Product Owner, Minneapolis MN - Cogency Global : Job Details

Cogency Global is seeking a passionate and results-driven software Product Owner to lead the re-imagination and evolution of our core internal CRM and workflow management platform (OPUS). This is a high-impact role where business strategy meets technology delivery.

As the OPUS Product Owner, you will own the vision and development of a critical enterprise platform that our teams rely on to serve clients with excellence. This is your chance to influence a core system used company-wide, improving how hundreds of colleagues perform their jobs and how our business functions at its core. If you love the challenge of optimizing workflows, integrating systems, and collaborating with diverse teams, all while delivering real business value, this role is made for you.

• Define and Drive Product Vision: Develop a clear product vision for a completely reimagined internal operational workflow platform, and communicate it across engineering teams and business stakeholders. You'll translate big-picture company goals into a pragmatic, prioritized roadmap for the transformation of OPUS. Everyone, from developers to VPs, will understand where OPUS is headed under your leadership and why it's exciting.
• Own the OPUS Roadmap & Backlog: Take charge of planning OPUS's development lifecycle: from gathering requirements to releasing features. You'll manage and prioritize the product backlog to ensure we're always working on what matters most. This includes writing user stories, mapping out processes, and making tough calls on scope, all with an eye on delivering maximum value to the business.
• Collaborate with Diverse Teams: Work closely with a dedicated Scrum team of software developers and a Scrum Master, as well as with departments spanning Operations, Finance, Sales, and Compliance. You'll act as the “glue” between stakeholders and the dev team – facilitating conversations, negotiating priorities, and ensuring everyone's needs are understood. One day you might be in the weeds with developers refining an integration process, and the next you're in a meeting with Finance mapping out improvements to the billing workflow. No two days are the same!
• Oversee Critical Integrations: OPUS doesn't operate in a vacuum; it is our core operational workflow platform and it's tightly integrated with other enterprise systems. You will oversee and enhance integrations with tools like Salesforce and Microsoft Great Plains (Dynamics GP), among others. Your role is to guarantee a seamless data flow across platforms, so our teams have the information they need, when they need it.
• Transform the Way We Work: At its heart, this role is about making life easier for our internal users and enabling them to work smarter. You'll gather feedback directly from users and enterprise architects to develop new workflows and staff processing improvements. Whether it's automating a previously manual step, eliminating duplicate data entry, or providing better dashboards for tracking work, you'll be building a platform that enables continuously streamlining of workflows. Every improvement you drive will help boost productivity and accuracy for hundreds of colleagues – creating ripple effects in efficiency and client service quality.
• Be the Voice of the User & Business: You'll deeply understand our internal users' needs (and by extension, our clients' needs) and advocate on their behalf in every design and development discussion. By maintaining close relationships with front-line teams and department leaders, you ensure OPUS's evolution is aligned with business priorities. In essence, you become the chief storyteller of what problems we're solving and the chief negotiator balancing scope, time, and value to solve them.
• Measure Success & Iterate: Define key metrics for OPUS's performance (e.g., order processing turnaround time, user satisfaction scores, system integration error rates) and track improvements. You'll use data and user feedback to validate that our changes are making a difference, and if not, adjust course. Continuous improvement isn't just a buzzword here – it's one of our core values. You will play a pivotal role in fostering a culture of ongoing refinement and innovation on the team, celebrating wins, and learning from misses.

By day 30, you are knowledgeable about OPUS's core functions and known issues, to the point where you can independently explain the platform's purpose and key workflows to a newcomer. You have identified at least a couple of improvement opportunities and begun acting on them. The development team sees you adding value in planning and refinement sessions, and stakeholders recognize your engagement. Some may already be coming to you with ideas or questions, indicating they view you as the point person for OPUS. You've started to earn credibility through small deliverables and thoughtful listening.

By day 60, have effectively taken the reins of product leadership for OPUS. The backlog is organized under your guidance and the team is moving forward with clarity on what to build. Business stakeholders have seen a first pass of the future roadmap and feel their voices are reflected in it, even if not everything they want is immediate. You are viewed as knowledgeable about the product's details and technically conversant; developers and colleagues see you adding clear requirements and helping resolve questions quickly. Importantly, you've built credibility and trust; people see you are true to your word (integrity), competent, and collaborative.

The first quarter in role shows measurable progress. Stakeholders see that important items have been delivered or are in motion to transform the OPUS platform, and they have a clear roadmap guiding their expectations. The development team is highly coordinated with you, and the quality and relevance of what's being built is on target. You've demonstrated that you are an asset to Cogency Global, driving OPUS forward with energy and accountability.

At 6 months, the tangible business impact of your work should be evident. You have delivered on promises from the roadmap's first phases, and your credibility is high. The OPUS team (which might have grown or reorganized to accommodate the transformation project underway) is high-performing and motivated. Internally, you're regarded as a key player in the IT/IS leadership landscape. 4 Essentially, you've moved from “new hire” to a strategic leader driving one of Cogency's critical enterprise platforms.

After a year, the legacy OPUS platform is in maintenance mode. The transformation initiative is well underway. The Product Owner (you) is viewed as an indispensable leader in the organization. You have proven your ability to deliver results while exemplifying company values: you're known for doing the right thing (integrity), elevating the quality of solutions (technical excellence), never settling and always iterating (continuous improvement), being welcoming to input and collaborative (inclusivity and teamwork). The successful outcomes likely mean that you have the full trust of both the business and technical teams, and they look to you for guidance on this major initiative. The first year's accomplishments lay the groundwork for even more ambitious projects in the future, with the new OPUS platform positioned firmly as a critical enterprise platform under your expert stewardship. In summary, at the 1-year mark, you are aligning a diverse organization around a new core workflow platform and continuously developing it to support Cogency Global's operational excellence.

• Product Ownership Experience: You have 5+ years experience as a Product Owner/Manager or similar role in software development, ideally with internal business applications or enterprise systems. You're comfortable owning a product roadmap and have a track record of driving projects from concept to delivery. If you've worked on ERP, CRM, or workflow platforms (for example, you've been a product owner for an order management system, a billing platform, or a CRM integration project), we definitely want to talk to you!
• Business + Tech Savvy: You're fluent in both business process speak and technical jargon. You can talk about database records and API calls with developers one hour, then pivot to discuss ROI and process efficiency with a business executive the next. Understanding of enterprise processes (quote-to-cash, client data management, finance/accounting systems) will help you hit the ground running. You don't need to be a coder, but you should grasp system architectures and integration concepts enough to participate in discussions and make informed decisions.
• Agile & Organized: Solid experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies is a must. You know how to write a great user story, maintain a prioritized backlog, and use Agile tools (Jira, Azure DevOps, etc.) to keep work on track. You are highly organized and can juggle multiple priorities without letting details slip. The thought of orchestrating a complex change with many moving parts excites rather than scares you.
• Fantastic Communicator & Collaborator: This role is all about people as much as it is about product. You should have excellent communication skills – both written and verbal. You listen actively and empathically, and you're able to convey ideas and requirements clearly to different audiences. You have a collaborative approach, whether you're hashing out a solution with engineers or presenting a roadmap update to senior management. Importantly, you can handle challenging conversations (like pushing back on a feature request or explaining a delay) with professionalism and a problem-solving attitude.
• Problem-Solving Mindset: You love digging into problems and figuring out smart, workable solutions. Our ideal candidate is curious, analytical, and not afraid to ask “why” five times to get to the root cause. You're comfortable analyzing workflow diagrams or diving into data to identify trends. When faced with obstacles, you're resourceful and persistent; you find ways to get things done.
• User-Centric Approach: You are passionate about user experience and making tools that truly help people. You have a knack for stepping into the shoes of end-users and understanding their pain points. This empathy drives you to create intuitive solutions that make their daily tasks easier. You might have experience conducting user interviews or usability tests, and you certainly thrive on feedback to refine products.
• Adaptability and Drive: In a dynamic environment, requirements can evolve… and that's fine by you. You're adaptable and can adjust plans while keeping focus on the overarching goals. You're self-driven, take initiative, and can operate with a good degree of autonomy. Once you understand the mission, you don't wait to be told what to do: you proactively identify what's needed and rally others to make it happen.
• Domain Knowledge (Bonus): Familiarity with some of our specific systems or domain will give you a head start. Experience with Salesforce, Microsoft Great Plains (Dynamics GP), or similar CRM/ERP systems, as well as any knowledge of corporate compliance or due diligence research (given our industry), is a plus. Likewise, if you've worked on rapidly building new operational workflow products and solutions that involve complex integrations or data synchronization, let us know; that's very relevant.
• Education: Having a bachelor's degree in a relevant field (Business, Communications, Computer Science, Information Systems, etc.) is preferred. But real-world experience and results are what matter most. Scrum Product Owner certification is required.

Job Type: Full Time, M-F Hours: 9:00 AM – 5:00 PM Salary Range: $80-130K