Group Benefits Product Manager

at  Sun Life

You are as unique as your background, experience and point of view. Here, you’ll be encouraged, empowered and challenged to be your best self. You’ll work with dynamic colleagues - experts in their fields - who are eager to share their knowledge with you. Your leaders will inspire and help you reach your potential and soar to new heights. Every day, you’ll have new and exciting opportunities to make life brighter for our Clients - who are at the heart of everything we do. Discover how you can make a difference in the lives of individuals, families and communities around the world.

JOB DESCRIPTION:

The Product Manager is key to the strategic development, launch and management of our Group Benefits products. This includes developing strategies, creating business models, building new products, and enhancing existing products to advance the Sun Life Health Solutions mandate and overall market development and growth strategy
Working with key stakeholders, the purpose of this position is to determine and execute on the product strategy to successfully launch products to the market while improving tools for plan sponsors, plan members, plan advisors and business development.
In this role your primary focus will be on Disability-related products. You will also be expected to have a good understanding of our entire range of products and services. Responsibilities may extend to product manager work outside of the Disability product line, based on synergies with other products and areas of focus.

QUALIFICATIONS

• Minimum 5 years of experience in the insurance industry, with a focus on Disability Insurance, encompassing both product and operational aspects
• Knowledge of Prevention, Extended Health Care, Dental and Life suite of products
• University degree, ideally in Health-related studies, Marketing or Business.

Main Accountabilities:

• Develop strategic plans for our products and solutions, helping to develop and deliver the product vision to plan sponsors and key internal stakeholders
• Define, set, and drive the vision for product-related experiences
• Define and execute on the product roadmap
• Understand the market, trends and competitive landscape
• Gather plan sponsor and plan member insight, translating insights into recommendations
• Validate product plans and ensure a smooth implementation for internal business units and out into the market for any new releases or enhancements
• Intake product customizations and determination of how to roll them into the product roadmap
• Provide product training and support to internal stakeholders and partners
• Build effective relationships across key partners and teams, including Group Benefits Operations, Business Development, IT, Finance, Legal, Risk, and Marketing and Communications.
• Analyze competitive intel including client feedback, trends and product performance to determine changes required to the product roadmap

Main Accountabilities:

• Develop strategic plans for our products and solutions, helping to develop and deliver the product vision to plan sponsors and key internal stakeholders
• Define, set, and drive the vision for product-related experiences
• Define and execute on the product roadmap
• Understand the market, trends and competitive landscape
• Gather plan sponsor and plan member insight, translating insights into recommendations
• Validate product plans and ensure a smooth implementation for internal business units and out into the market for any new releases or enhancements
• Intake product customizations and determination of how to roll them into the product roadmap
• Provide product training and support to internal stakeholders and partners
• Build effective relationships across key partners and teams, including Group Benefits Operations, Business Development, IT, Finance, Legal, Risk, and Marketing and Communications.
• Analyze competitive intel including client feedback, trends and product performance to determine changes required to the product roadmaps

Innovation

• Proactively identify and assess solution opportunities (new or modified) and develop product strategies, considering client needs, competitive intelligence, and market disruption.
• Contribute to the development of the GB product strategy and initiative roadmap by recommending features and services required to maximize the client and product value proposition
• Lead product delivery using a lean MVP (Minimum viable product) and participate in development of strategies, business models, and business cases (where applicable) to execute delivery of the initiatives
• Manage master Epic-level backlog, innovation concepts / pilots, and produce recommendations to leadership teams on how to prioritize and execute
• Proactively analyze trends in results and client insights to recommend strategies for ongoing benefits realization following implementation of initiatives
• Actively engage in Sun Life’s Digital Enterprise model – delivering outcomes in alignment with the product development and delivery methodologies

Product delivery

• Manage and deliver product initiatives through support: planning; business value-based prioritization; resource & stakeholder management; execution; issue escalation and resolution; risk & financial management; communication and KPI management

Relationship management

• Nurture effective relationships with internal stakeholders to evolve product strategies and business/product models
• Foster relationships with external health care stakeholders and potential strategic partners to evolve opportunity analysis and business model development. Where required, support formalizing partnerships with external stakeholders through contract development and related due diligence activities
• Actively participate in the preparation for, and delivery of, client presentations and meetings, and support RFI / RFP content development as needed

Project management

• Develop strong project plans to support product initiatives
• Own documentation of product related information, ensuring it is current, relevant, and meeting the needs of the BU and partners
• Own outcomes related to project and capability delivery, client experience, market impacts, and our overall team strategy