Senior Product Manager

Overview

Location: Hannover, Germany

Job Purpose

This role is responsible for managing the Soundbar category.

The job holder manages the different products throughout their lifecycle and holds end-to-end accountability for timely delivering products that meet the needs of our target audiences, building winning go-to-market plans and leading the collaboration with the different functions (R&D, Marketing, Sales, Supply, Finance, Purchasing, Consumer Insights). Essentially, the PM is like the General Manager of his / her business, looking at the full picture and creating 360 plans (Technical, Commercial, Marketing) to deliver sustainable growth.

Primary Job Responsibilities

• Develop in-depth understanding of end-user needs, use cases and market dynamics
• Articulate clearly the target customers we’re designing for, the value proposition and our right to win with them
• Drive necessary regional or global consumer research to build product definition and strategy alignment with Product Marketing
• Manage product/ portfolio (lifecycle) and roadmap management incl. turnover planning, portfolio efficiency analysis and identification of tactical activities (product refresh / minor tweaks, create a concept for commercial initiatives to be executed during the big promo events…)
• Define the total product experience to deliver the best value proposition, including product design, packaging experience, pre / post purchase activation
• Collaborate with R&D and Design to find the best compromise between the customer’s product experience, time to market, product cost and resource needs
• Create the product story that will feed the Marketing strategy
• Manage the commercial part of the different projects (market landscape analysis to identify the opportunities, define price / promo strategy, align volume forecast with regional teams)
• Monthly forecasting and demand planning in partnership with the Supply team
• Assess acoustic product performance during development as well as competitor products
• Highest level of customer support (share knowledge with the customer support team to maximize their ability to answer most questions, and help answer remaining expert questions)
• Support the sales organization with product training & advice at exhibitions and product events

Additional Job Responsibilities

• Track online reviews to check quality of current products in market
• Identify and work with strategy external partners (technologies, manufacturers, suppliers) in a dynamic market environment
• Stay in touch with relevant key opinion leaders, industry insiders and influencers
• Constantly monitor the competitive offer and analyze their performance
• Manage external relationships with:
  • Suppliers to co-design new products
  • Suppliers who manufacture current products
  • Industrial Design agencies to develop product look & feel
  • Sound virtualization software provider
  • Streaming platforms to secure compatibility with our products
• Manage internal relationships with:
  • R&D
  • Marketing
  • Supply Chain
  • Global & Regional Sales
  • Consumer Insights

Your profile

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Engineering, Acoustic Engineering, or related field
• Strong technical, analytical, project management, and stakeholder communication skills.
• Excellent communicator
• Strong team player, balancing various stakeholders
• Fluent in English, German is a plus
• Willingness to travel for projects (approx. 10% of the time)
• End-consumer focus
• Good understanding of how the Trade works (i.e. distributors, retailers) to build winning propositions for them
• International & cultural experience and/or sensitivity
• 10+ years of experience in Product Management / Development, preferably in Consumer Electronics.
• Experience and in-depth understanding & passion for Consumer Electronics / soundbars / headphone end-user market & trends