Product Strategy Manager

The Product Strategy Manager at StoneAge delivers products for the global waterblast market, ensuring valuable ROI for both StoneAge and its customers. They are a valued and trusted partner of Engineering, Marketing, Sales, and Operations and serve as an unbiased source of information, aimed at identifying market needs and creating products that address those needs. The Product Strategy Manager will be responsible for establishing a framework around the new Product Strategy department, guiding it through structured processes to support long-term company objectives. Additionally, they will coordinate with key stakeholders to ensure cohesive product development that drives innovation and business growth. The Product Strategy Manager owns the product through its lifecycle, from product conceptualization, into production for sales, and through obsolescence. This position reports to the Director of Product and has a starting salary of $125,000 - $145,000 per year.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Key Responsibilities:

• Build and lead the Product Strategy department, developing a robust structure to align with company goals.
• Develop and implement processes that support the creation, refinement, and execution of product strategies across departments.
• Coordinate between Sales, Engineering, and Marketing to align product development activities with company goals and mission.
• Gather and organize market intelligence, delivering actionable insights to key stakeholders to inform product development and strategic decisions.
• Review and assess market opportunities to prioritize initiatives that align with business goals, leveraging data to shape product value propositions and market positioning.
• Lead strategic product discussions including go-to-market strategies, feature prioritization, competitive positioning, pricing strategy, and the overall business case for new products.
• Review and categorize market opportunities and product value propositions.
• Maintain a healthy product portfolio – managing products from launch through eventual obsolescence.
• Participate in Product Strategy Meetings involving key stakeholders.
• Disposition New Product Pipeline and Product Change Request.

Leadership:

• Support and guide a team of 2, fostering a collaborative environment where team members actively contribute to department and company goals, setting clear expectations and mutual accountability for delivering on strategic objectives.
• Coordinate cross-functional resources to ensure alignment between product development, engineering, and operations, optimizing team efficiency and project outcomes.
• Oversee team performance, providing coaching, feedback, and development opportunities to ensure individual and collective success in achieving product strategy goals.
• Monitor and adjust resource utilization to maximize productivity and ensure the team has the tools and support needed to execute projects efficiently.
• Collaborate with leadership to assess ongoing project needs, shifting resources as necessary to meet evolving business goals.

New Products:

• Create and manage Product Charters for all new product development projects, integrating cross-functional input from Sales, Marketing, and Engineering to ensure clarity of objectives and alignment with company goals.
• Collaborate to define and document business objectives and product goals for all assigned product development projects including customer opportunity (what value will the product bring to the customer), market opportunity (what will the product do for the market) and business opportunity (what will the product do for StoneAge).
• Coordinate strategic pricing discussions to ensure product pricing aligns with both market demand and business objectives.
• Enhance collaboration with internal teams to ensure all product-related documentation is customer-centric. This encompasses creating and aligning marketing campaigns, product bulletins, specialized training materials, and comprehensive product manuals.
• Collaborate with the New Product Introduction team to ensure downstream teams are well-prepared for successful product launches, providing guidance and strategic oversight throughout the process.

Product Health:

• Team with the Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) team in support of product portfolio reviews. Specifically, the Product Manager is responsible for representing market position, customer needs, and liaising with Sales as required in support of these reviews.
• Lead communication efforts related to product warranty and recall issues, coordinating with Sales, Marketing, and Engineering to ensure timely and accurate dissemination of information.
• Make recommendations to Engineering for product revisions, cost reduction, product enhancement, platforming, or obsolescence.
• Work with global Sales Directors, Engineering and Quality to coordinate product warranty and recall issues ensuring all appropriate departments are aware of the issue and solution and coordinate with Marketing and Sales to ensure this information is accurately and quickly communicated to all internal and external customers.
• Drive communication of all product obsolescence decisions to the dealers and customer networks. Develop and propose transition alternatives to help with new product adoption.
• Collaborate with Marketing to support the generation and delivery of targeted product campaigns.

General:

• Develop processes and frameworks within the Product Strategy department to streamline product planning, launch, and lifecycle management, ensuring alignment with overall company processes.
• Ensure communication of product-related news to product strategy stakeholders and coordinate with global Sales Directors to communicate news to dealer and customer network.
• Partner with Marketing to develop and deliver targeted campaigns that support product launches and ongoing product success.
• Attend and engage in all New Product Introduction meetings

Requirements

KNOWLEDGE AND TRAINING REQUIREMENTS

The Product Strategy Manager must:

·         Bachelor’s degree (technical preferred) with 10+ years of direct or transferrable expertise in technical sales, product strategy, product management, or systems engineering.

·         Be a creative and strategic thinker with excellent problem-solving skills.

·         Be committed to “Safety First.”

·         Be customer service oriented, exhibiting flexibility and agility to meet customer needs.

·         Be able to analyze data and information and identify relevant themes, issues, and actions.

·         Be effective at building relationships at multiple levels - with other employees, customers and industry experts. Must be able to lead as a team member and persuade peers in other departments of participation in valued actions.

·         Have a strong working knowledge of Microsoft Office software. Experience with Salesforce or other Sales and Marketing database management tools is a plus.

·         PLM Software experience

·         Have excellent written and verbal communication skills.

OTHER INFORMATION

·         Travel will be required, primarily domestic with occasional international.

·         Extended working hours may be needed at peak times or when short staffed.     

TEAM CULTURE

·         We are dedicated to exceptional customer service

·         We are a committed, trustworthy team who works to bring 100% every day—"not our job" isn’t in our vocabulary

·         We are agile, embrace change, strive to be our best, and think creatively to solve problems

·         We bring positivity to our work, knowing that attitude is contagious, and we try to set an inspiring example

·         We listen to understand, respect others, and collaborate

We value the diversity of the people we hire and serve. Diversity at our company means fostering a workplace in which individual differences are recognized, appreciated, respected, and responded to in ways that fully develop and utilize each person's talents and strengths.  

Benefits

StoneAge offers a comprehensive benefits program that includes:

• Group health, dental, and vision insurance
• Life insurance
• Long-term disability insurance
• Paid time off
• Paid holidays
• 401(k) plan with a guaranteed match
• Paid parental leave
• Wellness rewards program, and much more!

Even more exciting, we are an employee-owned company with profit-sharing and an Employee Stock Ownership Plan ("ESOP"), in which shares of company stock are allocated to eligible employees each year.

Our "Own It" mindset captures what many of us consider the biggest benefit of all: a highly engaged, collaborative workplace where everyone matters and every employee makes a significant impact.

Please visit our website at www.stoneagetools.com to get a better sense of our company and our employee-owned culture!