Product Manager

Job Description                                                                                                               

Key Responsibilities

The Product Manager’s key responsibilities include:

Research and Analysis

• Research market conditions for a new or modified product
• Identify competitor products, pricing and comparatives
• Identify opportunities for product innovation
• Participate in client meetings from time to time
• Participate in sales meetings to identify trends, frustrations and opportunities
• Analyse existing products for product market fit, commercial viability, and that the product is technologically current

Commercial Evaluation

• Calculating the cost of new product development or modification per product
• Building a sophisticated business case on Excel for any new product, ensuring that breakeven analysis in terms of volume required is understood by the business
• Identifying the commercial risks inherent in the development of the new product
• Building Excel models for understanding the business case for certain products
• Determining and presenting the required price of the product relative to cost, competitor pricing, commercial requirements, and market affordability

Stakeholder Management and Integration

• Establishing very strong relationships with the sales team to understand their objectives, sales context, constraints, client demands, and frustrations, in order to create products that meet their client’s needs but still remain commercial and true to Raizcorp’s requirement for all products to have real impact
• Establish very strong relationships with the marketing team to understand the marketing process, timelines, constraints and capabilities, in order to ensure that all marketing components of building a new product are planned and costed correctly
• Establish very strong relationships with the learning department team to understand the learning content creation (physical, blended and digital), the timelines to create and modify content, the department’s constraints and capabilities, in order to ensure all learning components of building a new product are planned, and costed correctly
• Establish very strong relationships with the delivery department team to understand how the product is being, or might be delivered. It is important to understand the practicalities of delivering (executing) a product so that products are well designed for practical use and effectiveness
• Establish very strong relationships with the efficacy department to ensure that products are designed with relevant and practical measurement metrics in mind
• Establish very strong relationships with the selection department team to understand how the users of the product, the entrepreneurs, are required to be selected to be an ideal fit for the product. By understanding the selection process, the Product Manager will ensure the smooth integration of the selection process and the newly designed product. The Product Manager will also be required to price the selection process and design bespoke selection processes as and when required
• Establish very strong relationships with the SADA department to ensure that the product is easily integrated into the Raizcorp systems such as REMS and Enguage
• Establish very strong relationships with Beacon and Prosperator Managers to be able to get first-hand feedback on product resistance or ease of adoption from both Raizcorpians and Raizcorpuscles
• Establish very strong relationships with the typical customer and user of the products to ensure that there is a full understanding of needs, resistance and pricing
• Define the end-to-end client value proposition per product
• Build the take-to-market strategy together with the head of sales and head of marketing
• Work with the finance department to ensure all products are provided unique GL codes as required
• Be responsible for the creation of all bar codes as and when required

Product Education and Launch

• The Product Manager is responsible for the launch of all new products to the business and public where applicable
• The Product Manager works with the sales and marketing departments when launching any new product
• Create, and or manage the creation of all training material for training Raizcorpuscles, and Raizcorpians if required
• Provide input into all sales and marketing collateral related to the new product
• The Product Manager may be required to travel across all Raizcorp branches (Prosperators and Beacons, etc) to provide training or to launch the new product. This includes both local and international travel
• The Product Manager will be required to train Raizcorpuscles on new and existing products
• The Product Manager is required to have impeccable understanding of all Raizcorp products, how they work, how they are categorised and how they are applied. To this end, the Product Manager will be required to write and pass product tests on an annual basis and achieve no less than an 80% pass mark

Product performance review and reporting

• Designing the performance metrics and monitoring process for each product or category
• Monitoring the key metrics and reporting on those metrics, as well as providing insights based on the metrics
• Providing input to Opal reporting slides on a monthly basis
• Providing reporting to the line manager as and when required by the departmental rhythm and reporting cycles
• Providing feedback to all stakeholder departments on the product performance on a regular basis
• Analyse and report on client behaviour, queries, and complaints with recommendations on how to improve the product or service delivery based on the analysis
• Reviewing marketing material that pertains to product
• Provide input into the Component (Lego) Review Committee regarding the creation or modification of product components (Lego Pieces)

Product maintenance

• The Product Manager is required to accurately and timeously upload all products and backlog products into the REMS Vanadium module, and ensure that all products that are modified or iterated are kept updated in Vanadium
• The Product Manager is required to ensure that the product matrix is 100% completed for each and every product within the Raizcorp
• The Product Manager is responsible for the quarterly release of the Price List for each Raizcorp Division
• Responsible for the Product Map being accurate and up to date
• Responsible for the version control of each product and product matrix content

Job Specification

Skills, Competencies & Minimum Criteria

• B.Com or similar
• Masters level degree / MBA an advantage
• Minimum 4 to 5 years experience in product design or product management
• FMCG or Software product management experience an advantage
• Strong understanding of business strategy and business finance 
• Excellent written and spoken communication ability
• Exceptional organisational and administrative skills
• Strong business acumen
• Strong project management skills
• Exceptional interpersonal skills
• Intermediate to advanced level Microsoft Excel, Word and Outlook required. 
• Own vehicle with valid driver’s licence non-negotiable 

Behavioural Competencies

• High emotional intelligence with a real passion for developing people
  • Empathy
  • Work as a member of the team
  • Build and maintain effective working relationships
  • Strong solutioning capability
  • Out-of-the box thinking and creativity
  • Good attention to detail and accuracy
  • Ability to work under pressure
  • Open to change and to new opportunities to learn
  • Not afraid of confrontation
  • Not afraid to speak in public
  • Ability to take constructive criticism and take corrective action to make improvement
  • Strong emotional maturity and ability to take ownership and accountability
  • Able to travel nationally and internationally 

Intensive Training Requirement

• This role will require 3 months of intensive training that requires the candidate to study intensely to master the role’s requirements. 
• There will be training, self-study, multiple quizzes, shadowing and observations in the first three months with a final long form assessment that is required to be passed with an 80% or higher score in order to be deemed competent within the role. 
• Beyond the initial three-month period there will be continuous professional training that is required to be attended, assessed and all relating assessments must be passed to the same 80% competency requirement.