Product Development Manager at Adapt IT

Adapt IT; Midrand; On-site; ZAR 600,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the Telecoms industry seeks a Product Manager to oversee product lifecycles and drive successful product strategies. In this role, you will manage a team of developers, collaborate with stakeholders, and conduct market analysis to ensure product relevance and competitiveness. Ideal candidates will have substantial experience in the Telecoms sector, strong leadership skills, and a proven track record in product management.

Qualifications

• 10 years working experience in Telecoms industry and 5 years in product management.
• Demonstrated experience across the entire product lifecycle and managing product roadmaps.
• Very strong verbal and written communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead in defining product vision and responsible for its success in the market.
• Manage the day-to-day running of the product development team and ensure high value items are prioritized.
• Conduct market research to inform product strategy and develop roadmaps.

Skills

Project Management

Telecoms Knowledge

Communication

Problem Solving

Agile Methodology

Education

University IT Degree/Diploma

Tools

Microsoft Office Suite

Knowledge of Software Development (SDLC, Agile)

Job description

Introduction

The Product Manager represents the customer by evaluating matching and prioritizing system enhancements, features and functionality that support the strategic direction of the system, are relevant and saleable and benefit end users.

Collaborates with clients, business development and other stakeholders to understand their
requirements and goals. Other duties of the Product Manager include identifying product issues, determining the product roadmap, meeting operational and strategic goals and overseeing the development process.

Manages and depends on a team of Lead Developers to ensure that only prioritized development items are planned,resources scheduled, and development executed ensuring that the team achieves their goals.

PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITIES FOR THE ROLE

Product Custodianship

• Leads in defining product vision for the Business Unit (BU)

• Responsible and accountable for the product's success in the market.

• Responsible for roadmap with regards to products/systems within scope of control.

• Maximize the economic life of the BU products and solutions

• Identify opportunities for new or extended functionality to meet customer requirements

• Manage complete product lifecycles

• Maintains the Product Backlog by keeping it up to date in terms of requirement and prioritization

• Strategic direction of the product

• Technical depth (design issues, technology changes)

• Innovation

• Ensure that the highest value items are worked on by the development team

• Evaluate current offerings saleability with Business Development and advise on functionality to be discontinued

• Collaborate with numerous stakeholders (most notably customers, sales, marketing and development) in defining the priorities within the BU roadmap.

• Provide detailed guidance during development to ensure the built product is in line with the BU vision

• Balance the demands for supporting existing customers with the need to develop new features

• Communication of roadmap, backlog of change requests and problems, release plan, release notes

Market Intelligence

• Industry analysis and reporting on trends, insights and prospects

• Keep abreast of competition and provide competitor analysis comparisons

• Regular positioning monitoring compared to competitors

• Conduct Ad Hoc Market Research on consumer preferences and consumption habits/ trends to better inform product strategy and marketing decisions

Mentorship / Training

• Provide mentorship and guidance to internal staff on technical and system processes.

• Perform internal training for technical staff as required.

• Ability to mentor and assist others, and to lead internal training sessions

• Mentor resources on specialized knowledge.

• Maintain adequate knowledge of business practices that are addressed by systems within scope ofcontrol.

• Maintain adequate knowledge of the technical environment e.g.

• Tools and techniques used to document user requirements and prepare specifications;

• The infrastructure on which the System operates;

• The development methodology and tools used.

• Maintain adequate knowledge of trends within the market with a focus on what competitor software providers offer.

• Maintain up-to-date knowledge on legislative and statutory developments within all statutory bodies related to the product within his / her responsibility.

Team Management

• Manage the day-to-day running of the product development team.

• Perform interim and final performance appraisals of staff who are deployed within the team.

• Responsibility for staff discipline and non-performance

Presales

• Understand customer requirements and integrate BU solutions into the customers' environment.

• Deliver sales presentations, present technical information about BU products and services, and conduct product demonstrations.

• Fulfil role of the BU spokesperson at User Group Conferences and User Groups Workshops (with regards to product(s)/system(s) within scope of control.

• Assist with the completion of Requests for Information / Requests for Proposal responses for systems within the scope of control.

• Identify opportunities to sell systems and services to existing clients.

Key Responsibilities

• Ensures the product supports the company's overall strategy and goals

• Develop the product strategy and roadmap within the assigned area to deliver on business outcomes - growth, customer retention, and revenue - and effectively communicate recommendations to leadership

• Maintain Key Product Management tools: Roadmap, Specification, Competitor Feature Comparison analysis, Price Positioning

• Takes own initiative and collaborate with team to deliver exceptional products

• Make recommendations to Management based on recognizing a customer's current and future technology/business needs

• Takes the initiative in thought leadership, innovation and creativity and seek to continually improve products and solutions

• Works closely with other key stakeholders within the organisation, to define and deliver new products and enhancements

• Translates functional specifications into workable project deliverables and staging these according to team capability and capacity.

• Interface with cross-functional teams to identify opportunities to increase efficiency and improve quality, quantify the impact, prioritize initiatives, and develop execution plans.

• Scope and prioritize activities based on business and customer impact

• Gain a deep understanding of customer requirements, identify and fill product gaps

• Participating in weekly management meetings

• Updating management weekly on Product Development progress

Minimum Requirements

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

• University IT Degree/Diploma in related field

• Minimum 10 years working experience in Telecoms industry and 5 years in product management

• Demonstrated experience across the entire product lifecycle, from product research and competitive analysis, to conception, specification, design and launch

• Broad knowledge of Telecommunications industry

• Sufficient understanding of Telecoms Products to fulfil the role of advisor to senior Business Analysts, Developers, Support Staff and Consultants in respect of the Software.

• Participation and providing key input in marketing, presales and sales activities

• Managing and driving product roadmaps

• Very strong verbal and written communication skills, internal and external. Excellent people and management skills to interact with customers, colleagues and cross-functional teams and third parties

• Ability to develop and build strategic relationships

• Preparing budget proposals and building business cases

REQUIRED SKILLS & COMPETENCIES

Technical:

• Microsoft Office Suite

• Knowledge of Software Development (SDLC, Agile)

• Industry Knowledge (Telecoms & IT)

• Value Added Services (Messaging, SMSC, USSD, Middleware Tech)

• GSM, UMTS, LTE, 5G

• Cloud Computing, Virtualisation Technologies, AI

• Telecommunication Technologies (SS7, SIGTRAN, MTP, SCCP, TCAP, MAP, CAP, etc)

• Middleware, APIs, Microservices

Problem Solving and Analysis:

• Ability to research technology as well as business policy, - process and - practice to understand issues and make systematic and rational judgments based on the relevant information.

• Ability to determine the information required to guide strategic decisions to mitigate medium/long term risks.

• Ability to identify and prioritize technical- logical and problem areas

• Ability to estimate costs for interventions and weigh alternative solutions

• Ability to lead brainstorming sessions and other meeting to determine requirements and decide on solutions.

Strategy Management

• Ability to formulate strategies and policies and create new approaches in adverse situations.

• Ability to take a broad-based view of issues and events and understand their longer-term impact or wider [URL Removed] to translate strategies into strategic and operational activities.

• Ability to manage stakeholder expectations

Desired Skills:

• Telecoms
• Product Owner
• Innovative
• Product Specification
• Product Development Food
• New Product Management
• Value Added Services

Desired Work Experience:

• 5 to 10 years Middle / Department Management

Desired Qualification Level:

• Degree