Product Manager

About ANN INC.:
 At ANN INC., WE GET WOMEN. Real women live ever more complicated lives. They juggle more activities, play more roles and carry more expectations. But what women value is what they have always valued: connecting with others, making smart choices, looking and feeling great. Living life fully means women choose to play all their roles with confidence and style.
 That is why we’re here.
For more than half a century, we have evolved with the needs of real women who live full, active lives. Our values are her values. We get that a woman expresses herself through what she wears – at work, at home and at play. To meet her needs, we design pieces for her life and her changing roles to help her look and feel confident and beautiful. We create rich experiences that connect with her wherever she is, inspire her style and simplify her choices.
 
About the Position
Based out of our New York Corporate Offices, the Manager – Product Manager is responsible for helping to guide the strategic evolution of the AnnTaylor.com, LOFT.com and LouandGrey.com websites. 
 
The ideal candidate will have a strong background in E-Commerce, mobile, social and digital.  This person will perform competitive analyses, identify business opportunities, develop ROI cases, champion projects through the approval process, write functional specs, develop wireframes and manage user testing. 
 
Post the launch of new features, this person will measure business impact and make ongoing recommendations to drive conversion.
 
This position requires partnership and constant communication with business leaders and cross-functional partners throughout the organization. This position will report to the Sr. Manager of E-commerce Product Management and Operations.
 Responsibilities:
  • Act as a client advocate, ensuring the best possible digital client experiences.
  • Work with cross functional business partners and teams to identify new feature sets or technology and develop business plans and approaches to achieve goals.
  • Accountability for understanding the business processes and operational activities both internal and external in order to drive analysis of current state and make recommendations for enhancements and process improvements.
  • Contribute to ongoing E-commerce and mobile product roadmap ensuring mapping out releases and ensuring timely delivery of projects.
  • Research, and analyze new business opportunities in the digital space.
  • Define the project management work flow and lifecycle for all initiatives.
  • Responsible for developing of key business documents such as detailed functional specifications, including business rules, use cases, and user flows.
  • Work with the cross functional teams across the company to make sure all parties understand the initiatives and what implications the project may have to their teams.
  • Monitor progress of projects through the development cycles.
  • Partner with QA Manager in the development of user acceptance testing cycles for each project to ensure that new site features match original functional specifications.
  • Measure the effectiveness of website features by leveraging analytics and A/B testing to refine performance over time.

Assume budget responsibilities and communication to internal and external parties to ensure project is delivered on time

Requirements:
  • BA/BS degree in relevant field of study, required
  • 5-7 years’ experience within the E-commerce and digital space. 
  • Retail E-Commerce, Mobile,  Social or Multi-channel experience preferred
  • User Experience Design experience is a plus.
  • Proven business analysis and project management success
  • Ability to manage multiple projects and requests simultaneously under high pressure and tight deadlines. 
  • Excellent verbal and written communication skills
  • Passion for Product Management  & Retail – Champion Product Management throughout the org, identify areas for process improvement, educate partners on Product Management, continuous learning on Digital, Retail, Product Management, etc. 
  • Strong Quantitative and Analytical Skills – Can break down complex problems using both quantitative and qualitative data
  • Data-Driven Decision Maker – Able to define goals and KPI’s for all initiatives and measure their success
  • Cross-functional collaborator and influencer – Able to use data to influence decisions
  • Self-motivated and results-oriented – Takes full ownership of product roadmaps to drive both near and long term strategies
  • Ability to partner effectively in a highly matrixed organization
  • Ability to manage a team and provide leadership and guidance
  • Adobe Analytics knowledge a plus
  • Experience working in Agile/Lean Startup processes a plus
  • Expert in Microsoft Project, Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Visio required.