Product Manager - Lighting

POSITION PURPOSE

The Product Manager will be responsible to manage the overall product strategy and growth of the assigned product-line. Key responsibilities include enhancing product line profitability, deliver against growth opportunities with each sales channel and customer, develop product roadmap, launch best-in-class differentiated and innovative products, product life cycle management and SKU rationalization, development of product value proposition, features and benefits to drive a competitive advantage in each sales channel.

• Develop thorough understanding of product category, market size and growth, consumer needs, channel needs, consumer shopping behavior and category trends.
• Conduct competitive assessment to identify product and assortment opportunities in each sales channel (e.g., retail, commercial-industrial channels).
• Leverage primary and secondary research and marketplace trends to develop differentiated consumer value propositions and new products.
• Conduct product line assessments to identify product opportunities, rationalize unprofitable SKUS and revitalize, relaunch current portfolio to drive marketplace competitiveness and growth.
• Collaborate with supply chain and R&D teams to ensure smooth transition to new products and efficient product life cycle management.
• Use formal project management processes and tools [including project charter, team selection, timeline, meeting summaries with action items and responsibilities] to ensure project objectives are achieved and products launched on time.

• Collaborate with sales, channel marketing, category management and brand marketing to be successful in customer line reviews.
• Develop product portfolio and pricing strategies to drive consumer trade-up and profitability.
• Provide product launch and ongoing support to the sales team by developing compelling customer product presentations incorporating competitive product assessments, new product features and benefits, and proposed customer planogram (POG) configurations.

• Work closely with external and internal package design teams to ensure compliance with government regulations, proper packaging/labeling integrity, completeness of technical specifications and maintenance of pre-established quality standards.
• Partner with supply chain and category management teams to maintain adequate weeks of supply, accelerate turns and minimize out-of-stock.
• Conduct competitive pricing assessment to ensure that the products are competitive and deliver against Old World Industries (OWI) gross margin targets and retailer margin targets, while fulfilling the needs of consumers.
• Develop financial analysis to qualify new products through OWI's new product development and change management processes.

• Ensure that the products support the brand promise, drive marketplace competitiveness and consumer relevancy, continuously exceed consumer expectations, align to pricing strategies, maintain consistency in brand quality across product categories and support ongoing innovation and differentiation.
• Evaluate and approve product samples to ensure brand integrity is maintained and product is compliant with all federal guidelines as they relate to the product's performance.
• Ensure the timely resolution of all issues pertaining to the development and manufacturing of products - conduct timely sample evaluations and ensure approval of all products leading to the issue of a final production specification.

• Focus will be the US and Canadian markets. Opportunities could also include select international markets in Asia-Pacific and Latin America.

• 3-5 years of successful product management experience, preferably in automotive aftermarket consumer products.
• Off road lighting experience preferred.
• Passionate to build world-class brands and world-class products - need to be champions of their product categories and inspirational to all internal and external stakeholders.
• Strong experience in strategic product planning, conducting product assessments, product life cycle management and launch of new products.
• Results oriented, positive attitude, working collaboratively with cross-functional teams, to achieve the product strategy and business goals.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills to inspire and champion their assigned products
• Ability to maintain a keen attention to detail, multitask and work well under pressure
• Bachelor's Degree in business or related field.
• Strong financial analysis and business acumen.
• Experience working with cross-functional areas including graphics design, brand and channel marketing, sales, supply chain, technical and legal teams.
• Good conceptual, creative and analytical skills.
• Experience using ERP systems, especially SAP, preferred.
• Working knowledge of Tableau data reporting system preferred.