JOB PURPOSE
The Product Manager will be responsible for the product vision, planning and execution throughout the product lifecycle. Gathering and prioritising market / customer requirements and working closely with product, sales & marketing teams to ensure growth, revenue and customer satisfaction goals are met.
PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTABILITIES
The accountabilities include:
- Understanding and managing customer experience, identify and fill product gaps and generate new ideas that grow market share and drive growth
- Analysing consumer needs, market trends, and potential partnerships
- Product and business-planning process across cross-functional teams of the organisation
- Analysing product requirements and develop appropriate programs to achieve success
- Creating clear technical specifications from business requirements, developing project scopes, objectives and milestones, involving all relevant stakeholders (internal and external) and ensure technical feasibility
- Working with the team to define the product road map and ensure that this is effectively communicated to partners/suppliers.
- Managing partner and supplier relationships and working with them to ensure that the product phases are delivered on time and user-centric.
- Ensuring the features of the product meet the customers needs and prioritising a positive user experience / business benefit.
- Working closely with research colleagues and agencies to help gather and evaluate data to ensure a continuous and rigorous evaluation for the products at all stages of development, including live products.
- Tracking and communicating project statuses and identify, address and escalate potential setbacks and risks
- Ensuring iterative, user-centred, and agile approaches are employed as appropriate, leading to products that are tightly focused on customer needs and value.
Working with the team to set up and manage new processes, including management of partners and suppliers, ensuring that processes are carried out efficiently and deliverables produced to the highest levels of quality and accuracy at all of the stages, following standard procedures and to pre-established schedules.
To maintain a culture of systematic process review looking to standardise and homogenise processes as much as possible therefore maximising process efficiency, cost effectiveness and flexibility of resources.
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & EXPERIENCE
Qualifications
- Bachelors degree in Engineering, Computer science or related field with relevant IT skills,
- Training/experience in product management highly desirable
- Relevant training/experience in innovative, user-centred approaches to product implementation
Skills
- Strong project management skills
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills
- Strong strategic thinker
- The ability to work in a large matrixed, multi-national team with multiple stake-holders on high-profile projects
- The ability to manage budgets and report in a product development context.
- Strong analytical and problem solving skills
- Proven ability to multi-task, be flexible and work hard, both independently and in a team environment, in a high pressured environment with changing priorities
- High attention to detail and quality of work
Experience
Essential
- 5 + years of product management experience
- Knowledgeable about emerging digital / EdTech trends
- Considerable experience of working under pressure to demanding deadlines
- Extensive experience of managing outsourced/partner driven creative work
- Understanding of best practice principles for digital development across multiple devices and platforms
- A proven track-record in the development and delivery of digital learning products
Desirable
- Experience of working on a Learning Management System including managing content development
- Substantial knowledge/experience of working in education in a global and digital education context
- Experience of setting up new functions for an international company would be advantageous.
- Experience in different SDLC methodologies including Agile
- Extensive experience of managing complex projects in a large and complex organisation
- Experience working in a technological role with proven experience in delivering end to end IT projects
Behaviours
- A professional manner and high levels of personal diplomacy
- A positive attitude and willingness to work with ambiguity.
- A strong work ethic and commitment to meet challenging timelines.
- Capable of building strong relationships and developing successful partnerships
- Display a great determination to get things done effectively and to deadlines.
- Takes initiative on finding novative solutions to meet and exceed targets.
- A can-do attitude with a willingness to turn your hand to anything to ensure that project goals are reached.
- Adaptable and collaborative hands-on approach to problem solving.
- Good team player and self-motivated
