About the position
The Product Manager is responsible for leading the 4P strategy (product, price, promotion, placement) strategy and full lifecycle management of existing products while also leading market research-scoping-feasibility-development-commercialization-launch of new products with combined efforts to enable growth for SEC. This position will be at the center of the product ecosystem, empowered to make decisions and resolve differences through the process. This position will collaborate with cross-functional teams, including engineering, marketing, sales, finance, sourcing, and customer support, to define product requirements, prioritize features, and drive product success in the market. The Product Manager plays a critical role in understanding customer needs, analyzing market trends, and creating innovative product solutions that meet business objectives.
Responsibilities
- Serves as the leader and owner of assigned product categories responsible for driving profitable growth by serving as the lead for the cross-functional team, leading the 4Ps (Product, Price, Promotion, Placement) by leveraging a commercial, technical, financial, and operational mindset.
- Develops and defends business cases for new product proposals.
- Serves as gatekeeper to stage-gate pipeline while serving as the sponsor for projects.
- Actively engages throughout the new product development Stage Gate process and contributes to deliverables for stage gate decisions.
- Collaborates with engineering, marketing, sales, and operations to maintain a 3-year product roadmap that delivers the corporate strategic objectives.
- Coordinates with marketing and industrial design to conduct consumer research.
- Encourages cross-functional collaboration and re-focuses project managers on delivering programs on time, on-budget and within scope.
- Ensures all product commercialization and launch support tactics are ready for launch.
- Seeks out continuous improvement opportunities by understanding competitor’s value propositions, analyzing quality data, conducting closure/lessons learned analysis and monitoring point of sale activity.
- Sets, monitors, and maintains competitive retail prices.
- Participates with sales and finance in setting retailer program and pricing strategies.
- Perform responsibilities in a manner consistent with Schumacher’s purpose, core values and strategic anchors.
- Regular attendance is an essential function of the job.
- Other duties as assigned.
Requirements
- Natural leadership skills with ability to lead in a matrixed organization.
- Strong diplomacy and excellent communication skills with the ability to present and communicate effectively in front of leadership, board members, owners, and customers.
- Strong business P&L acumen and experience to achieve profitable growth using financial tools, forecasts, reports, data, and Microsoft Office Suite to make decisions.
- Customer-centric approach with a focus on delivering products that meet customer and user needs.
- Skilled at conducting market research, gathering insights, and creating business cases.
- Experienced in determining and setting winning retail/wholesale/e-commerce/2-step distribution prices based on competitive landscapes balanced with internal and customer P&L requirements.
- Strong experience strategically marketing consumer goods in retail omni-channel brick & mortar and e-commerce omni channels: big box, mass, grocery, sporting goods, club.
- Technical aptitude with experience/knowledge/education in manufacturing, sourcing, supply chain, engineering, product development, product design, process improvement.
- Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with a proven ability to improve business processes and practices to reduce costs and increase efficiency.
- Ability to identify and implement best practices and continual improvements.
