Product Manager, Digital & Direct Channel

IHG Hotels & Resorts is a leading hospitality company seeking a Product Manager for their Digital & Direct Channel team. The role involves delivering quality products across digital experiences, coordinating with various stakeholders, and managing the end-to-end product lifecycle in an agile methodology.

Responsibilities:

• Lead development and implementation of product strategy: future state based on deep understanding of how the business works, incorporating customer insights, markets, competition, and distribution capabilities as well as the potential “game changing” new functionality and capabilities IHG will require to compete. This should manifest itself in a roadmap of initiatives including small enhancement and content refreshments to existing products as well as new product needs. Identify product opportunities far in advance of obsolescence, drive strategic planning, and articulate topline business requirements
• Lead cross-functional working teams to design, develop, and implement prioritized product roadmap. Source data and craft test plans to ensure data-driven decisioning; use insights to inform priority of work. Proactively seek input from stakeholders to align the roadmap against business and customer needs
• Forecast ROI, regularly report on product performance post launch, drive product adoption, and lead optimization plan. Identifies goals, metrics, and analytics to determine product value; continually makes recommendations and refinements to the product backlog based on learnings
• Manages and grooms the product backlog; makes future decisions based on the value that will be delivered. Monitors research as well as the competitive landscape to recommend the best solutions and ensure that products remain or become best in class
• Formulates, tests and refines assumptions and hypotheses through user research and testing. Creates, prioritizes and accepts user stories; incorporate them into release planning
• Manage product lifecycles: continually evaluate product performance and key customer insights and ensure new product needs are identified far enough in advance to address needs before product obsolescence. Communicate product information: including product roadmap, specifications, value proposition, sales tools training tools and competitive information to stakeholders. Provide status updates to PMO for regular reporting cycles. Writes technical user stories
• Fosters collaboration with team members (Engineering, UX, etc.) to drive value and identify and resolve impediments. Guides more junior team members in strategy, alignment, analysis and execution tasks. Provide regular updates to leaders and partners, sometimes catering the message depending on audience

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, User Experience, Customer Experience, Statistics, Business, or a relevant field of work, or an equivalent combination of education and work-related experienced
• 3-6 years of relevant work experience as a Product Manager in a modern software development company
• Expert knowledge of the IHG digital landscape as well as strong familiarity with competitors and other eCommerce websites to understand trends and best practices. Able to recognize when and how to pivot with ease and effectively deliver
• Demonstrated deep knowledge and understanding in a specific area of expertise including products
• Demonstrated effective verbal and written communication skills for the purpose of providing information to clients, vendors, senior management and staff. Demonstrated ability to present new concepts, research findings, and business outcomes to various groups including corporate clients, senior management, potential vendors, and industry consultants
• Demonstrated program management experience with modern, established product management processes in organizing, planning and executing projects from conception through implementation. Demonstrated attention to detail and ability to manage multiple tasks/clients required
• Demonstrated experience in detailed product development discovery, documentation, and design work. Also demonstrated analytical skills and ability to perform research and use the results of analysis to make effective strategic decisions
• Demonstrated proficiency with MS Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) and ability to adapt tactics and strategies to fast moving, rapidly evolving marketplace required
• Demonstrated ability to use prototyping or simulation in product creation. Experience in formal requirements methodologies such as vision, scope, context, use cases, etc
• Strong storyteller, is able to formulate cohesive messages with meaningful and impactful points that resonate with target audience
• Demonstrated hotel industry knowledge reflecting the entire customer experience journey (reservations – stay – loyalty – on-property, and ongoing relationship management)
• Familiarity with AEM 6.5 Touch UI a plus
• Have an entrepreneurial spirit with a keen eye for identifying new market opportunities and transforming that into an actionable plan
• Thrive in ambiguity where the solution doesn't exist and the problems aren't fully known
• Results driven candidate that can take an idea and develop a strong business case that will become the team's roadmap
• Knowledgeable in technology and enterprise software
• Ability to work and lead across all parts of the organization
• Comfortable and experienced in presenting product vision/strategy to large and senior audiences