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Roles & Responsibilities

Overview

Detailed role descriptions and accountabilities for the Kinana development team. Each role is defined with clear responsibilities, deliverables, and decision-making authority.


Executive Leadership

CEO - Ibtikar Edu Tech Solutions

Primary Focus: Strategic direction and company leadership

Core Responsibilities

  • Set company vision and strategic direction
  • Product portfolio management (including Kinana)
  • Resource allocation and budget approval
  • Stakeholder and investor relations
  • Final approval for major product decisions
  • Business development and partnerships

Key Decisions

  • Product launch timing and market strategy
  • Major budget commitments
  • Strategic partnerships and contracts
  • Organizational structure changes

Deliverables

  • Annual strategic plan
  • Budget approvals
  • Board presentations
  • Executive sponsor for key initiatives

Working Relationships

  • Direct Reports: Product Manager (Kinana), other division leads
  • External: Board, investors, strategic partners
  • Frequency: Weekly sync with Product Manager

Product Development Team

Product Manager

Primary Focus: Product vision, roadmap, and stakeholder management

Core Responsibilities

Product Strategy

  • Define and communicate product vision
  • Develop and maintain product roadmap
  • Prioritize features and enhancements
  • Conduct market research and competitor analysis
  • Define go-to-market strategy

Requirements & Documentation

  • Write Product Requirements Documents (PRDs)
  • Define user stories and acceptance criteria
  • Maintain product backlog
  • Document product decisions and rationale

Stakeholder Management

  • Manage CEO expectations and reporting
  • Coordinate with YHT EdTech Division leadership
  • Engage with pilot customers and education partners
  • Present product updates to stakeholders

Team Leadership

  • Lead sprint planning sessions
  • Make priority decisions for development team
  • Resolve feature scope questions
  • Coordinate design and development efforts

Business Operations

  • Manage product budget
  • Track licensed software renewals (ABP.io, Nutrient)
  • Coordinate compliance activities (IP governance)
  • Support sales and marketing (pre-launch)

Key Decisions

  • Feature prioritization and roadmap
  • Sprint scope and commitments
  • PRD approval and sign-off
  • User experience direction (with Designers)
  • Resource allocation requests to CEO

Deliverables

  • Product Requirements Documents (PRDs)
  • Product roadmap (quarterly updates)
  • Sprint objectives and success criteria
  • Stakeholder presentations and reports
  • Budget and resource planning documents

Working Relationships

  • Reports to: CEO
  • Manages: Design Team, Software Team
  • Collaborates with: All team members, external stakeholders
  • Communication: Daily availability, formal weekly CEO sync

UI/UX Designer(s)

Primary Focus: User interface design and user experience optimization

Core Responsibilities

Design Execution

  • Create high-fidelity mockups and prototypes
  • Design UI components for design system
  • Develop visual design language and brand consistency
  • Create icons, illustrations, and graphic assets

User Experience

  • Design user flows and journey maps
  • Create wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes
  • Conduct usability testing and gather feedback
  • Iterate designs based on testing results

Collaboration

  • Work with Product Manager to understand requirements
  • Coordinate with developers on implementation
  • Participate in sprint planning and reviews
  • Provide design specifications and assets to developers

Platform-Specific Design

  • Shell: Navigation, layout, branding
  • Library: Document browsing and reading interface
  • Videos: Video player and content discovery
  • Podcasts: Audio player and podcast management
  • Brokkly: Visual coding interface and tools

Key Decisions

  • Visual design direction and aesthetics
  • UI component patterns and consistency
  • User interaction patterns
  • Accessibility considerations

Deliverables

  • Figma (or similar) design files
  • Design specifications for developers
  • UI component library and design system
  • Usability test reports and recommendations
  • Style guides and brand guidelines

Working Relationships

  • Reports to: Product Manager
  • Collaborates with: Software Team (especially frontend)
  • Communication: Daily via Teams, design reviews in sprint planning

Solution Architect

Primary Focus: Technical architecture, system design, and code quality oversight

Core Responsibilities

Architecture & Design

  • Define overall system architecture (microservices, micro frontends)
  • Design integration patterns across 22 repositories
  • Make technology stack decisions
  • Create architectural documentation and diagrams
  • Evaluate and select third-party platforms

Code Quality & Review

  • Final approval authority for all code merges
  • Review pull requests for architectural consistency
  • Ensure adherence to coding standards
  • Identify and prioritize technical debt

Infrastructure & Operations

  • Design Azure Kubernetes infrastructure
  • Plan deployment strategies and CI/CD pipelines
  • Configure staging and production environments
  • Oversee security and performance optimization

Technical Leadership

  • Provide technical guidance to development team
  • Resolve complex technical challenges
  • Mentor developers on architecture and patterns
  • Stay current with technology trends and best practices

Vendor & Platform Management

  • Manage ABP.io commercial license and relationship
  • Oversee Nutrient/PSPDF integration
  • Evaluate new tools and platforms
  • Technical liaison with vendors

Key Decisions

  • Technology choices (frameworks, libraries, tools)
  • Architectural patterns and system design
  • Infrastructure configuration (Azure, Kubernetes)
  • Code merge approval (all repositories)
  • Security and performance standards

Deliverables

  • Architecture documentation and diagrams
  • Technical design documents
  • Infrastructure as code (Kubernetes manifests)
  • Code review feedback and approvals
  • Technical debt register and remediation plans

Working Relationships

  • Reports to: Product Manager
  • Collaborates with: Senior Developer, entire Software Team
  • Authority: Final technical decision-maker
  • Communication: Daily standups, ad-hoc technical discussions

Senior Developer

Primary Focus: Feature implementation and deployment execution

Core Responsibilities

Development

  • Implement features across frontend (Angular) and backend (ABP.io)
  • Write clean, maintainable, testable code
  • Develop across multiple repositories as needed
  • Integrate third-party libraries and APIs

Code Review

  • Review peer pull requests
  • Provide constructive feedback
  • Ensure code quality standards
  • Share knowledge through reviews

Testing & Quality

  • Write unit tests for code
  • Perform local testing before pushing to staging
  • Debug and fix issues
  • Conduct code walkthroughs with team

Deployment & Operations

  • Execute deployments to staging environment
  • Coordinate production deployments (when live)
  • Monitor deployment health and performance
  • Maintain CI/CD pipeline

Infrastructure Access

  • Manage Azure staging environment (with Solution Architect)
  • Configure Kubernetes deployments
  • Troubleshoot infrastructure issues
  • Support macOS setup for future mobile development

Technical Documentation

  • Update README files in repositories
  • Document complex implementations
  • Maintain inline code comments
  • Contribute to technical wikis

Key Decisions

  • Implementation approach (within architectural guidelines)
  • Commit and merge timing
  • Bug fix priority and approach
  • Local environment configuration

Deliverables

  • Feature implementations (code)
  • Unit tests and test coverage
  • Pull requests with clear descriptions
  • Deployment execution and validation
  • Technical documentation updates

Working Relationships

  • Reports to: Product Manager
  • Collaborates with: Solution Architect (closely), QA/PM, Designers
  • Communication: Daily standups, ad-hoc pairing sessions

QA / Project Manager

Primary Focus: Quality assurance testing and agile sprint management

Core Responsibilities

Quality Assurance

  • Develop test plans and test cases
  • Execute manual testing in staging environment
  • Perform regression testing
  • Identify and document bugs in GitHub Issues
  • Validate bug fixes
  • Coordinate user acceptance testing (when applicable)

Sprint Management

  • Facilitate sprint planning sessions
  • Maintain GitHub Projects Kanban board
  • Track sprint progress and velocity
  • Identify and escalate blockers
  • Coordinate daily standups
  • Organize sprint reviews and retrospectives

Process Documentation

  • Document development processes
  • Maintain process documentation (like this document set)
  • Create and update checklists
  • Track process improvements from retrospectives

Release Coordination

  • Coordinate release planning
  • Track release readiness
  • Compile release notes
  • Validate release criteria
  • Provide QA sign-off for deployments

Team Coordination

  • Schedule meetings and manage calendars
  • Facilitate team communication
  • Track action items from meetings
  • Support onboarding of new team members

Key Decisions

  • Test acceptance criteria met/not met
  • Sprint readiness for review
  • QA sign-off for deployments
  • Process improvements from retrospectives

Deliverables

  • Test plans and test cases
  • Bug reports in GitHub Issues
  • Sprint progress reports
  • Meeting facilitation (standups, planning, reviews, retros)
  • Process documentation
  • Release readiness reports

Working Relationships

  • Reports to: Product Manager
  • Collaborates with: Entire team (cross-functional role)
  • Communication: Daily coordination, meeting facilitation

Shared Responsibilities

All Team Members

Agile Participation

  • Attend and participate in sprint ceremonies
  • Maintain GitHub Issues and Kanban board
  • Provide status updates in daily standups
  • Contribute to retrospectives and process improvement

Documentation

  • Keep code and documentation in sync
  • Update README files as needed
  • Document decisions and rationale
  • Share knowledge with team

Quality Focus

  • Write quality code and designs
  • Test own work before handoff
  • Provide constructive feedback in reviews
  • Support team quality goals

Communication

  • Respond to Teams messages promptly
  • Raise blockers early
  • Share progress and challenges openly
  • Maintain professional collaboration

Decision-Making Framework

Escalation Path

  1. Developer Level: Implementation details, commit timing
  2. Solution Architect: Technical approach, architecture, code approval
  3. Product Manager: Feature priority, scope, resource allocation
  4. CEO: Strategic direction, budget, major decisions

Consensus-Based Decisions

  • Sprint commitments
  • Process changes (from retrospectives)
  • Tool selection (for team productivity)
  • Deployment timing (daily coordination)

Last Updated: November 2025
Version: 1.0

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