Software Product Manager (overlap)

Western Governors University•Salt Lake City, UT

46d

About The Position

The Software Product Manager position at WGU is the entry level technical product position. The expectation is not that you have mastered the product management experience, but that you have the raw materials to become a great product manager. You will work closely with a senior-level product manager to learn how to conduct research and extract the right insights from the data. You will learn about the strategy of the product and the goals of the business. Such collaborative work will help prepare you to contribute to the team's roadmap, gain alignment across the organization, and become well-versed in the product vision and strategy. We value the experience being proactive and innovative in past projects – as well as a knack for leadership, design, and strategic problem solving. We look for entrepreneurial individuals with strong technical understanding, product sense, analytical ability, clear communication skills and who are results oriented. We look for candidates who can demonstrate a history of delivering outcomes through a partnership with design, engineering and the business. Someone who, as an excellent storyteller, can represent the interests of the users they serve and influence teams to generate the outcomes that resolve their most pressing problems. We look for candidates who are collaborative by nature, empathetic to users, and are most likely to garner the trust of the stakeholders they serve. The Software Product Manager II delivers value and outcomes to the business through partnership with designers, engineers, and business stakeholders. They will collaborate with a cross-functional team and product peers to develop strategic product roadmaps that ensure a holistic end-to-end user experience within the ServiceNow platform and associated technologies. ServiceNow is widely used across the university and is core to many of our processes and workflows. The Software Product Manager II will build business cases through product discovery, translate insights into solutions, and develop release strategies. They will measure and report on the efficacy of initiatives and develop action plans accordingly. The Software Product Manager II will be an excellent storyteller who represents the interests of the users they serve and influences teams to generate the outcomes that resolve their most pressing problems.

Requirements

Ability to identify a short term vision for their product.
Ability to customize communication to the audience.
Ability to quickly and effectively filter information.
Skilled at proactive communication.
Highly skilled in product discovery methods.
Understands tradeoffs in technical choices.
Ability to redirect conversation to problems to be solved and outcomes to be accomplished before jumping to solutions.
Excellent presentation, written, and verbal communication skills.
Strong passion for exploring and understanding customer needs.
Leadership instincts with a positive team building approach.
Bachelor’s Degree
5 years of experience as a Software Product Manager or Product Owner
Professional Product Certification (e.g., Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO), Pragmatic Marketing)
Deep Experience in the ServiceNow platform; technical expertise in preferred but not required.
Experience working in agile environments
Experience using AI practices & tools for end-to-end product delivery
Experience in lieu of education Equivalent relevant experience performing the essential functions of this job may substitute for education degree requirements. Generally, equivalent relevant experience is defined as 1 year of experience for 1 year of education and is the discretion of the hiring manager.

Nice To Haves

Master’s Degree
Experience in Education Technology

Responsibilities

Works in an agile environment fulfilling the role of Product Owner and continuously refines and prioritizes the backlog. Balances stakeholder priorities with product health needs to maximize value and minimize risk.
Engages a cross-functional team of stakeholders, end-users, engineers, UX designers, and Product & Portfolio leaders to understand the problems to solve, inform the product vision, and define software product requirements.
Participates in the creation of and delivers on the software product roadmap and supports the communication of the roadmap to both stakeholders and the delivery team.
Collaborates with the Scrum team to translate the product roadmap into well-defined features and a deep product backlog of sprint-ready user stories with clear acceptance criteria to deliver on the roadmap.
Participates and presents in planning activities and steering committees as needed.
Defines and surfaces risks, assumptions, and trade-offs associated with product features to guide prioritization decisions.
Maintains knowledge on assigned product(s), including the technology used, integrations, and dependencies. Understands the latest relevant technologies, vendors, innovations, and forward-thinking trends.
Participates in RFI and RFP vendor selection process.
Demos working software and facilitates effective sprint demos to stakeholders.
Ensures product quality by testing software features to ensure they satisfy the acceptance criteria and works with stakeholders and end users to coordinate user acceptance testing activities.
Provides support to product release activities including documenting software release notes and coordinating change management to increase product adoption.
Actively participates in the urgent resolution of any high impact production issues.
Maintains and builds relationships with business owners, stakeholders, team members, and key vendors.
Communicates constraints, conflicts, requirements, compatibility issues, and items which could affect project outcome, final performance level or product efficacy. Offers appropriate alternatives and contingency plans.
Performs other job-related duties as assigned.
Works to define and prioritize unknowns and assumptions.
Helps their team deliver value to our customers by making critical trade-off decisions.
Connects work to customer and business KPIs and develops plans for how to improve them.
Understands ROI, Cost Per Acquisition, and Lifetime Value and can conduct these analyses with assistance.
Coordinates with other teams to create experiences that transcend technical boundaries.
Creates connections between product and experiences.
Provides strategic planning around Product Launch timing, communication, and training.
Creates and implements post-launch data collection and analysis plans.
Crafts high quality epics and stories with acceptance criteria.
Develops strong relationships with stakeholders.
Performs other job-related duties as assigned.