Sep
23
Product Manager
September 23, 2020 | Comments Off on Product Manager
PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT MANAGER - DECORATIVE INTERIOR & EXTERIOR HARDWARE, FIXTURES & FITTINGS
Salary: c£50000 - £60000 plus benefits
This fast growing and acquisitive client wish to strengthen their product offering with a Product Manager responsible for development of new decorative interior and exterior hardware, fixtures and fittings including mechanically engineered products. You will focus on developing and delivering a pipeline of new product development to time scale and product life cycle management for customers, in the OEM housebuilding/construction, building trade and DIY/hardware distribution sectors. This would be within three-year rolling launch plans.
Your experience may have been gained within a Product Management role in one of these sectors or in aligned sectors such as furnishings and other home/domestic products, fixtures and fittings. You will take full ownership and responsibility for your designated product portfolio and will deliver continued commercial success of those products by managing them according to their stage within the product lifecycle. You must have experience of NPD from 'cradle to grave'.
The Role
* Evaluate and co-ordinate product portfolio to evaluate market trends and feedback from customer research to identify gaps in the current product portfolio with a view to superseding existing products and introducing new products and new product category strategies.
* Be the go-to-person in the business for new product ideas, actively promote this and make yourself available to encourage idea generation across the business.
* Keep abreast of product developments within our client's specific OEM & Distributor sector and amongst its competitors. Use this intelligence to identify new product opportunities.
* Develop project proposals to be considered for entry into the product development process, paying close attention to cost, price and margin and for projects that merit. Progress work closely to the Prince2 product development and Stage Gate processes to deliver products in a timely, high quality and financially compelling manner.
* Monitor project status and communicate to the rest of the business including at Board level.
* Work closely with cross functional colleagues in Marketing, Design & Technical, Manufacturing, Quality, Sales & Commercial to ensure stringent validation approvals against the product design where necessary.
* Monitor the evolving needs of customers and the sales teams to ensure that projects are being treated with the right level of priority at any given time.
* Work with sales, procurement and supply chain to establish initial order quantities and with marketing to deliver a fully featured launch process and collateral and also prepare training material in relation to the new product and ensure it is delivered to all relevant parties.
* In partnership with the sales team and technical teams, stay close to early adopters of new products and gather feedback on experiences of the product feeding back improvements to the design team. Feedback positive comment to the sales and marketing teams to incorporate in pitches/marketing material.
* Conduct a ground up review of the product portfolio understanding the detail and intricacies of the range. Rationalise legacy and obsolete products, classify remaining products and create an action plan for each by revisiting features and benefit and re-launch to the sales force or investigate opportunities for VAVE or replacement.
* Build a category development strategy for the product portfolio and manage all products accordingly including looking for opportunities to reduce the size of the portfolio, categorise & bundle product ranges, review opportunities for VAVE, re-energise products by modernising packaging, manage changeovers and ensure terminated products are sold off profitably.
* Create excitement across the business when stock is available in order that the products are more likely to be talked about to customers by the sales team.
* Be fully involved with colleagues in Marketing to deliver fully featured product launch.
Undertake all training of sales/commercial colleagues so that they are fully au fait with product specifications, features and benefits.
Your Background
* Educated to degree level with a strong track record in product management, ideally but not exclusively, gained within the mechanical hardware/components sector focussing on OEM housebuilding, construction, building trade, DIY/hardware sectors or similarly aligned sectors such as larger home furnishings, double glazing, windows, doors, security systems, kitchens, bathrooms, tiling flooring, garden furniture, architectural or other metal products.
* Aesthetically strong, style conscious and very experienced in analysing and evaluating consumer and market trends in home décor, furnishings and fittings, translating them into fantastic new products.
* Must have experience of NPD from concept to launch as well as product portfolio
* management and product lifecycle management through to termination. This is not a pure marketing or design role however you will be working closely with colleagues in Marketing and Design.
* Must include experience of undertaking VAVE/Value Analysis and Value Engineering to ensure that products can realistically be designed and developed and launched into the market at price points which meet market requirements and profit margin targets.
* May have experience of new packaging design and categorisation of products into compelling product bundles for customers.
* Strong strategic analysis and planning skills and an impressive portfolio of new product development from concept to launch.
* Experienced in presenting value propositions to senior executive level both internally and externally with key account clients.
* Experience of working with design and manufacturing colleagues in both the UK and potentially the Far East/Internationally.