• Ref# 3694
• Product Manager

Contact:   Catie Rhines
Location:  Northwest Suburbs of Chicago

Description

As a key member of the Business Team, the Product Manager is responsible for a segment of the company's mobile Internet software products. The overriding goal is to create competitive solutions with differentiated features and functionality to ensure maximum customer satisfaction and retention. The successful candidate's responsibilities will include the following:
• Develop and maintain the product strategy for his or her products: identify customer requirements, maintain a deep understanding of competitive offerings, manage/influence internal and external development and creative resources, write marketing and product requirements documents for new products, manage the product lifecycle, roadmap and vision, and recommend product pricing.
• Drive product programs: play an active role in cross-functional product team meetings, closely track engineering, guide product trade-off decisions, and ensure successful, on-schedule product development.
• Evangelize the product both internally and externally: communicate the business rationale and ROI behind product decisions, create and/or contribute to effective messaging for product launches, present and position product information to customers, and provide the sales organization with product collateral as required (e.g. roadmap, presentations, sales tools, and training materials).

Responsibilities

• Define and communicate product strategy based on customer interaction, market research, competitive analysis, and technology roadmaps
• Lead the translation of customer needs into viable application architectures and solutions
• Author detailed Marketing Requirements Documents (MRDs) and Product Requirements Documents (PRDs)
• Develop project plans to meet company goals and update milestones in a timely manner
• Facilitate effective communication in a cross-functional team environment comprised of developers, designers, product managers, test engineers, technical writers, business teams, etc.
• Facilitate delivery of the "whole product solution" on time and within budget; help ensure timely deliver of each component of the product / solution
• Provide continuous visibility into relevant project status, risks, and issues as they arise
• Identify & plan team process improvement initiatives
• Cooperate with sales and marketing to develop go-to-market plans and oversee all market launch initiatives
• Develop concise and meaningful presentations for internal and external audiences, including key customer presentations, education and training of staff, training of support groups, and symposia and trade shows
• Collaborate with Marketing on product positioning, value proposition, market segmentation, and prospect qualification
• Conceive and flesh out new product concepts with management, business development and engineering
• Manage your portfolio of products throughout the entire product lifecycle

Qualifications

• BS degree (or equivalent) in Engineering, Computer Science, MIS, or Sciences
• 4+ years of product marketing/management experience in a software product company
• Experience with BREW, J2ME and/or Internet technologies is a plus
• Proven ability to influence the activities of others in planning, organizing, scheduling, monitoring and evaluating
• Team player in a demanding, fast-paced environment
• Excellent organizational skills and proven analytical, planning, problem solving and decision making skills
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills
• Excellent time management skills with the ability to handle multiple projects simultaneously with minimal supervision
• Demonstrated ability to set priorities
• Desire & ability to learn and apply new skills / technologies quickly
• Interested in the challenge, excitement, and responsibility of a fast-paced, growth environment

Other Considerations

• Requires a willingness to travel 20% of the time on average interfacing with customers.
• Must be willing to work extensive overtime on occasion as customer demands require.
• Skilled in using common Microsoft Office software, including but not limited to Outlook, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word.
• Competitive base salary + bonus commensurate with experience

Compensation:  80 - 100K