Head of Digital Product Management 12 mth FTC

About us Loxam Group is the third largest equipment rental business globally, turning over >€2bn per annum.  The Group is established in 30 countries, including 21 in Europe and 9 others around the world, including the Middle East, Morocco, Brazil and Colombia. Loxam Powered Access is a self-contained division within the Loxam Group that specialises in the rental of powered access equipment. We are the European and Middle Eastern market leader, servicing B2B customers in sectors including construction, telecoms, nuclear, utilities, transport, film & TV. Loxam Powered Access has a centralised IT & Digital function, including a nascent Digital Product Management team.  Digital commerce and the Industrial Internet of Things are key areas in the digital transformation of our service offering to customers. Role purpose The Head of Digital Product Management is a hands-on manager, building and leading a small team of digital product managers, each responsible for one or more product categories. Our digital product managers conceive, define, test, deliver, promote, monitor and refine digital products relating to our B2B customers, in areas such as Internet of Things and ecommerce, to maximise business results. They lead on technical pre-sales support, conduct customer research, and work with key stakeholders across business and technology to develop and convey product vision. They focus on the end-to-end customer experience for their assigned products. The current product categories relate to the digital transformation of our organisation: •           Digital commerce (Azure): this includes end-to-end customer experience and all aspects of the marketing mix (Product, Price, Platform, Promotion). •           Internet of Things (Azure): this includes both Operational Technology (OT) such as machine telemetry and IT, and spans all aspects of Digital, Data and Technology relating to IoT. •           Websites (Kentico): Kentico is our website CMS, running one or more websites per country. The Head of Digital Product Management plays an active day-to-day role in product category management alongside their team members.  It is a customer-facing, outward-looking role which will see the manager interacting with customers and colleagues in Sales. The Head of Product Management is responsible for ensuring the operational efficiency of our digital products and services; the adoption of these products and services by our customers; and the ongoing development to differentiate Loxam PAD and provide us with a competitive advantage. Operational efficiency: working with product managers, IT colleagues and operational teams at a detailed and day-to-day level to ensure processes are fit for purpose, colleagues are trained appropriately by our Training Academy, monitoring compliance and resolving discrepancies.  Leading a team that understands that high quality “business as usual” is as important as new feature development. Customer adoption: ensuring that we deliver a coherent, compelling, consistent value proposition to customers for each of our digital products and services.  The role has responsibility for avoiding the bespoking of our products for individual customers, maintaining a standardised product which meets the needs of most of our customers.  The Head of Product Management will advocate internally (to colleagues) and externally (to customers), championing the product vision and value proposition. Ongoing development: the Head of Product Management supports and coaches each product manager in their role as SME for their product category/ies.  The Head of Product Management sets ambitious but realistic product roadmaps in line with guidance from senior stakeholders. The Head of Product Management is responsible for ensuring each roadmap is delivered to time, scope and cost; providing a clear and effective solution architecture which covers Business processes, Data flows, Applications and Technology.   Key Responsibilities ■ Research and define the customer segments served by the company’s digital products. This will be based on developing a deep understanding of customer goals, the value customers derive from the product, and the business capabilities and digital strategies of the business domain. ■ Support sales activity through face to face and remote technical pre-sales support, helping drive new account acquisition and revenue growth. Work out how to meet customer needs using current or existing roadmap activity, avoiding bespoke customisations.   Support pre-sales activities, e.g., support scoping, estimation, planning, pricing, and contract/statement-of-work writing. ■ Drive the adoption of digital commerce by leading on all of Product, Price, Platform and Promotion.  Champion and deliver improvements to digital customer experience. ■ Work closely with sales and marketing teams to convey the product vision, continuously verify that the product fulfils that vision (measured by customer value and business outcomes) and help the team ensure it is building the right product.  Develop and sustain a network of local champions for each product category. ■ Analyse competing offerings or capabilities to understand how to offer the differentiated products or services that customers prefer. ■ Orchestrate a variety of stakeholders to achieve a shared vision of product goals and priorities, own and develop the product roadmap.  Take a broadly-based view of product responsibility, covering digital, data and technology. ■ Maintain a full product life cycle perspective, and work to balance short-term achievements with long-term goals.  Take on a Product Owner role as and where appropriate. ■ Take a hands-on approach, including commitment to direct customer interaction, support of operational engineering and customer service teams, support of BA and QA activities, and any and all product lifecycle activities. Role Dimensions ■ Report to: Chief Digital & Information Officer ■ Direct report: small team of Product Managers ■ Work closely with senior sales, marketing and customer service managers; development and QA teams; CIO and development director; other product managers; C-level executives and local SMT. ■ Budgetary responsibility: objectives include revenue and profitability targets on assigned products ■ Member of IT & Digital SMT; member of Core Platforms Steering Board. Requirements and Experience ■ Experience building, embedding and sustaining digital product management thinking, practices and behaviours in a mature organisation. ■ Experience developing existing team members into excellent digital product managers and building a cohesive team which becomes the centre of gravity for our organisation’s digital transformation initiatives. ■ Deep understanding of digital products and services in the industrial sector or related sectors such as construction or automotive. ■ Good understanding of B2B customers and digital opportunities, the ability to rapidly assimilate the factors relevant to the equipment rental sector and its value proposition, and the technology context required to differentiate our products in the marketplace. ■ Good understanding of B2B digital commerce and demonstrable experience in building successful digital commerce channels. ■ Demonstrated ability to successfully evangelise and advocate for our products, building belief, momentum and consensus with customers and colleagues alike.  Excellent influencing skills. ■ Demonstrated ability to champion a common, customer-centric culture, and apply common methods to drive digital business success by orchestrating all relevant stakeholders to manage a continually evolving digital strategy. ■ Understanding of agile delivery, digital transformation in mature B2B enterprises, how to lead and embed product lifecycles and design thinking. ■ Establish and maintain excellent relationships with key business members, the technology team, vendors and ecosystem partners. ■ Perform data-driven, quantitative customer research by means of surveys, product analytics, market research, interviews, hackathons, online forums, or other cost-effective means of gaining insight into the “voice of the customer.” Use this insight to define the target customer segments, to understand those customers’ goals, and how they would gain value from product capabilities. ■ Perform competitive analysis on the alternatives that target customers might use, to understand what capabilities and qualities the product must have to attract customers away from those alternatives — and keep them satisfied. ■ Facilitate and drive alignment among key stakeholders, supplying customer and market research and analytics to lead them to converge on a product strategy, vision and roadmap. This includes defining a release strategy, from early prototypes, through minimum viable product (MVP), to the first and subsequent releases. This is subject to change as with any agile delivery process. ■ Work within the product budget to focus on the highest value activities: the features used most often by most customers; direct revenue growth or cost reduction; or risk mitigation. ■ Work with key stakeholders to make frequent prioritisation decisions based on the latest product analytics, product team metrics and customer feedback. Define, track and communicate key product performance indicators as required to inform this process, and track business results. ■ Work with key stakeholders to develop and refine business models for the product, using high level quantitative analysis skills, to ensure data-driven decisions. ■ Coordinate teams to ensure the product is supported by all relevant business functions. This means surfacing issues where there may be organisational or procedural gaps in delivery and support of the product. ■ Act as the keeper and communicator of the vision to translate the product strategy and vision developed with business stakeholders into what the development team must bear in mind every day to ensure they are building the right product. ■ Operate across a very broad spectrum of activities: from defining the product roadmap to writing user stories to producing sales collateral and delivering customer presentations. ■ Act as product owner where relevant to the delivery method, bearing in mind our organisation operates as a small team, including regular feedback on sprint demos and other reviewable features.  This should extend as far as regularly testing the latest daily or weekly build. ■ Collaborate and coordinate with other product managers, architects and IT management, to avoid duplication and manage dependencies; to align product and platform architectures and capabilities according to agreed goals for non-functional requirements. ■ An entrepreneurial spirit, independent and creative thinking, and leadership through collaboration, not authority. ■ Lead communications about our digital products and services to audiences including internal colleagues (e.g., new feature releases, customer case studies), customers (e.g., pre-sales pitches, RFP responses, social media engagement, sales collateral, website content), trade associations and communities. Further Qualifications ■ A bachelor’s or master’s degree ■ Seven to ten years (or more) of relevant experience in IT and business/industry sectors which are close enough to give you an understanding and perspective on the B2B equipment rental market ■ Experience across multiple diverse roles and increasing responsibilities across business and IT ■ Demonstrable experience of engaging executives and other stakeholders to support important business decisions. ■ Expert knowledge of digital product management disciplines.

        To apply for this job email your details to gareth.lloyd@loxampad.com