Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. The State of Colorado is seeking a Senior Product Manager to help build the next generation of public services. This role involves prioritizing and managing the product backlog, ensuring the team is focused on high-priority items, and collaborating with various stakeholders to deliver effective technology solutions for Coloradans.
Responsibilities
- Write and maintain a well-groomed backlog using user stories that are outcome-oriented, appropriately sized, and grounded in real constituent needs; Draft initial product backlogs for RFPs, translating problem spaces into indicative user stories that structure procurement without locking the pod into fixed, rigid scope
- Apply frameworks such as Value vs. Effort or "Now/Next/Later" to make and defend prioritization decisions
- Proactively manage scope by saying "no" clearly and constructively to work that does not serve the current priority, ensuring agency stakeholders are informed and aligned
- Run essential agile planning cycles, including sprint planning, refinement, reviews, and retrospectives
- Conduct quarterly roadmap conversations with agency leadership to align long-term goals with delivery capacity
- Regularly update IT Director and agency program staff about status in terms of outcomes (mission impact) rather than just progress (activity)
- Partner with Service Designers to interpret journey maps, blueprints, and problem frames, translating these artifacts into actionable backlog inputs
- Define and track objectives and key results (OKRs) and success metrics; evaluate and communicate when shipped features fail to deliver expected outcomes
- Build the product ownership capacity of agency staff over time, ensuring the agency becomes a stronger partner rather than a dependent
- Manage the product's lifecycle from discovery through to ongoing continuous improvement
- Regularly partner with Service Designers to understand & apply journey maps/service blueprints for desired outcomes
- Collaborate deeply with engineering to validate technical architecture decisions
- Collaborate with the Delivery Engineer on build/buy/SaaS evaluations, contributing backlog context, mission-impact perspective, and constituent needs to inform the technical decision
Skills
- A minimum of five (5) years of experience in technology product management, which includes working in or leading cross-functional teams using iterative, user-centered methods
- A track record of working across disciplines — design, engineering, policy, or operations — to ship things that work for real people
- Knowledge of product management fundamentals, including backlog ownership, user story writing, prioritization frameworks such as value vs. effort or now/next/later, and what it means to govern a product rather than a project
- Knowledge of agile planning and development cycles: sprint planning, refinement, reviews, and retrospectives work, and the PM's role is in each
- Knowledge of user-centered design principles sufficient to work productively with the Service Designer, interpret research findings, and translate constituent needs into backlog priorities
- Knowledge of State agency program context in regards to the way in which Colorado agencies deliver services, make decisions, and structure program priorities
- Knowledge of the product lifecycle from discovery through to continuous improvement
- Awareness of the build/buy/SaaS tradeoff space, common state IT patterns, and how technology investment decisions get made and funded in state government
- Ability to define and develop meaningful success metrics that go beyond delivery activity toward mission impact
- Ability to decline work that doesn't serve the current priority, and document that decision in a way that keeps agency stakeholders informed rather than surprised
- Ability to communicate product status in terms of outcomes, not just progress
- Ability to facilitate stakeholder conversations that produce ranked decisions, rather than a list of any and all desired items
- Ability to distinguish between user needs and stakeholder 'wants', make operational decisions based on that information, and bring stakeholders into alignment
- Ability to work effectively in the space between agency program staff (who understand the mission) and the pod (who understands delivery) without becoming a passive translator
- Ability to own the product's success metrics and track them honestly, including when a shipped feature isn't delivering the expected outcome
- Ability to adapt communication style and level of detail to the audience
- Relevant certifications such as Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Pragmatic Institute Product Management, or Professional Product Manager (PPM)
- Experience working within a digital service agency or a government-adjacent technology firm, successfully translating mission-driven policy goals into actionable product backlogs
- Experience evaluating software solutions (e.g., custom build, SaaS, commercial off-the-shelf) and managing vendor relationships to ensure external technical deliveries align with agile, outcome-oriented product roadmaps
- Background in User-Centered Design (UCD)
Benefits
- We know it's important to support each other, and that means having a healthy balance of work and personal time. Visit our benefits to learn more about some of our great offerings that allow us all to have fulfilling lives.
- The Governor's Office of Information Technology is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, our agency will assist individuals who have a disability with any reasonable accommodation requests related to employment, including completing the application process, interviewing, completing any pre-employment testing, participating in the employee selection process, and/or to perform essential job functions where the requested accommodation does not impose an undue hardship. If you have a disability and require reasonable accommodation to ensure you have a positive experience applying or interviewing for this position, please direct your inquiries to our ADA Coordinator at [email protected] or call (303) 764-7900.
Company Overview