Product Manager

Title – Product Manager

Location - Remote

About Role:

The Product Manager role is a key leadership role within the Specialized North American Products business unit of Sapiens and must have a strong understanding of product management technique as well as the insurance ecosystem.  A strong background in Workers’ Compensation is highly desired. This position will drive the vision and oversee all research and development initiatives related to our CoreSuite for Workers’ Compensation technology solutions.

The Product Manager represents a key interface between various project teams, industry analysts, eco-system partners, customers and other groups within the organization.  This requires a high level of expertise in the workers compensation industry as well as the product, as you will be called upon to help assist with the vision for the ongoing growth of the product as well as lead RFI / RFP responses and collaboration with Industry Analysts.  The Product Owner Manager will have line management responsibilities for the Product Consultant analysts (BA family) and report to the Sr VP Client Services.

Essential Functions/Responsibilities

(List major job responsibilities that an employee must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation)

• Drive product vision and oversee R&D initiatives.
• Work closely with the development team to ensure our solutions are innovative, efficient, and meet the needs of our clients.
• Works with other members of the SNAP Leadership team to drive strategic initiatives.
• Lead communication with Market Analysts.  Primary point of contact for market analysts which includes preparing responses to RFIs, providing them with updates on our product roadmap, gathering feedback, and incorporating their insights into our solutions.  
• Identify market needs and opportunities through a wide variety of sources (User Community, Market Analysts, RFPs, etc) and generate innovative product offerings and concepts that solve key pain points.
• Complete market analyses for new concepts: define market needs, size markets/segments, analyse competitive offerings, determine distinctive competencies, define channel strategy, etc. Draw conclusions that result in recommended product strategy.
• Point contact to lead solutions with eco-partners.  Collaborate with eco-partners to develop and implement solutions that enhance our Workers’ Compensation technology offerings.  This involves working with the corporate team to identify partnership opportunities and managing ongoing relationships.
• Lead response strategy for Request for Proposals (RFPs) and Prospect Demonstrations.   This includes coordinating with cross-functional teams to gather the necessary information, developing compelling proposals, and delivery engaging demonstrations.
• Manage Product Consultant staff who are the lead consultants that design product initiatives, support the sales process, and serve as advisors to the professional services teams.  This includes conducting focal reviews, perform career planning, create staff training plans, performance reviews, monitor effective utilization and other line management duties as applicable.
• Resource management.  Allocate staffing to projects/assignments as needed and placement of resources for the best fit for the project and the resource.
• Accountable to his/her team for understanding the business environment, processes and deriving practical business-system solutions per the goals of the division.
• Build business cases, working with internal teams to gather costs and pricing.
• For approved concepts, shepherd new products through the New Product Innovation process, obtaining necessary approvals from key stakeholders, including compliance, legal, finance, etc.
• Prepare budgetary forecasts for R&D initiatives.
• Contribute to strategic full-lifecycle product planning process, including individual product plans, product line plans, the product innovation pipeline and product roadmap.
• Develop and execute on plans necessary to successfully drive full product lifecycle.
• Manage cross-functional teams by providing product leadership and daily management throughout development projects from inception to delivery, leading and holding teams accountable to deliver on product vision that solves market needs.
• Define proofs-of-concept and test plans, articulating clear success criteria.
• Meet with sales and customers as needed to gather VOC and to help guide product concepts, POCs and testing.
• Create requirements and drive reviews with internal teams and with customers to ensure clarity and understanding. Work closely with development teams to define iteration content and communicate user context and business requirements with adequate detail, from epics to problem statements, use cases, workflows, wire frames, acceptance criteria, etc. inspiring and providing steady direction to technology teams. Hold teams accountable and ensure that releases deliver product goals on time.
• Collaborate cross-functionally to contribute to and execute on go-to-market plans, working with product marketing, pricing, operations, training and sales.
• Contribute to and manage cross-functional development of User Guides, FAQ documents, training presentations, client presentations, etc. to support successful product launches.
• Responsible for the execution and reporting of the roadmap to ensure delivery and quality results.
• Participates in setting strategic direction of internal products and services.
• Perform other duties as requested.
• Additional, Non-Essential Functions/Responsibilities

Job Related Experience: 

• 5+ years product owner / mgmt. experience creating products for insurers
• 5+ years people management experience
• Expert knowledge of the insurance industry where Workers’ Compensation experience is preferred
• Travel as needed 25% to 50% may be required.

Skills and Abilities: 

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills.
• Very strong ability to work independently to anticipate challenges and work assertively to solve problems with cross-functional team.
• Ability to lead and motivate cross-functional teams. Self-driven to excel in a fast-paced environment.
• Able to generate new ideas and approaches to enhance and create new solutions.
• Experience in leading and managing R&D teams and managing the P&L
• Highly articulate, with excellent written and verbal skills. Able to simply and effectively communicate to diverse audiences at various organizational levels, both internally and externally.
• Well organized and focused on “high value” activities, with excellent ability to prioritize. Able to guide the team to follow the product vision and critical path and produce strong results through others.
• Adept at developing effective working relationships with peers, managers, and senior management within and across organizational lines, and working effectively and cooperatively with customers and vendors.
• Tenacious and delivers results: skilled at working to meet or exceed expectations by remaining focused on achieving critical goals and outcomes.
• Adjusts well to changes, situations and periods of ambiguity (e.g., different management styles, new methods, systems and procedures) and changing priorities within the business and the marketplace.
• Ability to multi-task, with excellent time management skills
• Agile experience
• Working knowledge of business modelling, requirements, and analysis & design disciplines in RUP and of overall iterative software development lifecycle.

Minimum Education: 

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Computer Science, and/or related field; related work experience can be substituted for educational requirement.

At Sapiens, we are dedicated to building a diverse, equitable, and inclusive work environment. We believe that diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences make us stronger and more innovative. We are committed to creating a culture where every individual is valued and can thrive regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, disability, or any other characteristic.

Sapiens is an E-Verified & Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, M/F/D/V.