Lead Product Manager

Job Description

We have a position for a Lead Product Manager with one of our clients in Draper, UT for an initial contract duration of 7 months. No third party candidates considered for this position.

Primary Responsibilities:

Strategy/Discovery:                                                                                                            

• Perform market assessments and create an in-depth understanding of user needs by persona to ensure appropriate direction of impacted products. Assess competitive landscape and determine the most efficient course of action to achieve goals.
• Conduct problem discovery activities, both qualitative and quantitative, to understand user pain points and determine opportunities for new solutions.
• Establish concise value statements, objectives, and key results for product initiatives that will guide the organization and delivery teams in measuring success.

Planning:

• Create and maintain product vision and roadmap, including development of go-to-market strategy and value-proposition messaging. Provide relevant, timely and easily consumable updates to all internal and external audiences.
• Manage the full product lifecycle to ensure that the needs of internal and external customers are met. 
• Coordinate in-market tests, experiments, pilots, and product launches to support in-flight data initiatives.

Development:

• Build an effective partnership between Product & Engineering, collaborating with Product, User Experience, Engineering, and Architecture teams to execute work.
• Serve as the “voice of the customer” to the team and delivery stream by representing and reinforcing the customer’s perspective throughout product realization cycles.
• Provide clear direction to delivery teams on defined product priorities and schedules, in collaboration with product leads and the release train cores
• Ensure delivery of value-added functionality to users by partnering with Engineering to build solutions.

Relationship Management & Client Engagement:

• Partner with product managers, business stakeholders to understand needs, create alignment, and gain adoption of new functionality to solve their needs.   
• Lead change management and training endeavors necessary to launch and propagate use of a product to its customers.
• Identify communication and relationship needs of stakeholder groups, translating engagement strategies into specific activities and deliverables. 
• Facilitate open communication and discussion between stakeholders, acting as a single point of contact. Conduct informed feedback loops to assess and promote understanding.
• Negotiate solutions between parties effectively and for the best of Cox Automotive; be autonomous and make decisions without oversight when appropriate 

Innovation & Evaluation:

• Assess product performance against KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and adjust to improve performance; create and deliver thoughtful information to influence key market constituents.
• Manage innovative ideas and a pipeline to prototype on them. Encourage and facilitate communication and open flow of creative ideas between interested parties and the set-up of innovation efforts related to the product.

Top 5 Must Haves:

• High technical skill level,
• Experience with data mapping,
• Experience in building APIs,
• Any project management experience a plus.
• Experience with understanding and refining technical specifications.

Qualifications:

• Required Knowledge, Experience & Education:
• Bachelor's Degree in Business, Marketing, Engineering, Communications, or related field; Masters degree preferred
• 7+ years experience in product development; or equivalent combination of education and work-related experience.
• Proficiency in Human Centered Design principles and Design Thinking techniques, including LUMA methods
• Proficiency in Salesforce platform capabilities, including demonstrated experience with designing, implementing, and advocating for solutions utilizing the Salesforce platform
• Requires and applies comprehensive knowledge of business, product maturity and performance, and industry principles, practices, and procedures.
• Working knowledge for SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) Agile Methodology.
• Actively seeks out new knowledge for own personal development and the mentoring or coaching of others.
• Develops a wide breadth of knowledge across industry or business.
• Applies knowledge to help to define the standards which others will apply.
• Working experience in design, development, and implementation of product plans.
• Working experience in full product lifecycle methodologies.
• Working experience in creating, prioritizing, and recommending epics and features.
• Working experience in in conducting competitive research and analysis.
• Working experience in identifying KPI's and other analytics to measure product value.
• Working experience with executive presentations.
• Working experience in a collaborative, cross-functional, and complex team environment
• Certifications are a plus: (Salesforce Certified Administrator; Certified Sales Cloud Consultant; Certified Force.com Platform App Builder).