MS Product Manager

Job description

Nokia is a global leader in the technologies that connect people and things. With state-of-the-art software, hardware and services for any type of network, Nokia is uniquely positioned to help communication service providers, governments, and large enterprises deliver on the promise of 5G, the Cloud and the Internet of Things. Serving customers in over 100 countries, our research scientists and engineers continue to invent and accelerate new technologies that will increasingly transform the way people and things communicate and connect.

Mission:

The Portfolio Manager manages Portfolio Management Manager and drives R&D, sales, and Delivery Capability requirements to manage a product/solution/service's life cycle. Analyzes market opportunities, defines customer needs, and keeps track of emerging technologies. Defines portfolio requirements and development priorities. Creates the portfolio business plan, tracks progress of the plan, manages cost and margins, sets pricing recommendations, and is responsible for overall portfolio profitability. Creates new portfolio strategies. The portfolio manager drives new portfolio introduction (NPI), post-launch portfolio life cycle management, and end-of-life portfolio management. Could act as liaison to tendering teams by coordinating creation of value propositions. (
Partnership for moving up in the value chain to provide high end services like Telco+IT Convergence and also moving to larger eco-system for Field Operations Partnerships.

Key responsibilities:

1. Inbound Marketing

2. Portfolio Management

5. Product Execution (DR1 to DR5 or M0 to C6)

6. Post GA Customer Management

7. Business Office

Tracking and feedback loop on Product Financial data: pricing, cost and profitability analysis, revenue forecast

8. Product Marketing

COMPETENCY

BEHAVIOR

DECISION MAKING

Applies broad knowledge and experience when addressing complex issues

Makes decisions in a timely manner

Makes tough and pragmatic decisions when necessary

Takes responsibility for own and shared decisions

Uses sound judgment and analysis to reach decisions

BUSINESS ACUMEN

Keeps up to date on technological and market evolution as well as competitors’ activities

Anticipates future trends, business opportunities and obstacles

Balances risk with potential gain

Demonstrates a consistent understanding of how the organization generates profit and manages cost

Takes appropriate action based on key financial and other business performance indicators

Translates market knowledge into business opportunities

STRATEGIC THINKING

Communicates the company’s strategy and foster the development of a common vision

Creates strategies that balance short and longer-term results

Identifies efforts that will have the greatest strategic impact

Takes a global approach when assessing needs and trends and when developing strategies and solutions

Understands the organization’s mission, strategies, strengths and weaknesses

BUSINESS AWARENESS

Understands customer's needs and their business context

Creates sound estimates of market size and market share

Has an extensive understanding of the competition and their products

Collects and maintains information related to market and competitors

COMMUNICATION

Conducts project/product lessons learned sessions and assures that these are archived and used to preserve best practices and prevent repeating mistakes

Confirms and delivers project/product information with accuracy, conciseness and thoroughness

Manages Communication effectively across Alcatel-Lucent organizations, functions and teams

CONSULTING & CUSTOMER BUSINESS SUPPORT

Analyzes and captures customer requirements and expectations

Includes in the requirement definition the reasons for the requirement (to which market or customer validated need does it answer), use cases as well as assumptions if any

Includes non-functional requirements like external design, performances, maintenance, security and safety, regulatory…

Understands key market evolution from end-user perspective, customer positioning, revenues & costs model

CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Participates in product planning with core team to develop future releases that will lead to either a maintenance or revenue-driven release.

Participates in the coordination and completion of new product releases in accordance with the PDP process.

Serves as subject-matter expert for dedicated customers (tech pubs, training, peers)

FINCANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Contributes to and tracks cost savings activities in order to achieve financial and overall project/product objectives

Displays a thorough knowledge of business model in the legal/governmental, industry, markets, customers and competitive environment.

Drives improvement in the financial aspects of the project/product including revenue, cash flow and profit

Maintains financial objectives throughout the project/product life cycle

NEGOTIATION

Demonstrates openness to innovative and creative solutions from others – including opponents

COMPETENCY

BEHAVIOR

OFFER & OPPORTUNITY MANAGEMENT

Understands market trends and competitive environment and uses them to identify sales opportunities

PARTNER & CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Aware of client requirements trends and related budget issues

Builds trust and confidence to manage customers and stakeholders

Conducts periodic reviews with the customer (meetings and/or conf -calls) in order to give evidence about the progress made in the analysis/resolution of all open issues.

Interacts with the client and contribute to analyzing and formalizing business requirements, by understanding end-user current and future expectations

PLANNING & EXECUTION

Establishes goals for project/product performance through strategically oriented metrics

QUALITY & KNOWLEDGE

Ensures project/product documents and records are created, controlled, approved and distributed in line with the Alcatel-Lucent corporate policy and customer requirements.

ARCHITECTURE & SOLUTION BUILDING

Translates complex business requirements into a technical solution


Qualifications 

Skills and knowledge
 

– Develops a deep understanding of customers' needs, issues, challenges, objectives, and about their business and operating environment
– Takes into account and distinguishes the needs of various customer stakeholders
– Formalizes products/solutions/services requirements based on knowledge of customers' needs, objectives, business and operating environment
– Identifies effective segmentation models, taking into account the characteristics of the customers in the segment, the growth rate of the segment, the competition within the segment, and the profitability of the segment.
– Frequently adapts segmentation models to the evolution of both customers needs and market environment
– Creates sound estimates of market size and market share
 

– Has an extensive and deep knowledge of the industry, maintained through multiple sources of information, and uses it to identify market opportunities
– Analyses the industry landscape and evolution through various factors : political environment, regulatory, economic, social or societal, technological, or others.
– Uses and carries out market research to strengthen knowledge of industry and competition, and generate additional ideas for opportunities
– Has an extensive understanding of the competition and their products
– Evaluates competitors products, including cost analysis of components, through reverse engineering or other techniques
– Collects and maintains information related to market and competitors
 

– Evaluates market attractiveness by considering market size, revenue potential, profit potential, ease of competitor entry and exit, the power of buyers, the power of suppliers, the availability of substitute products and the price competition
– Builds a vision of the future market evolution
– Translates market knowledge and vision into business opportunities and a product strategy, which meets internal financial, share, and quality targets, addresses target customer requirements, builds a differential advantage and has the right performance/cost tradeoff.
– Breaks down product strategy into effective long-term and short-term product roadmaps, which address high runner ROI elements as a priority
– Periodically reviews the product strategy and long-term roadmap with all stakeholders to align with the evolution of customer needs, market and competitors evolution, and corporate strategy
– Communicates clearly and concisely the product strategy to all internal stakeholders with a need for this information
 

– Participates to the product marketing plan definition and update with Marketing teams, by addressing the strategic context, the market environment for the product, the marketing mix strategies and tactics (related to product, pricing or promotion), product launches definition, budgets, risks analysis, etc.
– Runs make vs buy analysis, taking into account all the costs, market window constraints, right resources availability, intellectual property, maintenance, etc.
– Identifies an executive champion for important product launches
– Uses knowledge of the industry, segmentation models, competitive situation, as well as technological constraints to determine the market window for project launch
– Sets up and manage a project to ensure successful launch executed by a cross-functional team
– Establishes measurements to determine product performance, like forecast versus actual sales, average price compared with plan, duration of the sales cycle, percentage of shipments on time, usage of discounts, customer satisfaction ratings…
– Defines discontinuation criteria for the product and uses process which will ensure that the discontinuation decision will be taken when needed
 

– Gets involved in or sets up creative thinking activities, with a strong focus on introducing breakthrough innovation in new products/solutions/services
– Uses the PLC decision reviews as a support to define and select projects for new products or enhancements
– Works with product architects and development teams to assess the feasibility of new features and the evolution of the product
– For each product, delivers a product description which includes a clear and validated value proposition (linked to each of the marketing mix activities: product definition, pricing, etc.), the list of product requirements, and a positioning statement which shows how the product will enable market share growth
– Demonstrates a thoughtful understanding of existing and future technologies and platforms, and makes use of this broad knowledge to define the most relevant development options
– Works across the boundaries of the organizations to participate to the definition of multi-products or multi-technologies solutions
– Takes decisions related to a specific product (including discontinuing the product) by considering the whole portfolio situation and the maturity of each product in its life cycle
– Works to resolve product quality issues by working with Quality and Customer Care teams, and keeps customers updated on important issues
– Validates or adjusts the roadmap based on design-to-cost improvements to meet profit targets and to beat competitive benchmarks