SUMMARY:
Our client, a leading Global ICT and Managed Services Provider is looking for a Product Manager (Hybrid Networks) to join their team.
POSITION INFO:
Product Manager – Hybrid Networks
- The Product Manager is a senior position in the Product Management job family, operating at a country level. They are required to own and drive the regional product strategy depending on the requirements of the business and where applicable align to a Global Product Strategy. The primary responsibility of the Product Manager is to use their market, client, industry and technology focus to provide context to the strategy for new / existing products / offers within Practice portfolio. The objective is to ensure that the portfolio remains relevant, sustainable, competitive and compelling within the markets / industries that they serve.
Own and Drive Product Strategy
- Product Managers are responsible for developing and executing against a Product Strategy. This would include extensive data driven research into Client, Market, Technology, Legislation and industry trends, this data is used to drive continuous improvement in the existing product portfolio and invention of new products for the market. A successful product manager conducts continuous research to grow their market knowledge and develop market insights. They apply this knowledge when formulating robust product strategies for products in their Practice.
- The Product Manager will work with relevant country and regional business colleagues to cascade the global product strategies into region and business divisions.
- They socialize the product strategy with key stakeholders at a regional and country level and provide advice to relevant teams on demand generation activities that align to market requirements and opportunity.
Define Market Opportunities
- Product Managers are the market and technology domain experts within the company with respect to a particular product category.
- They work closely with Marketing and their Sales (Geography and GTM) colleagues to perform client, competitor and market analysis. They gather data to identify product and client requirements that are required to identify opportunities and to de ne the product roadmap.
New Product or Enhancement Concept Initiation
- Defined market opportunities will initiate a process of new product or new enhancement introduction. Product Managers utilize market, client, industry and technology data to develop concepts for new products / offers. Similarly, they will work with stakeholders and incorporate client feedback to identify enhancement concepts for existing product that will generate proficiencies and growth in the value propositions. They own the production of opportunity statements, articulate the value proposition.
Contribute to Product Concept Feasibility Investigation
- Product Managers determine the feasibility of value proposition design concepts for development of new product / offers. The Product Manager provides input during this stage in terms of expertise, research (data) and design ideas. They define and develop product specifications. It is the responsibility of the Product manager to work with the commercial function to ensure all new products / offers are embedded into a sustainable and scalable business model.
Product Development Process
- They work closely with the Service Development and Enablement, as part of a cross functional Agile team, ensure that the product / offer is Ready for Sale (RfS), Ready for Pilot (RfP) and General Availability (GA) in the identified regions:
- Influence regional resource planning, sales target coverage and hiring to ensure sufficient support in the sales and delivery process.
- Own the on-boarding and communication of product updates.
- Serve as the primary point of contact between the company’s region and the global Managed Service and Consulting Service product management and development team where the product is a global offering.
- Localize any global product collateral (value proposition slide decks, order forms and contracts, welcome pack, sales cheat sheet, proposal templates etc.), with regional marketing support.
- Take responsibility for ensuring a robust the Quote-to-Cash proves is in place by identifying the gaps and enhancements required are identified and closed during the Product Development Process
Product Lifecycle Management and Monitoring
- Product Managers takes responsibility for the definition, monitoring and management of the lifecycle roadmap for each product in their portfolio. They ensure that current features and benefits are appropriately aligned to the product definition, market requirements and evolving client needs. A client focus is imperative and the regular engagement with Client Services Managers to understand service performance and client satisfaction as input to service delivery, product management, and performance measurement processes.
- Product Managers are responsible for taking the above input as part of the continuing product evolution, product enhancements, the introduction of new product features and functions and the retirement of certain products or variations to ensure product relevance and competitiveness. They oversee the development and manage the scope and trade-offs where new products are introduced to your portfolio or changes are made to exiting products.
Client Focus and Sales Performance
- The Product Manager is expected to provide support to Sales teams however, The Product Manager will be required to:
- Early identification of Trial and Pilot clients to ensure we have the required momentum to launch the offering sustainably.
- Mentor territory sales and solution architect teams to ensure enablement and achievement of best practice sales approaches.
- Build and manage the pipeline of sales opportunities for the product.
- They will support the regional marketing and demand generation activities through the provision of advice to the regional teams.
- Proactive sales drive of identified clients in the targeted market segments to ensure the prospecting for opportunities is taking place in these clients.
- Have deal oversight and involvement in strategic opportunities and manage them to deal wins and case studies.
- Providing subject matter expertise in Client engagements and content for RFPs / RFIs.
Engage with Technology Partners
- Technology Partners are an important element creating the right product / offer and the Product Managers are expected to maintain a strong relationship with Technology Partner. The Product manager is expected to engage Technology Partners to ensure the following:
- Leveraging Technology Partners access to market information and foresight to contribute to market analysis and roadmap formation.
- Contribute to vetting the suitability of vendors and leverage partners / alliances and suppliers as elements of the product value chain.
- Obtaining, in conjunction with Alliance and Commercial Managers, the best commercial terms
- Leveraging the Technology Partner as a potential sales channel by ensuring alignment to Partner objectives and incentives.
- Extracting additional Marketing value by working with the GTM Marketing team to build joint go-to market campaigns to build awareness and pipeline.
- Ensure Employee Enablement
- These individuals ensure organisational readiness by preparing communication and training collateral and ensuring the training of Sales and Service staff. Working with Marketing, Learning and development(L&D) to deliver relevant training to Sales, Solutions and Services functions.
- Product Managers ensure that the relevant internal stakeholders are educated on new or enhanced product offering to enable sales and world-class delivery thereof.
Monitor Product Performance
- They work with Sales and Marketing functions to assist with analysing current market trends that ensures the company delivers product that are relevant to clients and the market. This is achieved by conducting market research and by specifying market requirements for current and future products supported by ongoing visits to clients and vendors. Working with global product managers, they develop and implement a regional and country go-to-market plan and strategy, assisting internal stakeholders to understand the product positioning, key benefits and target clients / industries. They conduct post-launch assessments and track customer satisfaction. These individuals reassess industry movements and re-evaluate competitor actions. They conduct win-loss studios based on sales opportunities and analyse the product profit and loss over the short, medium and long term. Based on findings analysis, evaluation and audits, the Product Manager works with the product marketing team to improve the product marketing strategy and to improve promotional programmes.
Contribute to Product Pricing Strategies
- Product Managers work with other stakeholders to understand the full set of input costs and market factors in influencing the price of their product/s and for setting optimal product pricing. They establish, develop and maintain product-pricing models. They contribute to concepts about promotional techniques and develop and maintain sales and distribution channels as appropriate.
Requirements:
- 5 to 10 years’ experience in a similar role within the IT sector
- Relevant Bachelor’s degree
- Extensive systems integration experience
Should you not receive a response from us within one week of your application, your application has unfortunately not been successful.
You can visit our website for more vacancies: www.wePlace.co.za / Facebook page @wePlace / LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/company/wePlace/
NB! This job is now closed. You can apply for other jobs by uploading your CV.
