Commercial Product Manager

Reed Business Information brings market leading brands to an audience of millions of decision makers worldwide through its multi-platform media of data services, online lead generation services, community websites, magazines and events. Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. Reed Elsevier is a world leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors.

Job Purpose:
RBI operates a two-role product management function of Commercial Product Managers and Technical Product Managers working in close partnership.

The Commercial Product Manager is responsible for the full lifecycle of a product opportunity – mapping markets, identifying meaningful audience segments, discovering unmet needs, sizing commercial opportunities and working with our product and technology teams to shape, position and launch software and data products.

This is a market- and customer-facing role which will build an encyclopaedic knowledge of both farming and the supply chain – the opportunities and challenges, the dynamics between customers and suppliers and the landscape of competitors.

The role reports to the Digital Director and will collaborate closely with teams in research, marketing, product development / technology and sales.

Regular travel within the UK will be a feature of the role.

Key Accountabilities/Responsibilities:
• Market – Understand the existing and potential customer base and their needs, review competitive threats and assess product opportunities. Define customer segments.
• Business – Demonstrate the commercial viability of current and future products to deliver profitable solutions to recognised market needs.
• Strategy – Creating a product roadmap to meet the customers’ needs and the company’s growth strategy.
• Planning – Specify the requirements for product success with the use of client/user personas and workflows. Position the product in the market around the attributes that are valuable to our customers. Collaborate with the Technical Product Manager role to define user experience and features as buildable software.
• Programs – Create go-to-market programs aligned with the customer and business needs.
• Readiness – Ensure the organization’s ability to sell and support the company’s products including pricing strategy and usage data analysis.
• Support – Support the sales teams with market and product expertise.
• Succession – Coordinating the appropriate decommission and replacement product strategy if/when required

Skills / Experience Required:
• This is a customer facing role and experience of consultative sales and/or business planning and/or project management is essential.
• Balancing a complex and varied workload requires a self-motivated and highly organised individual
• Working with different departments everyday including sales and marketing, industry experts and IT departments requires an articulate and engaging communicator.
• Experience of Online Data Subscriptions is an advantage but not essential
• Training and/or knowledge of formal product management technique is desirable but not essential
• A detailed knowledge of technology or IT development processes is not required for this role.

RBI General Benefits Package:
• Competitive Salaries
• Group Pension Scheme
• 29 Days Holiday
• Paid Charity Days – 2 days per year
• Save As You Earn Share Scheme (SAYE)