Lead Product Manager-Small Firm Accounting Market

Lead Product Manager – Small Firm Accounting Market

Summary

Responsible for overall product management, strategic vision and focus, product P&L and execution of growth plans for a significant product or product family. Effectively manages all aspects of the line of business in support of the organization’s goals and market needs. Leads competitive analysis and market assessment activities and establishes marketing strategy based on the assessment of market trends, customer needs and competitive analysis. Understands market trends and needs and articulates needs in the form of product requirements. Plays proactive role in product planning and design to ensure the product is differentiated from competitors in the marketplace. Establishes strategic marketing programs for new products or enhancements, including, identification of market segments, product positioning, pricing, and profitability. Identifies new distribution channels and coordinates product introduction and market exploitation to ensure maximum penetration. Participates in the entire lifecycle of the product, working closely with development teams from product initiation to delivery to eventual product retirement.

Job Description

Lead Product Manager – Small Firm Accounting Market is responsible for supporting the sales and marketing teams for Research & Learning by providing insights and subject matter expertise on the small accounting firm market. This position provides leadership to cross functional teams (Editorial, Marketing, Sales, Development (dxg), Operations, Legal etc.) and is directly involved in the go-to-market activities for release of products without appreciable direction. The PM is also responsible for the development of small firm personas in the professional space to better create products to serve the needs of our customers in these segments.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Voice of the small firm accounting and audit product line within the organization.
• Provide technical and subject matter support of the sales and marketing organizations in the small firm accounting space.
• Works with product management team to define specific personas for the accounting and audit industry across small firm segment.
• Supports the build out of financial business cases for new opportunities for product launches.
• Responsible for product market growth in the small accounting firm area & leads product management in the go-to-market strategies.
• Performs voice of customer activities, defines requirements and roadmap. Evaluates new product opportunities.
• Point of contact when issues related to the product line are escalated.
• Works with Product Management Operations to quantify market size and identify segments.
• Drives the strategy for the ecommerce experience for the small firm market. Coordinate with the marketing teams to execute on this strategy.
• Educate and evangelize the benefits of the new products to the various selling channel teams; be the salesperson for the sales team.
• Drive strategy for sales training plans and support of all new and existing sales channels.
• Conducts competitive analysis of our products and content and our markets in conjunction with other teams - including creation of documentation, and presentations to the Sales and Marketing teams.
• Works with Marketing on messaging and Sales collateral for new product initiatives.
• Sales enablement – creation and fulfillment of Sales certification programs; creation of Playbooks focused on specific products, as well as overall sales methods and selling techniques; creation of other documentation/materials to support the Sales team.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree in business, Accounting, or related subject or combination of education and experience.
• CPA with firm experience ideal

Experience:

• Minimum 5 years of experience working in a content related capacity in the professional services and/or electronic publishing field and/or working as a tax expert in an accounting firm.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate effective communication between the executive team, customers, editorial, marketing, production, and technology units.
• Proven ability to effectively listen to customers and translate customer problem into powerful solutions.
• Experience interacting with customers at end-user, as well as technical/administrator levels.
• Proven experience in delivering presentations to large audiences.

Other Knowledge, Skills, Abilities or Certifications:

• Establish credibility.
• Financial acumen.
• Proven record of successful collaboration with various job functions.
• Entrepreneurial mindset.
• Strong analytical skills.
• Ability to manage multiple projects and tight deadlines.
• Ability to quickly learn new products, technologies, and industries.
• Knowledge of data management and electronic publishing practices will be considered an asset.
• Minimal travel (less than 10%).