Assistant Product Manager

at  ParentPay Group

DESCRIPTION

This Product Manager role is within our SIMS Next Gen team. This is a continuous programme of customer-driven innovation designed to make managing school life easier and more efficient.
With over £40 million of committed investment, SIMS Next Gen will deliver enhanced cloud-based functionality, rich insights and reporting, plus a brand-new user experience. SIMS makes work easier for leaders, teachers and administrators, freeing up time to get on with the business of running a school.
We are a talented team of 9 product managers, 14 product owners, and a product marketing manager. We’re supported by a dedicated team of product designers; we have 14 delivery teams, and we have a strong amigo structure at every level. While this is a remote role, we meet as a team at least once a month, usually in our London office, where we plan, troubleshoot, bond, eat and drink. We are proactive in our professional development, we run a monthly product guild for the group, and we lead development workshops amongst ourselves. Our job is tough, there’s a lot of pressure, but we are a strong, successful and fun team.
We’re looking for an internally facing product manager who will develop and manage the shared services that underpin SIMS Next Gen. You will be accountable for the full cycle of internal product management, gathering requirements from other product managers, writing cost-benefit business cases, maintaining and delivering a proactive roadmap that supports the delivery of Next Gen.
You will focus on building foundational products that meet the needs of product teams now and in the future, whilst acting as the centre-point between product delivery teams and broader functional groups. Product examples include: System audit, user admin, access management, internal API starter packs, infra starter packs, UI kit starter packs, document management system, print components, homepage and navigation IA, service desk tools, external API security and starter packs, data migration for new customers, and much more!
The purpose of this role is to evolve the shared services to support Next Gen as it grows.

SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERTISE

• Demonstrable experience in the management and ongoing development of a B2B SaaS product.
• Ability to drive a culture of collaboration and user-centricity with a clear focus on our intended customer outcomes and achieve commercial targets.
• Experience leading product within agile, customer-centric, data-informed, quality-obsessed, cross-functional delivery teams.
• The ability to actively listen to, empathise with and develop an expert understanding of the customer and market needs. Champion these in the delivery of your products.
• Extensive experience of product evaluation, user experience, discovery methods and lean and agile development.
• Adept at developing a strong product strategy and outcome-oriented roadmap within a wider digital ecosystem.
• Proficient at taking insights from analytics to inform next steps and presenting clear commercial data.
• Excellent presentation and story-telling skills with proven ability to influence and drive alignment across an organisation from senior management level to engineering, customer success and beyond.

• Use insights, data, trends, problem-definition and validation to define the vision, product strategy, and intended outcomes for your product/service, demonstrating alignment to the wider portfolio vision and business objectives.
• Support the Head of Product to manage the wider product through the lifecycle from concept through delivery and maintenance.
• Alongside product designers, develop a deep understanding of the needs of your users, their needs and pain-points based on market insights, user research and product analytics.
• Own and continuously develop an outcome-oriented roadmap and product positioning.
• Continuously define and measure success in the context of business vision.
• Own value prioritisation, enabling your cross functional team to break down and deliver iteratively for the highest customer and business value.
• Build relationships with and influence internal and external stakeholders, understand their needs, effectively managing their expectations and defining a common vision.
• Continuously promote best product practices within the ESS product community to foster new ways of working and ensure we deliver successful products.