Product Manager

Introduction
At IBM we’re building products that transform industries and change lives. As a Product Manager you’ll play a critical role in shaping the future of our software solutions. Our team values innovation collaboration and customer obsession – qualities we look for in every candidate.

The Hyper Blue program which sits under the IBM Software BU is an internal start up program and hence we work differently. We take innovative ideas from a blank page to develop a prototype move it to a POC and if commercially viable make it generally available all in a matter of months. This is achieved with limited resources as the teams work in an agile fast paced and empowered environment.

Our team is now looking for a Product Manager who wants to drive the Market analysis and Product strategy of our products in our product portfolio. This position will work with Design and Development to create and deploy competitive offerings. This position will also work with Sales to win competitive opportunities. This position will also work with Marketing to position the product in market and drive pipeline/growth as well as work with all key Geos to drive business and market understanding. This position will also have interactions with multiple cross-functional teams and be required to have strong communication and organizational skills. As the person will be product managing a portfolio of products this will be a challenging exciting and stimulating role.

Your Role and Responsibilities
Product Manager Market Analysis and Product Strategists are responsible for defining Business problems user experiences / pain points relevant technologies competitive intelligence Market financials: size growth rate market share % and Market trends.

As a Product Manager you will:

1. Define Product Strategy: Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to define product vision strategy and roadmap. Understand user needs market trends and competitive landscape to inform decision-making.
2. Prioritize and Roadmap Planning: Develop own and maintain the product roadmap and backlog prioritizing features and enhancements based on impact risk and value. Create detailed release plans and milestone tracking.
3. Collaborative Prioritization: Facilitate stakeholder alignment through workshops presentations and written communication. Manage expectations and tradeoffs between different stakeholders.
4. Requirements Gathering: Own requirements gathering working closely with engineering design and research teams to create clear concise and actionable user stories. Validate assumptions and hypotheses through user testing interviews and surveys.
5. Go-to-Market Strategy: Drive launch planning coordinating marketing sales and support efforts. Monitor KPIs and adjust strategies as needed to optimize performance.
6. Metrics and Performance Monitoring: Define and track key product metrics such as churn rate net promoter score and usage patterns. analyze data to identify areas for improvement and communicate insights to relevant stakeholders.
7. Stakeholder Communication: Serve as the primary point of contact for internal and external stakeholders managing relationships and ensuring timely updates and feedback loops.
8. Continuous Improvement: Stay up-to-date on industry best practices emerging technologies and competitor activity. Identify opportunities for optimization and automation driving continuous improvement across the product lifecycle.

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science or engineering.
• 3+ years of experience in software (or engineering) product management
• Demonstrated experience in defining and driving processes at scale across large organizations.
• Organizational and collaboration skills with a demonstrated history of successfully defining and driving initiatives that span multiple organizational boundaries.
• Excellent writing and presentation skills.
• Demonstrated experience in presenting and reporting to leadership teams.
• Demonstrated ability in successfully delivering initiatives with varying levels of ambiguity.
• Demonstrated experience in the entire software development lifecycle. Understanding of application development is a plus.
• Strong problem-solving and analytical skills combined with a strategic orientation.

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• MBA or Masters in Engineering preferred.
• Passion for driving increased efficiency across teams in multiple multinational locations.