Director of Product Management

Xero•San Mateo, CA

About The Position

As a Director of Product Management you will lead multiple product teams and, where required, step in to solve complex and protracted product problems. You will support and enable your team to do the best work of their lives through practising the great people leader framework. Your impact will be measured by your achievement of key commercial and customer success metrics through your management of people and teams. You will lead a product area with high levels of complexity, ambiguity, dependencies and/or stakeholder management.

Requirements

Extensive experience in implementing new and improved approaches to product practice
Proven ability to drive strategic priorities and help others relate to and align with them
Demonstrated experience collaborating with diverse and senior stakeholder groups to realise customer / commercial outcomes
Strong track record of addressing customer needs through innovative use of technology
Effectively influenced outcomes at all levels in a variety of contexts
Extensive experience in defining product roadmaps and long term planning at a Portfolio / Sub-portfolio(s) level
Extensive experience within industry sectors relevant to Xero
Previous experience at a Senior Manager level
Proven people leadership and ability to successfully motivate individuals and teams
Extensive experience in managing a large and/or complex global portfolio / sub-portfolio(s) to deliver customer / business outcomes
Relevant graduate degree (preferably in a technology or business related field) from a top-tier institution
Experience leading and coaching other leaders
Extensive experience in managing product teams, leading cross-functional teams and fostering an open, collaborative team environment

Nice To Haves

Leads others in the use of best practice user research approaches and methodologies to generate powerful insights
Mentors others in problem definition and articulation techniques to expertly define customer problems
Coaches others in techniques to create MVPs/MLPs, incremental solution decisions and solution definitions, to expertly solve customer problems
Supports others to run complex or detailed experiments leading to validation of solution options
Runs education sessions for teams on a product/domain to increase depth of knowledge across Xero
Mentors others to develop product strategies and roadmaps that are compelling and align both business and product interests
Pilots new systems that support the development of innovative ideas across product
Leads a culture of courageous prioritization across teams and geographies to improve Xero’s product decision-making capability
Refines and evolves Xero’s PM ways of working to continuously improve Xero’s approach to PM
Designs innovative release strategies and processes to reduce release lead time and impacts
Develops new internal approaches and tools to accurately identify and size markets / segments
Interrogates and validates product-market fit to ensure products are commercially successful in the market
Drives Xero’s approach to product decision-making, to ensure decisions align to Xero’s short-term and long-term strategic priorities
Expertly facilitates improvised conversations on any Xero-related issue, with senior level stakeholders, leading to an actionable outcome
Sets the standard in articulating a narrative to a diverse set of senior stakeholders to influence outcomes
Establishes or improves cross-functional processes to enable connections that support exemplary product outcomes
Coaches others in new analytical approaches to generate insights and improve the effectiveness of product decisions
Teaches others to meaningfully translate information and insights for different stakeholders and audiences
Collaborates across functions to integrate information from a variety of sources and teams and generate meaningful insights
Clarity: See the big picture and connect the work our team does to strategy. Cascade the operating lan and enable communication and feedback
Align & Engage: Be a good coach (ask good questions and listen to the answers). Have real, if difficult, conversations. Help your people remove barriers. Collaborates internationally to create horizontal alignment across Xero.
Perform: Build inclusive, resilient and psychologically safe teams. Drives performance and results. Grow your people and careers.

Responsibilities

Be accountable for all the equivalent product management responsibilities, at a product area level, including: Network across Xero to ensure the products within the portfolio connect to Xero’s strategy, objectives and future
Develops trusting relationships with senior level stakeholders, where conversions lead to actionable outcomes
Articulates a narrative to a diverse set of senior stakeholders to influence outcomes
Be accountable for all the equivalent product management responsibilities, at portfolio / sub-portfolio(s) level, including: Understand the Xero context, map out the Xero landscape and identify related value streams that might create collaboration opportunities or dependencies
Define customer vision, bring to life the long-term future state - the difference you're going to make in your customers' lives
Define scope and approach, define our approach to realising the vision, identifying the big bets we're going to make and the significant value drops to customers over time, including the outcomes we hope to achieve
Developing a support strategy and plan, create low-fidelity solution concepts to explore the solution space and determine the right direction. De-risk assumptions of value, usability, feasibility and viability, in ongoing #testlearnrefine loops, increasing investment in solution only as confidence grows. Create high-level concepts to demonstrate the ideal future experience and set a north-star aspiration to guide future decision making
Launch & monitor, align with Customer teams on launch timing, approach and specifics based on the agreed Customer Value Proposition. Lock in external messaging and other outward-facing assets. Run through a checklist of all the things that need to be considered when launching a new product or feature.
Nurture iterative product improvements,
Take responsibility for managing risks (in line with Xero Risk Management Standard) arising from non-functional concerns including security, privacy, regulatory change and compliance, accuracy, responsible data use and availability: consulting with stakeholders and leading trade-off decisions
Nurture lifecycle management & sunsetting, and product improvements. Continuously monitor the performance of the product against key success measures and maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers to surface and prioritise new opportunities to optimise the product, while optimising existing features
Standardise and improve product practice. Leaders actively support practitioners to develop their skills and succeed in their contributions to XPF Activities; they work with them to identify growth opportunities, and share their knowledge and experience in service of that growth
Deliberately plan the work you are involved in, forecast key milestones and deliveries and track progress against the plan.
Provide team leadership, shaping the team vision, culture, product team scope and ways of working
Enable and empower people to work autonomously where appropriate, providing guidance, coaching and mentorship.
Actively engage with your team members about their careers, manage performance and support their growth and development
Recruit new Xero's as required, ensuring team members are high quality, fit Xero's culture, and are on-boarded effectively
Manage team compliance with Xero policies, processes and requirements
Role model exemplary leadership by developing leadership capabilities and upholding our Xero values
Support the growth and development of your direct reports, ensuring they have what they need to perform their roles and feel empowered and engaged
Foster a safe environment for people to experiment and learn
You're responsible for the establishment of OKRs and your team's work is contributing to achieve OKRs
You deeply understand our customers and their problems
You have strong relationships with your stakeholders who are engaged and have a thorough understanding of your vision, strategy and roadmap
You have an accessible, transparent, prioritised and well executed roadmap across a portfolio / sub-portfolio which focuses on value to Xero and the customer
You champion product initiatives, narratives and vision, driving alignment across teams and the organisation
Your team members are able to see the big picture and connect their work and their team’s to strategy
You are an effective coach, asking the important questions, listening and having the real (if difficult) conversions
Your roadmap is being executed according to plan and you and your team are focused on the most important initiatives
Support your team to remove barriers
You build inclusive, resilient and psychologically safe teams
Collaborate internationally to create horizontal alignment across Xero
You demonstrate and amplify Xero’s Values