Product Manager in Cleveland(Permanent)

Job Description:  

Summary

Manages activities necessary to ensure achievement of strategic revenue and profit objectives for a specific product or product family, both current product and new/developing products. Pro-actively drives the entire product life cycle, including conception, definition, development, release, and post-release activities. Provide lead role in the planning and design of a product/product family to ensure differentiation from competitors. Evaluates, specifies, and manages product programs for assigned accounts. Establishes business requirements and defines product requirements. Provides product marketing leadership and direction.

Duties and Responsibilities

1. *Rapidly analyze and appraise identified new product development opportunities.

2. *Determine functional requirements, User needs, probable benefits and product feasibility.

3. *Ascertain all relevant data structures and linkages as they affect usage requirements. Identify market research requirements, develop research objectives, and coordinate the research effort as it relates to specific programs.

4. *Work closely with sales and marketing areas to determine all necessary components of a successful product roll out and lead the organization to deliver these. Generate official "Marketing/Product Requirements Statement" documents for program funding.

5. *Support the development of product business plans and coordinate with engineering and other functional representatives assigned to the product team to define the program objectives as required to secure management approval for program funding.

6. *Support new product or new market initiatives during proposal stage, before they are assigned to a Product Manager.

7. *Working within established project management guidelines and procedures, provide leadership and coordination to the product team throughout the design, development, launch and life cycle of assigned products.

a) Working with project manager, establish the project plan, which encompasses an assessment of the state of the technology proposed for the product and qualified objectives, within timelines, for each of the various contributing functions represented on the project team, to assure planning and executing the specifications, development delivery, marketing and field support of the product.

b) Provide continuing product application consultation and support to marketing and the field for products assigned.

c) Participate in identification of, and propose opportunities to improve existing products, and/or profitably develop new ones.

d) Participate in trade shows, seminars, or other forums and stay current on product application technology and competitive activity.

8. *Manage multiple product lines concurrently.

9. Perform other miscellaneous duties as assigned.

Job Qualifications

1. Four-year college degree. Technical or business degree preferred.

2. Demonstrated product management skills, combined with proven competence and effectiveness in analyzing user needs, defining product requirements and launching new products.

3. Understanding of technical reference documentation applications and data structures.

4. Ability to work in a "matrix" environment and handle multiple concurrent assignments.

5. Willingness to travel.

6. High energy level, capable of effectively supporting sales and interacting with customers, results-oriented and the ability to handle unstructured or unexpected situations.

7. Ability to rapidly conceptualize and thoroughly document electronic document.

8. Understanding of software development processes. Product planning background in computer systems or high tech environment.

9. Ability to speak, read and write French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Cantonese, or Korean is an added bonus.

Essential Functions

Duties and responsibilities noted with an asterisks(*) are considered to be essential functions of the position.

Non-Negotiable Criteria:

1. Requirement Process - Effectively drives the requirements management process; reviews product requirements with stakeholders across the organization for accuracy and completeness.

2. Customer Focus – Maintains close contact with customers and customer facing personnel in order to continually enhance company’s understanding of customer requirements.

3. Pricing/Revenue/P&L – Understands the costs of building, publishing and maintaining products; effectively quantifies the value of products and product enhancements; works closely with Sales in determining product pricing; takes action to continuously improve product profitability.


EOE-M/F/V/D