Freelance technical product owner (Leuven)
Overview
We are looking for a Technical Product Owner for one of our customers based in Leuven. you will lead the development and continuous improvement of their digital customer portal. This role is responsible for owning the product vision, ensuring delivery of high-quality solutions, and maintaining a clear roadmap (9 months to a year out) that supports business priorities.
The product owner will maintain a clear short term product roadmap (0-12 months), ensuring the delivery of high-quality solutions together with the development team. Aligning delivery with business priorities and the product vision. Working closely with front & back-end developers, stakeholders, and leadership to translate business needs into actionable user stories while ensuring successful delivery through Agile practices.
Key Responsibilities
Product Ownership
* Own the digital portal product, including its vision, build and ongoing evolution.
* Define and maintain a product roadmap at least 9 months ahead, aligning with organizational priorities and user needs.
* Ensure the product delivers measurable value and continuously improves based on feedback and data.
Backlog & Delivery Management
* Own and manage the product backlog, ensuring items are clearly defined, prioritized, and ready for development.
* Break down large initiatives and epics into manageable user stories and tasks.
* Ensure features and stories progress through development and reach completion with clear acceptance criteria.
Development Team Collaboration
* Work closely with developers, portfolio manager, functional analysts and technical architect to ensure a shared understanding of requirements.
* Provide day-to-day guidance to the development team and help unblock issues when they arise.
* Ensure the team is focused on the highest-priority work that delivers value.
Quality & Delivery Assurance
* Maintain accountability for the quality of delivered features and releases.
* Validate that completed work meets defined requirements and acceptance criteria.
* Ensure solutions are scalable, maintainable, and aligned with technical standards.
Agile Product Management
* Apply Agile principles and practices in planning, backlog management, and iteration cycles together with the scrum master.
* Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, reviews, and retrospectives.
* Foster continuous improvement in team processes and delivery.
Stakeholder Engagement
* Collaborate with business stakeholders to understand needs, gather requirements, and communicate progress.
* Translate business objectives into clear product priorities.
* Provide transparency into roadmap progress, delivery timelines, and product outcomes.
Required Skills & Experience
* Experience as a Product Owner, Technical Product Owner, or similar role in digital product development.
* Strong experience managing product backlogs, roadmaps, and Agile delivery processes.
* Ability to break down complex initiatives into structured epics, stories, and deliverables.
* Experience working as part of software development teams.
* Solid understanding of Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, or similar).
* Strong organizational and prioritization skills.
* Communication skills: must be able to articulate product vision, goals, requirements, KPI's to stakeholders and developments teams
* Analytical: ability to assess market trends, user feedback, product performance- to help prioritizing backlog, making data driven decisions and solving complex problems
* Leadership & Collaboration: lead a team towards achieving the product vision, foster collaboration
* Customer Focus: Understand customer (both internal & external) needs and preferences and translate these insights into actionable features
* Strategic thinking: ability to align product development with longer term business objectives, includes understanding market dynamics, competitive landscape and complex business needs
Technical Understanding
* Working knowledge of software development concepts and system architecture.
* Ability to engage in technical discussions with developers and understand trade-offs.
Comfortable working with technical documentation, APIs, integrations, and platform capabilities.
Key Attributes
* Strong product ownership mindset and accountability for outcomes.
* Clear communicator who can bridge business and technical teams.
* Structured thinker who can translate complex ideas into actionable work.
* Proactive problem solver with a focus on delivery and quality.