Ecommerce Product Manager at Massmart

About the job
Summary:

• The role is responsible for setting the overall product/product line strategy and vision within the eCommerce business, ensuring timely and robust planning and execution all through the product lifecycle; including, gathering and prioritizing product and customer requirements and finally ensuring the successful deployment of the product to market. The role will also be expected to conduct regular KPI reporting and market research to understand and map customer journeys in order to be able to pre-empt demands and cater to them pro-actively.

FUNCTIONS / RESPONSIBILITIES:

Strategic Planning

• Develop a short, medium and long term product strategy, in collaboration with business eCommerce and core business stakeholders
• Manage the product Objective and Key Result metrics in parallel with the strategy to drive meaningful steps to improve sales and customer satisfaction
• Provide input into the overall strategy and roadmap for the broader eCommerce product/application landscape
• Partner with eCommerce business counterparts to inform, validate and execute on the product strategy
• Oversee regular scrutiny of the developed strategy to keep up-to-date with latest trends in the external environment and budget for changes taking place within the organization

Operations Management

• Set the vision for a product and manage the many cross-functional teams that will help drive that vision to execution
• Lead dedicated sessions to manage business, engineering, product UX and other relevant stakeholders
• Work closely with the relevant onshore and offshore teams to set clear priorities for product development. Ensure that the product is developed and deployed in the agreed upon time and budget.
• Ensure that the business/enterprise’s demand is understood well and clearly translated to a product development roadmap
• Responsible to gather, manage and prioritize product backlogs across various delivery streams
• Oversee design and development of customer journey maps, in order to be able pre-empt customer requirements and demands and plan for products accordingly
• Translate product strategy, vision and roadmap into clear requirements and process flow so that design team can produce development-ready designs
• Primary accountability in inspecting and evaluating product progress through the entire development cycle till the final product is ready
• Oversee development through all the stages, right from planning and refinement to review and sprint
• Responsible for taking the final call on performance, deciding if the team needs to ensure reiteration for a step or if they can move to the next steps
• Highlight the bugs and blockers and coordinate with the development team to come up with the best solutions/fixes and ensure they are documented
• Act in the capacity of a central point of contact, and as a common link to drive the work of multiple, often cross-functional teams
• Ensure buy-ins from senior stakeholders on all product strategies and designs
• Ensure stringent vendor management for the development, maintenance and testing of all associated product components
• Ensure vendor compliance with the agreed upon SLAs and escalate any issues with regards to performance

Financial, budget and compliance

• Achieve Cost Management by:
• Preparing an annual budget
• Obtain competitive prices from external suppliers / vendors
• Scheduling expenditure; analyzing variances; initiating cost corrective action, when and where required

Stakeholder management

• Regularly liaison with core business stakeholders for input and assistance with product development and deployment
• Maintain and build effective, professional relationships with third party vendors and service providers that result in timely delivery of requirements and the highest standards of quality and cost effectiveness
• Liaison with Walmart to borrow relevant expertise in the area, as required

Knowledge Management

• Keep abreast with latest tools, technologies and trends in the area of product management, customer or employee experience and technology

Human Capital Management

• Ensure development of talent, support mentorship, workforce development, continuous learning and succession planning and leverage the capabilities of new and existing talent
• Establish and agree on performance contracts with immediate staff, monitor employee performance and provide feedback / coaching accordingly
• Provide inputs on workforce planning to create a robust Infrastructure Transform team in Massmart

Requirements:

Minimum Academic, Professional Qualifications & Experience required for this position

• Bachelor’s Degree or National Diploma in Information Systems, Computer Science or Related Field
• 8-10 years’ experience in IT, of which at least 4-5 years’ experience as a product manager or an application specialist/developer

Competencies & Skills:

• Experience in eCommerce
• Experience in development of a digital business or appropriate business offering / service
• Experience with design of digital product strategies and roadmaps
• Experience in User Experience design
• Ability to work closely with other internal teams, both in IT and the businesses
• Ability to lead cross functional teams
• Ability to plan and prioritize tasks
• Ability drive consensus on critical decision areas
• Ability to apply critical thinking and ensure quick decision making