What are the responsibilities and job description for the Product Manager, INK Solutions position at Associa?
We are seeking a Product Manager to help build and scale Associa’s ink business (currently operating as "ink Print Mail"). The Product Manager, Ink Solutions will work with ink leadership to define and maintain the mission and vision of the ink business and develop the long-term product strategy to deliver on Associa’s pillars: employee morale, customer retention, customer growth, and profitability.
The PM, Ink Solutions will guide software, workflow, and operating platform development to grow and deliver profitable revenue from existing print and mail business, as
well as potential future offerings such as signage, apparel, promotional products, and more.
This role requires a blend of:
- software product management
- Lean manufacturing mindset
- physical goods operations
- customer-facing product ownership
The ideal candidate can translate customer needs and production realities into:
- scalable workflows
- product requirements
- operating dashboards
- measurable business outcomes
The ideal candidate is comfortable constantly moving between:
- strategic thinking
- tactical execution
…while influencing a cross-functional team to move in the same direction.
The PM must be adept at engaging with key teams and stakeholders — from Finance, Marketing, and Legal to IT and more — to enable execution of the full business plan.
This is a hands-on builder role in an early-stage business inside a larger enterprise. The PM must be comfortable:
- creating structure where it does not yet exist
- writing requirements
- building operating mechanisms
- walking production workflows
- analyzing data
- driving execution without a large dedicated product team
Qualifications:
Required Qualifications
- Bachelor’s degree
- 4 years of product management experience
- 2 years of experience in product operations, manufacturing systems, ecommerce operations, fulfillment technology, or workflow software
- 2 years of end-to-end product delivery experience
- Experience owning and driving roadmap strategy and definition
- Experience with feature delivery and making product tradeoffs
- Experience contributing to engineering discussions around technology decisions and product strategy
- Experience managing technical products or online services
- Experience representing and advocating for a variety of critical customers and stakeholders during executive-level prioritization and planning
- Experience translating operational processes into software requirements, user stories, dashboards, workflows, or automation tools
- Experience working with manufacturing, print, fulfillment, mail, kitting, warehouse, or physical goods operations
- Working knowledge of Lean principles, including value stream mapping, root cause analysis, standard work, waste reduction, visual management, and continuous improvement
- Ability to define KPIs, business requirements, process maps, product requirements, and acceptance criteria
- Strong Excel and analytics skills; familiarity with Power BI, SQL, ERP, MIS, WMS, OMS, CRM, or workflow tools preferred
- Ability to work daily in-office in Richardson, Texas
Strongly Preferred Experience
- Print-on-demand, commercial print, mail services, decorated apparel, signage, promotional products, or fulfillment experience (e.g., Amazon Merch on Demand, Printful, Cimpress/Vista, Shutterfly, FedEx Office, or similar models)
- Experience with print MIS, production workflow software, order management systems, ERP, WMS, or ecommerce platforms
- Familiarity with print technologies such as digital print, toner/inkjet, wide format, DTG, DTF, embroidery, finishing, inserting, mailing, or kitting
- Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen, Toyota Production System, or operational excellence experience
- Experience building dashboards for production, SLA, quality, margin, and customer adoption
- Experience defining integrations between customer-facing order intake, production workflows, billing, vendor management, and reporting systems
- Experience in customer-facing product development, including defining, launching, and optimizing products and services
- Experience working across teams and influencing teams that are not your own
- Experience managing products involving strategic partnerships and third-party integrations