The Product Manager will serve as part of a team that is responsible for delivering new and innovative products to the students, customers, and end-users of Northeastern University. This position will embrace industry-aligned best practices in product management and evidence-based, best-in-class learning experience design for Northeastern University. This individual will be responsible for driving solutions and implementing requirements to support the growth of Northeastern products to our global university system.
The Product Manager, in conjunction with a Senior LX Designer, is responsible for leading the development and delivery of captivatingly rich, learner-centric learning experiences, from non-credit learning modules to full academic course experiences. In this capacity, the Product Manager leads this development through a cross-functional, heavily-matrixed product team that serves as a primary delivery vehicle for full-cycle product development from ideation, design and development, quality assurance, deployment, and delivery, to maintenance. This team will work cross-functionally in a matrixed environment to support the pipeline of new and revised products for the OEL team. A product team will also include a Sr Learning Experience (LX) Designer and an Assistant Project Manager who will, together with the Product Manager, lead the active development of the portfolio. In addition to the core team, a product team may include one or more instructional designers, multimedia development staff (videographers, animators and graphic artists), as well as significant human resourcing from a vendor partner and through Northeastern contractor resources ‘the Network’ and additional cross-functional team support from Technical Services group, the Quality Assurance team, and other OEL operational services.
This role presents significant technical, analytical, and leadership opportunities with enormous potential for business impact. Successful candidates will be entrepreneurial and creative problem solvers who are able to lead high-performing cross-functional teams that bring their vision to reality. Candidates must feel comfortable both working with the “big picture” strategy while also being able to dive deep into the specific details of a product while simultaneously defining and communicating front-line vision as a key leader within Northeastern University.
This position reports and works in close collaboration with the Senior Director of Product Management.
This person will be responsible for and/or demonstrate the following skills or experiences:
- In collaboration with peers, leadership and in consultation with the design team and creative team, manage a portfolio of products to ensure timely completion of design and learning experience projects, while maintaining a high-quality end product. Proactively implement needed updates, changes, upgrades as necessary to ensure the design process is on the cutting edge of best practices in online course development in higher education and supports the mission and goals of the global university system.
- In close partnership with the Project Management team, provide strong project management skills to ensure appropriate resource allocation and the on-time design, development and launch of programs and courses in market.
- Engage and foster relationships with academic leaders, faculty and campus community. Troubleshoot issues as they arise at any point in the program development process.
- Experience with instructional design approaches, evidenced-based design and experiential learning approaches for online (design, development skills, knowledge and application of evidence-based approaches, research and trends) or experience working in the EdTech industry strongly recommended.
- Demonstrate strong interpersonal communication skills, enthusiasm, positive attitude, ability to communicate with peers and colleagues around difficult and challenging discussions in an objective and proactive manner
- Develop with team and leadership innovative systems for monitoring academic quality, student engagement and student success in assigned programs.
- Engage and foster relationships with faculty and campus community. Troubleshoot issues as they arise at any point in the program development process.
- Working closely with faculty training and support team, identify and support faculty development needs.
Qualifications:
This position requires a Bachelor’s degree in Product Management, Instructional Design, Educational Psychology or a related field and or demonstrated equivalent work experience. Background in a traditional academic discipline with specialization in the field of online design preferred although professional experience can be an equivalent. The candidate must have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in higher education with a track record of innovation with learning technologies and an understanding of learning science principles and technology trends. He/she must be able to work strategically with many constituencies, peers, faculty, students, campus administrators, and leadership, etc. Teamwork and strong organizational and interpersonal skills are essential. He/she must have the ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment, and the ability to understand the online design processes. Thorough knowledge and experience with best in class approaches to online learning required.