Description

JOB SUMMARY

As Director of Product Strategy, you will assume a pivotal role that shapes and refines the direction of the company's chemical product portfolio. This role encompasses a blend of market analysis, strategic planning, and product development, alongside ensuring product lifecycle success and fostering cross-functional collaboration. This requires a deep-dive into market trends, industry influences, behaviors, customer needs and competitive dynamics to forge distinctive paths for our products. You will manage the product lifecycle, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements, defining the product vision, and working closely with R&D, sales and marketing to deliver winning products.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Product Strategy and Vision: Develop clear and compelling product strategies aligned with the company's overall goals and vision. Synthesize diverse inputs, including nuanced market trends, detailed customer insights, and competitive dynamics, to craft a comprehensive strategy for our building products.
• In-Depth Market Analysis: Conduct thorough market research to identify customer needs, preferences, and pain points. Tap into industry trends and stay up to date on regulations, and technological advancements that could impact the product's success.
• Product Development: Collaborate with, laboratory, R&D, marketing, and manufacturing teams to translate product ideas into tangible offerings. Drive the end-to-end product development process, from ideation and development to product realization and testing.
• Product Value Proposition Definition: Create detailed product requirements that outline features and benefits, application process expectations, and performance criteria. Ensure that these requirements are well-communicated to the development team and other relevant stakeholders.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with cross-functional teams, including engineering, design, marketing, sales, and supply chain, to ensure a smooth product development and launch process. Facilitate communication and alignment between teams.
• Roadmap Planning: Work closely with R&D, sales and marketing to establish development and launch timelines.
• Financial Analysis: Analyze the financial aspects of the product, including cost of production, pricing strategies, and revenue projections. Monitor product profitability and make recommendations for pricing adjustments if needed.
• Go-to-Market Strategy: Collaborate with marketing and sales teams to create, develop and execute effective go-to-market strategies for new product launches and related messaging, marketing materials, and sales enablement tools.
• Manage Product Rollout: Coordinate product launches, including organizing product launch calls, training, demos, presentations, and promotional activities. Establish KPIs, monitor launch success and gather feedback for continuous improvement.
• Customer Engagement: Engage directly with customers through regular field visits and discussions. Gain a deep understanding of customer needs and desires by working with field sales to gather feedback and identify opportunities for product improvements. Use customer insights to drive product innovation.
• Performance Monitoring: Continuously track product performance using relevant metrics such as sales data, customer satisfaction, and market share. Identify areas for improvement and take corrective actions when necessary.
• Competitive Analysis: Watch competitive products and strategies closely, dissecting their strengths, weaknesses, and perceived impact on our business. Utilize these insights to sharpen our product market positioning and identify new opportunities.
• Product Lifecycle Management: Manage products throughout their lifecycle, including assessing when to update, enhance, or retire products based on market demand and technological advancements.
• Risk Mitigation: Identify potential risks and challenges that could impact the product’s success. Develop contingency plans to mitigate these risks and ensure smooth product development, launch and lifecycle processes.
• Stakeholder Communication: Keep stakeholders informed about product developments, updates, and performance. This includes regular communication with executive leadership, team members, and external partners.

Qualifications

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES

• Market and Industry Knowledge: A deep understanding of the industry, market trends, customer behaviors, and competitive landscape is crucial for making informed product decisions.
• Customer Understanding: The ability to empathize with customers, gather insights, and translate those insights into actionable product features and improvements.
• Technical Proficiency: This role should have a good grasp of the technology and engineering principles related to the product to effectively communicate with technical teams.
• Business Acumen: Understanding of business concepts such as revenue models, cost structures, profitability analysis, and market positioning.
• Product Lifecycle Management: Knowledge of product development stages, from ideation to end-of-life, and how to manage a product at each stage.
• Data Analysis: The ability to interpret and analyze data to make informed decisions. This includes using analytics tools and understanding key performance indicators (KPIs).
• Strategic Thinking: The ability to develop a clear product strategy aligned with overall company goals and adapt it based on changing market dynamics.
• Communication: Effective communication skills to convey ideas, requirements, and strategies to cross-functional teams, executives, and external stakeholders.
• Problem-Solving: The capability to identify problems, analyze root causes, and develop creative solutions to overcome challenges.
• Project Management: Strong organizational skills to manage projects, set priorities, establish accountability measures and meet deadlines.
• Negotiation: The skill to negotiate and influence decisions among various stakeholders with differing priorities.
• Decision-Making: Ability to make well-informed decisions, often under uncertainty, by weighing pros and cons and considering potential impacts.
• Innovation: Develop unique solutions and bring innovative ideas to the product development process.
• Collaboration: Work effectively with diverse teams, including engineering, design, marketing, sales, and customer support.

WORKING CONDITION & ENVIRONMENT

• Job operates in a professional office or home office environment.
• This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as computers, mobile phones, photocopiers, scanners, iPads, and digital cameras.
• Occasional evening and weekend work may be required as job duties demand.
• Travel outside local area may occur with occasional overnight stays. Travel via air may be required periodically.

 TECHNOLOGY REQUIREMENTS

• 365 Office Suite and presentation software
• Customer Relationship Management CRM Software
• Project Management software

EDUCATION - CERTIFICATION

BS Degree (professional or business management specialty) or greater than 15 years of experience in related field.