Senior Product Manager

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Co; Round Rock (TX); On-site; USD 84,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt seeks a Senior Product Manager to drive the International Core market, defining problems to solve and leading lifecycle, pricing, and go-to-market strategies for global education products. The role emphasizes growth, profitability, and market-fit across international portfolios.

The candidate will collaborate with Core PM&S Directors, oversee market research, and translate customer needs into compelling product requirements and competitive positioning.

Qualifications

• Minimum 4+ years of related industry or functional experience in Educational Technology or Product Management.
• BS/BA in Education or related discipline.
• Experience using lean-agile and design thinking methodologies to develop and launch products.
• At least 2 years’ experience working in an agile development.
• Superior verbal and written communication skills; superior presentation skills.
• Superior inter-personal skills with all levels including senior management.
• Demonstrated conceptual & analytical thinking; vision; leadership & management; prioritization; collaboration; decision-making; negotiation; problem-solving; tactical execution; product & market knowledge.

Responsibilities

• Define market problems and guide product strategy for the international core portfolio.
• Collaborate with Core PM&S Directors on product line planning for international markets.
• Create market and business requirements for new solutions that meet customer needs and revenue goals.
• Lead lifecycle management and pricing strategies for international products.
• Coordinate go-to-market and launch activities with Product Marketing and Sales.

Skills

Product Management

Educational Technology

Lean-Agile

Design Thinking

Leadership

Education

BS/BA in Education

Job description

The Senior Product Manager is a vital resource within the company and is responsible for defining key market problems to solve that are specific to the International Core market to drive customer success, achieve product-market fit, and deliver on business goals. The Core K-12 International Product Manager leads the International Core portfolio with an emphasis on strategic growth/profitability, product positioning and configuration for the international market, and life cycle management.Primary responsibilities include working closely with the Core PM&S Directors on product line planning to ensure our Core domestic products are well positioned for the international market; guiding editorial and technology development of superior, differentiated product; advocating customer/sales needs in the product development process; guiding market research activities; and taking a portfolio view of life cycle management.

Additional responsibilities include participating in creation of business cases, product launch and maintenance activities, and competitive selling support.

• Help identify new market and growth opportunities and develop solutions through business case process. Conduct ongoing market intelligence activities that yield deep customer insights and "jobs-to-be-done" to support new opportunity identification and business case development.
• Manage product planning and development activities for a solution in collaboration with Core PM&S discipline leads and product development teams.
• Create market and business requirements for new solutions that satisfy customer needs and revenue/profit goals.
• Recommend and maintain partnerships and affiliations to enhance marketability of products/product line
• Make recommendations for revisions of and extensions for existing solutions, including product customization, new components, and pricing models.
• Research and report information about market trends, competitive issues and products, customer issues, and sales force needs to stakeholders as directed.
• Anticipate, monitor, and respond to competitive issues. Implement the development of strategic competitive information.
• Set goals for market research activities. Implement efficacy studies, user studies, and pilots.

Business Strategy:

• Perform objective analysis of potential market opportunities to provide a basis for investment, articulating market learnings and quantifying the risk, including a financial model.
• Establish a pricing model, schedules, guidelines and procedures.
• Determine the most effective way to deliver a complete solution to an identified market problem. Where you have gaps in your offering, analyze whether to buy, build or partner to complete the solution for your market.
• Monitor and analyze key performance indicators to determine how well the international portfolio is performing in the market, how it impacts the company operations, and ultimately, how it contributes to profit.

Product Life Cycle Management:

• Analyze financial performance of the International Core portfolio, including investment, revenue, and profitability.
• Analyze and evaluate market performance and positioning of all products within the international portfolio.
• Benchmark performance of products within the Intl portfolio against competition and market; implement pricing plans in line with product strategy.
• Implement tasks in the product launch and sunset process.
• Implement product maintenance plans and manage the phases and gates in the product life cycle.

Planning:

• Position products by their ability to solve market problems – tailored to specific international markets.
• Create internal positioning documents that will be used to develop external messages focused on each key buyer or persona.
• Define the archetypical users of your products or services through user personas.
• Articulate and prioritize personas and their problems through requirements so that the appropriate products can be built.
• Build an effective relationship and team between PM&S and the International Sales and Marketing teams.
• Serve as a checkpoint along the way to provide context and clarification to development; to ensure domestic offerings take international needs and requirements into account.
• Illustrate market problems in a “story” that puts the problem in context. Use scenarios are one component of requirements.
• Manage proactive communications with relevant stakeholders from strategy through execution.

Launch and Support

• Work with Product Marketing on go-to-market strategy for new product or solution.
• Partner with Core PM&S Directors to identify product positioning strategies. Partner with Product Marketing and Sales to ensure proper competitive positioning for product or solution.
• Serve as expert and ambassador for Core International across the HMH organization.
• Provide support for the sales and services enablement process.

Communication & Supervision:

• Maintain strong, ongoing channels of communication with Customer Acquisition & Success, Operations, Finance, Learning Experience Design, Technical Product Management, Content Delivery, and other internal departments.
• Lead cross-functional teams to execute processes and plans.

What You Need to be Successful

• Minimum 4+ years of related industry or functional experience in Educational Technology or Product Management
• BS/BA in Education or related discipline.
• Experience using lean-agile and design thinking methodologies to develop and launch products
• At least 2 years’ experience working in an agile development
• Superior verbal and written communication skills; superior presentation skills
• Superior inter-personal skills with all levels including senior management
• Demonstrated conceptual & analytical thinking; vision; leadership & management; prioritization; collaboration; decision-making; negotiation; problem-solving; tactical execution; product & market knowledge

Nice to Have

• People Leadership experience
• Experience with International Education markets
• Experience in an entrepreneurial or start-up environment
• MBA or Masters
• Demonstrated strong leadership skills

How We Work (Competencies)

• Values Differences
• Learns Nimbly
• Drives Results

Physical Requirements

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing).
• The person in this position needs to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and online meetings.

Benefits and Salary Range:

Salary Range: $84,000- $105,000. Our salary ranges are based on national averages. We have wide ranges so we can be flexible and determine compensation based on a number of factors including the candidate ’ s skills, experience, education and location.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company dedicated to changing people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. As a leading provider of pre-K–12 education content, services, and cutting-edge technology solutions across a variety of media, HMH enables learning in a changing landscape. HMH is uniquely positioned to create engaging and effective educational content and experiences from early childhood to beyond the classroom. HMH serves more than 50 million students in over 150 countries worldwide, while its award-winning children's books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an equal employment opportunity employer and participates in E-Verify. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.

Nearest Major Market: Austin
Job Segment: PLM, Market Research, Management, Marketing, Education, Publishing