Contractors’ Warehouse —
Senior Manager, Product Management (BlackLocus)

Position Purpose:

BlackLocus is building cloud-based analytic tools to optimize and automate retail merchandising decisions such as pricing, assortment, space and fulfillment. By applying machine learning and revenue management techniques, the BlackLocus platform enables intelligent retail software to identify opportunities for competitive advantage. The company was a venture-funded startup, founded by Carnegie Mellon alumni and entrepreneurs with a passion for creative deployment of new technology. Acquired by The Home Depot in December of 2012, we operate with autonomy as a product lab from an office located in downtown Austin, TX.

The Sr. Manager, Product Management is responsible for attracting, retaining and developing top talent focused on assessing market needs and inspiring cross-functional product teams to find the fastest way to achieve value around those needs. The Sr. Manager, Product Management focuses on guiding and executing the delivery of business value to drive sales, improve efficiency and improve customer satisfaction through the production of quality products. Within their designated enterprise product line, Sr. Managers work closely with teams of developers, designers and business partners. They guide in-depth business reviews, communicate and present across all levels of the organization and support cross-functional product teams.

The Sr. Manager, Product Management leads the strategy to deliver quality products that add value. The Sr. Manager is skilled and experienced in generating innovative ideas for growth within their respective areas and across the Product Management organization. The Sr. Manager, Product Management must exhibit the ability to lead managers and their teams and drive change management and process improvement. The Sr. Manager, Product Management often leads senior-level Product Managers and/or leads teams of Product Managers that are responsible for higher-profile, more impactful products.

Key Responsibilities:

• 40% Strategy & Planning:
• Looks across product teams and feature sets with a focus on alignment and dependencies
• Sets the overall product vision and strategies for the enterprise product thorough an understanding of customer and associate needs, both existing and potential, to provide Home Depot customers and associates with an unparalleled shopping experience
• Applies domain expertise to provide thought leadership and translate vision into action to drive business growth.
• Collaborates across the enterprise to create alignment between products to provide a seamless user experience
• Understands financial and business impact of proposed product updates and activities within portfolio; prioritizes updates to support the enterprise roadmap; and allocates funding across the products
• Identifies goals, metrics and appropriate analytics to measure the performance of the product and its individual features, and makes recommendations and refinements to the product based on learnings
• Contributes to and makes recommendations for strategic plans of the key objectives in a timely and fiscally responsible manner
• Participates in and influences development of enterprise technology roadmaps
• Supports and nurtures strategic vendor relationships; recommends ways to influence vendors that align to domain, portfolio, and enterprise strategic objectives
• 30% Delivery & Execution:
• Drives product development by reviewing performance and directing work efforts of product teams to ensure products are aligned with company, stakeholder and end-user priorities
• Documents, reviews and validates to meet quality and change control standards
• Understands enterprise goals and KPIs to deliver value against them
• Resolves issues within or across product teams that may impair teams from delivery of a quality product in order to meet strategic, financial and technical goals
• Receives and prioritizes incoming requests from business partners and stakeholders balanced against business strategy, product vision and user needs
• Provides guidance on design of products while balancing dependencies and integration with other products across the enterprise
• Reviews and analyzes product metrics to inform strategic and tactical product decisions
• Makes suggestions to drive operational excellence, create internal customer satisfaction and meet operational metrics
• 30% People:
• Provides leadership, mentoring and coaching to Product Managers
• Attracts, retains and develops top talent to build a world class Product Management Team
• Conducts annual and mid-year reviews, reviewing individual development plans and providing performance feedback
• Fosters collaboration with team members (Engineering, UX, etc.) to drive value, identify and resolve impediments
• Is an advocate of modern software development practices
• Advocates for the end user and stakeholder by associating with the product, empathizing with and understanding user needs
• Works with the product team to assess progress, disseminate lessons learned, and understand next steps
• Manages cross-functional team and stakeholder expectations to execute product strategy.
• Educates requestors to determine priority based on tangible benefits and/or user experience
• Guides junior team members in strategy, alignment, analysis and execution tasks
• Participates in and contributes to learning activities around modern software design and development core practices (communities of practice)

Direct Manager/Direct Reports:

• Typically reports to the Technology Director, Sr. Director or Vice President.

Travel Requirements:

• Typically requires overnight travel 5% to 20% of the time.

Physical Requirements:

• Most of the time is spent sitting in a comfortable position and there is frequent opportunity to move about. On rare occasions there may be a need to move or lift light articles.

Working Conditions:

• Located in a comfortable indoor area. Any unpleasant conditions would be infrequent and not objectionable.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Must be eighteen years of age or older.
• Must be legally permitted to work in the United States.
• Must be legally permitted to work in the United States

Preferred Qualifications:

• 6-8 years of relevant work experience
• Mastery of working as a Product Manager in a modern software development based enterprise environment and overseeing multiple products
• Mastery of modern software development product management practices and agile methodologies, specifically the extreme programming (XP) principles of paired programming, test driven development and continuous deployment
• Mastery of working in a fast paced, fluid environment where priorities shift on a regular basis
• Proficiency in communicating with and influencing functional and technical team members at all levels in the organization
• Mastery of working as part of a collaborative, cross-functional, modern software design and development team
• Proficiency in creating, prioritizing and accepting user stories
• Proficiency in conducting user research and testing to understand needs
• Mastery of identifying goals, metrics and analytics to measure product value
• Proficiency in conducting competitive research and analysis
• Proficiency in guiding more junior team members through Product Management fundamentals in a professional setting
• Proficiency in managing and growing team members in a professional setting

Minimum Education:

• The knowledge, skills and abilities typically acquired through the completion of a bachelor's degree program or equivalent degree in a field of study related to the job.

Preferred Education:

• No additional education

Minimum Years of Work Experience:

• 6

Preferred Years of Work Experience:

• No additional years of experience

Minimum Leadership Experience:

• None

Preferred Leadership Experience:

• None

Certifications:

• None

Competencies:

• Attracts Top Talent: Attracting and selecting the best talent to meet current and future business needs
• Balances Stakeholders: Anticipating and balancing the needs of multiple stakeholders
• Builds Effective Teams: Building strong-identity teams that apply their diverse skills and perspectives to achieve common goals
• Business Insight: Applying knowledge of business and the marketplace to advance the organization's goals
• Collaborates: Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives
• Communicates Effectively: Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences
• Cultivates Innovation: Creating new and better ways for the organization to be successful
• Customer Focus: Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions
• Develops Talent: Developing people to meet both their career goals and the organization's goals
• Drives Engagement: Creating a climate where people are motivated to do their best to help the organization achieve its objectives
• Interpersonal Savvy: Relating openly and comfortably with diverse groups of people
• Manages Complexity: Making sense of complex, high quantity and sometimes contradictory information to effectively solve problems
• Organizational Savvy: Maneuvering comfortably through complex policy, process and people-related organizational dynamics
• Situational Adaptability: Adapting approach and demeanor in real time to match the shifting demands of different situations