The Product Manager – Electric Metering Solutions is responsible for managing, developing and driving profitable business growth for the North American Electric Metrology product line and its related accessories. This role manages their products through the whole lifecycle by gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product roadmap, creating the value proposition and working closely with RD&E to deliver and introduce winning products to the market in close collaboration with the sales teams. This position is responsible for developing and executing strategies to maximize product line profitability including; managing strategic and market pricing, defining value-engineering priorities, targeting products to be discontinued and performing competitive analysis. This role is also responsible for working with marketing to promote and develop content for training and marketing
Essential Duties/Principal Responsibilities:
Defining the product strategy
- Develops the product roadmap covering product positioning and value proposition per product line to serve as input into product development resource allocation, business development and communications
- Manages the execution of the multi-year roadmap for the product line including; new product development, value improvements, product introductions, ongoing marketing, product support and service
- Collaborate effectively with Vertical Marketing team to develop local launch plans that will empower sales (product launches, application areas, product brand thought leadership) by approving when being consulted and informed and contributing. This role is also instrumental in providing content development
- Assigns and take ownership of the XPD process by actively driving and participating in the tollgate process: by developing the business case, PAR, product specification etc. with the understanding of customer and market needs
- Understands and specifies market requirements and market and technology trends for current and future products by conducting product related market research supported by Voice of Customer received through on-going visits to customers and other stakeholders
- Framing the vertical offer, in a collaborative way with key stakeholders, by packaging the product, solutions and services e.g. developing offer per application and framing applicable value proposition per vertical.Monitors competition with respect to market performance, product portfolio and product performance
Sales and Profitability
- Understanding and providing data for the S&OP forecast, If targets are not met execute on the countermeasures
- Collaborates with local Sales and Marketing teams to understand rationale behind wins and losses and market trends; Carefully follows up sales, orders and standard margin with the aim to reach targets, if not identify and drive actions to close the gap
- Provide strategic pricing guidelines across markets.
Lifecycle Management
- Manage the product life cycle (launch to end-of-life) strategy and execution including identifying “sweet spot” applications in the market verticals by ensuring competitiveness of products (costs, features, price) by developing relevant business cases for decision making
- Manage the entire product life cycle through phase-out and being responsible for keeping its assortment competitive and give ideas for Value Engineering initiatives
- Having a broad understating of the competitors in the industry on a high level financial level as well as product offering
- Drive and execute product launches according to the product marketing launch process in close collaboration with the Vertical Marketing, Commercial Teams and Communications. Being responsible for resource allocation, keeping the time line and all preparation to do a proper launch in time e.g. strategic pricing, product availability, training material and plan, information in product selection and configuration programs, communications material etc.
- Work closely with engineering and operations to identify and execute value engineering opportunities within the products and tools.
- Provide pricing guidelines across markets.
Guardianship & Support
- Day to day product support
- Participates in technical meetings, conferences, workshops, industry days, trade shows and association events
- Active participation in the development of sales tools and ensure its product data is updated
- Accountability for the technical performance of the products as defined in the product specifications
- Work closely with Vertical Marketing to generate and manage product and application content (brochures, technical data, white papers, the website, etc.)
Branding
- Develop business cases, when required, as the foundation for product brand decisions
- Thought leadership activities (e.g. white papers) by developing content and/or presenting
- Develop appealing, and when possible a quantified, value proposition which is validated through market research, voice of the customer, and other data inputs
- Collaborates with Sales, Vertical Marketing, and R&D to drive next generation value propositions by a rigorously understanding of the VOC
- Develop complete internal communication package e.g. product release notes
Minimum Qualifications: Education, Experience, Skills, Abilities, License/Certification:
- Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering or Computer Science from an accredited institution, or equivalent field experience.
- A Master’s degree in Business Administration is desirable
- A minimum of 5 years’ experience within product management roles
- Experience in the electric utility industry is desired
- Demonstrated experience working in an international environment in a matrix organization
- Demonstrate excellent computer, communication, presentation, management and analytical skills.
- Be able to resolve difficult technical and business issues.
- Be a self-starter with high motivation to achieve goals.
- Strong interpersonal, teamwork and problem-solving skills in order to effectively work with customers, business partners, staff and management from a variety of skill levels as well as different authority levels.
- Ability to understand technical issues and understand impact on projects, and effectively communicate these issues and impact to direct reports as well as other project stakeholders.