About Education Software Solutions

Education exists to Inform, Engage, Empower, Everyday. Our job is to help make this happen.

As the largest provider of education management software in the UK, we influence the lives of over one million people every day. Our aim is to empower educators, parents and learners to deliver the best school and learning outcomes possible. We do this with a range of web and mobile (iOS, Android) products which are built on the SIMS management information system.

What we want

We’re looking for a Product Manager who will take accountability for the full cycle of product management, from opportunity assessment, business case development and ideation, through delivery and ongoing product management including performance for a product (or product components) in the Education Software Services (ESS) portfolio.

You will be responsible for the customer and business outcomes of your product and focus on building a product that meets users and market needs whilst acting as the centre-point between product delivery teams and broader functional groups including Sales & Marketing.

To do this, you’ll build a deep understanding of the education market and the customers you are serving including schools, local authorities, technical partners, parents and students.

Your immediate focus will be on the future of our SIMS MIS product as we shift to iterative, cloud-based, SaaS improvements on the incumbent on-premise product (SIMS 7). The purpose of this role is to evolve the product and ensure its product-market fit into the future: to ensure we progress in an outcome-oriented, data-informed and lean manner to create a proposition across various sub-segments within the schools landscape, increase relevance and develop a product that customers love.

Responsibilities

  • Use insights, data, trends, problem-definition and validation to define the vision, product strategy, and intended outcomes for your product/service, demonstrating alignment to the wider portfolio vision and business objectives
  • Support the Head of Product to manage the wider product through the lifecycle from concept through delivery and maintenance
  • Alongside Product Design, develop a deep understanding of the needs of your users, their needs and pain-points based on market insights, user research and product analytics
  • Own and continuously develop an outcome-oriented roadmap and product positioning
  • Continuously define and measure success in the context of business vision
  • Own value prioritisation, enabling your cross functional team to break down and deliver iteratively for the highest customer and business value
  • Build relationships with and influence internal and external stakeholders, understand their needs, effectively managing their expectations and defining a common vision
  • Continuously promote best product practises within the ESS product community to foster new ways of working and ensure we deliver successful products

Key Skills & Experience

  • Demonstrable experience in the management and ongoing development of a B2B SaaS product
  • Ability to drive a culture of collaboration and user-centricity with a clear focus on our intended customer outcomes and achieve commercial targets
  • Experience leading product within agile, customer-centric, data-informed, quality-obsessed, cross-functional delivery teams, eager to coach Product team members in this area
  • The ability to actively listen to, empathise with and develop an expert understanding of the customer and market needs. Champion these in the delivery of your products
  • Extensive experience of product evaluation, user experience, discovery methods and lean and agile development
  • Adept at developing a strong product strategy and outcome-oriented roadmap within a wider digital ecosystem
  • Proficient at taking insights from analytics to inform next steps and presenting clear commercial data
  • Excellent presentation and story-telling skills with proven ability to influence and drive alignment across an organisation from senior management level to engineering, customer success and beyond

The role is home-based with occasional travel to our Bedford office.