You discover and evaluate new business opportunities by creating customer-driven plans backed by solid market and financial analysis.
What would I be doing in this role at Desire2Learn?
Desire2Learn creates industry-leading web-based enterprise e-Learning systems as well as direct-to-consumer web and mobile apps. Our applications deliver material to millions of users worldwide every day.
As a Product Planner you are an entrepreneur responsible for driving a product from planning the "vision" through the first development milestone.
You build and maintain strong working relationships and interactions with customers, Desire2Learn executives, market focus groups, and technical leaders as you develop and execute on business and product plans.
You think strategically about business issues, understand new technologies and their benefits to customers. You can synthesize large amounts of information into crisp recommendations and presentations for a variety of audiences.
What would my main duties be?
- Collect market analysis by working with customers, channels, sales and field support people in combination with competitive analysis. As a result, you refine and effectively communicate customer requirements and priorities to product teams
- Define on a per release basis product/services that meet or exceed market requirements. Provide informational support across the entire organization through a product's complete life cycle.
- Create and communicate the product and business strategies to address the changing market and competitive landscape
- Develop and monitor product/services plans, models and programs, which create visibility and awareness for senior management to measure and evaluate. Interpret market picture and build appropriate scenarios that lead the organization to achieve the product/services or industry plan
- Influence all product/services development decisions that affect users, channels or market objectives. Assist all functional areas with the necessary tools, training and communications for the product/services. Act as liaison between technical and functional departments
- Manage the feature request process
What is Desire2Learn looking for from me?
- Extensive industry/technical knowledge - must be able to understand and articulate product strategy, architecture and functionality vision to a variety of audiences
- Ability to work with Product Development, Marketing and Sales teams to define new products and extensions for the market place
- Ability to manage pricing, partnerships and service level agreement evolution
- Ability to partner with clients by asking the right questions, while understanding the larger business context of assignments
- Experienced product manager/product analyst, adept in competitive market research, customer needs analysis, and business case definition for emerging technologies
- An effective communicator and facilitator across all areas of the organization
- Excellent analytical and problem-solving abilities
- Ability to proactively identify upcoming risks, issues and bottlenecks
Education Recommendations
- University Degree in Engineering, Computer Science, or Business Management or equivalent
- MBA is an asset
Ref #D2LPP
Division/Department: Product Development
Type of Position: Full-time
Location: Kitchener, Canada
We thank all applicants in advance for their interest. To make the best use of your time and ours, only those applicants whose profiles closely match our requirements will be contacted directly.
