word, SharePoint, Confluence, PowerPoint and Excel

Desirable skills/Preferred Qualifications:

•    Expert knowledge of [business area]

•    Product Management certifications

Purpose of the role

To manage and develop existing and new products and/or services; and where applicable, ownership of related customer and colleague journeys, develops the product strategy, drive change through Barclays execution teams, make key decisions in the product lifecycle and own associated outcomes for customers, colleagues and the bank, achieved through appropriate service level agreements, regulatory compliance, risk management and controls. 

Accountabilities

• Development of customer level strategies & solutions that are tailored to customers’ needs.
• Subject Matter Expert in the applicable Product/Proposition team and be able to confidently guide and advise stakeholders at all levels in the Bank on the application of existing and new products/propositions and related customer and colleague journeys.
• Development of product propositions, and/or service strategy, define the priorities for delivering the outcomes needed to deliver the strategy and lead execution of the priorities.
• Development of different commercial and business models through a strong understanding of the financial drivers of the P&L for the relevant segment/ proposition/ journey.
• Evaluation of the technical feasibility, legal compliance, and potential risks associated with the development and launch of the new product.
• Monitoring of market trends and analysis feedback from internal employees and target customers through prototypes, user testing sessions, and beta programs to identify areas for improvement to refine the product / process before launch.
• Management of comprehensive launch plans and technical deployments for products that establish rollout timelines, marketing strategies, training initiatives and communication channels to promote the launch new products effectively.
• Monitoring of key metrics such as adoption rates, usage patterns, customer satisfaction (including complaints), and revenue generation to assess the product's performance against set goals.

Managing Director Expectations

• To manage a large, complex or diverse function and take accountability for the strategic direction of the function to significantly strengthen successful and efficient businesses and contribute to the strategic initiatives of the Barclays Group
• Lead and mentor high performing teams and embed a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects, act as a profound technical expert and thought leader, Identifying new and innovative/ground breaking ways of working. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions.
• Drive and achieve overall success and / or competitiveness of a business division by influencing senior leaders and committees.
• Strategically assess and manage risks to protect the business division / function and growth.
• Influence company policy and develop functional procedures in conjunction with senior leaders / strategic positions across the business.
• Demonstrate interpretative thinking for innovative solutions in complex situations and conceptual thinking in completely new situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant / complex business and strategic decisions that impact the Barclays Group, business division or function.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally and foster growth for Barclays business.
• Mandated as the business division/ functional spokesperson or representative to external bodies and shapes the public image of Barclays.
• Demonstrate exceptional knowledge of how business divisions and functions integrate with the Group to achieve the overall business objectives alongside industry theories and practices within own discipline.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive functional expertise and significant product knowledge.
• Accountable for the control and governance agenda of the business division / function.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.