Business Analyst / Product Manager
Job Description: What You’ll Do
The Product Manager reports directly to the Managing Director and is responsible for defining the what, why, and of the product that the development team builds. This means they lead cross-functional teams from a product's conception all the way through to its launch.
Here are the core aspects of the role that all product managers should feel accountable for:
Strategy
The product manager is responsible for helping set a product vision and strategy. Their job is to clearly articulate the business value to the client or company so they understand the intent behind the new product or product release. The product manager owns the roadmap and must prioritize building what matters most to achieve the strategic goals and initiatives behind the product.
Ideation and Business / Functional Requirements Definition
Every organization wants better ideas — but it is tough to manage and prioritize them. Product managers own the creative process of generating, developing, and curating new ideas. They determine which ideas should be promoted into features to push the product strategy forward — namely those that will achieve key objectives for the product line and business. To this end, they also ensure that feedback and requests are seamlessly integrated into their product planning and development processes. Product managers then communicate the status of ideas back to the customers, partners, and internal team members who submitted them.
The product manager starts by defining the goals and KPIs of the project, articulating the end vision and starts to outline the initial Information Architecture for the UI and back-end platforms.
Depending of the size of the project, Product Managers then either develop or work with a UI specialist to map out the screens, page flows, templates and/or wireframes for the product.
Product Managers take a long list of features, and helps rank them against strategic goals and initiatives. This requires making difficult trade-off decisions based on the value that new features will deliver to customers and to the business. The product manager is also responsible for defining and documenting the requirements for each feature and the desired user experience. Product managers work closely with development team on the technical specifications and ensure that teams have all of the information they need to deliver a complete product to market.
Building great products is invigorating. Successful products are built and adopted by customers when a group of committed, focused, and passionate team members play their positions to the best of their abilities. This starts with a strong product manager who feels a deep sense of responsibility for their role and managing what is defined above.
Releases
Product managers must plan what their teams will deliver and the timeline for implementation. This holds true no matter which development methodology the development team uses. The product manager is responsible for defining the release process and coordinating all of the activities required to bring the product to market. This involves bridging gaps between different functions within the company and aligning all of the teams involved — namely marketing, sales, and customer support.
Responsibilities also include managing dependencies in and across releases to complete release phases and milestones.
Account Management
Product managers are direct interfaces with our clients and are expected to work closely with clients and stakeholders to define requirements and gain approvals. This means frequent visits to client site and excellent reporting of progress and new requests.
Management and Business Development
Some of our best Product Managers were actually our best sources of business development because they kept their eyes and ears open for new opportunities at existing clients.
In some cases you will have a small team to manage (younger business associates and business analysts usually). At times you will be asked to help recruit, train, and mentor our Product Management team members and lead the development of organization-wide standards, policies and rules of engagement.
Qualifications
Where You’ve Been & The Skills You Now Possess
The ideal candidate for this position will have:
Proven work experience in Digital Product Management or Business Analysis
Solid technical background with understanding and/or hands-on experience with defining whats needed to launch a website or mobile app.
Proven track record of managing all aspects of a successful product throughout its lifecycle including: leading the discovery and requirements gathering process, managing and /or working with cross-functional teams (some of them remote), and digital product roadmapping
Strong problem solving skills and willingness to roll up one’s sleeves to get the job done;
Polished, poised, professional, and can develop a strong client presence;
Well organized, can handle stress, ambiguity and deadlines.;
User / Customer Experience Design (UX/CX) and experience defining UI Design / Wireframes is preferrable
A passion for building websites and mobile apps and how they can best be leveraged by large businesses – particularly in the Saudi market
Aptitude to develop and maintain strong working relationships with both internal and external stakeholders
Outstanding written and verbal communication skills (both English and Arabic required)
Hard-working with an eagerness to take on new challenges, grow, and learn
Additional Information
Why Digital | Advantage?
You might be asking...so what’s in it for me? Aside from a competitive compensation package, you will have the chance to work with many leading organizations across KSA and the GCC and help them adapt to the disruptive changes brought on by the rise digital solutions. Finally, if you are so inclined, you may be directly involved in the development and launch of our own proprietary set offerings and transition to serve as a Co-Founder of a product we start developing in-house and eventually spinout.