Product Manager

Product Manager I Hatfield I Hybrid 2 days a week in the office

Work closely with partners, users and business stakeholders to define clear business requirements and priorities across relevant product areas and act as a bridge between the technical and business worlds. This role will work closely with one or more Engineering Team Leads, to be a key go-to person within a specific product area, sharing responsibility for product realisation to deliver great products and solutions for our clients and stakeholders.

About The Team

Effectively managing Last Mile costs is key to running a successful and profitable e-Commerce operation. The Delivery Operations team looks after the procedures and systems we provide to help our partners plan, execute and monitor their Middle Mile and Last Mile. Delivery is the only physical touchpoint between the retailer and the customer, providing a critical touchpoint to influence customer satisfaction and retention.

Roles & Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership

• Partners with Engineering teams and acts as the go-to person for particular product areas covered by the teams
• Establishes product alignment within Technology being the voice of the vision, strategy and priorities within the product area
• Role models behaviours and applies Ocado Technology principles in day to day work
  
  

Product Knowledge

• Champions the product vision & ensures the plan is in line with vision and goals and continues to be fit for purpose throughout roadmap delivery
• Provides product expertise based on a sound understanding of the platform and capability requirements, signposting to technical knowledge where needed
• Effectively gather user feedback to continuously refine the product roadmap
• Defines scope & prioritises stories to maximise business value
  
  

Insight & Innovation

• Actively seeks out opportunities for incremental value in achieving product goal commitments
• Works with other PMs to continuously improve realisation processes and policies that govern it
• Monitors progress, looking for ways to improve the product & make adjustments based on strategic goals
• Contributes to documentation that is shared with relevant stakeholders as new features are developed and released
• Proactively shares product knowledge, insight and tools with others Ocado Technology and representing Ocado expertise externally when necessary
• Maintains an appropriate level of skills and the necessary capacity to fulfil product realisation responsibilities
  
  

Delivery

• Shares accountability with the Engineering Team Lead to drive the team towards realising defined goals
• Applies fit-for-purpose agile processes, escalating and removing obstacles in workflow wherever required
• Maintains a list of planned work and its order of priority for delivery purposes at an appropriate level of granularity
• Manages expectations within Technology for the rate of delivery required to achieve our platform goals
  
  

Stakeholders

• Applies strong emotional intelligence when working with other teams and departments to manage interdependencies between platforms and products effectively
• Builds strong relationships with stakeholders - establishing methods for obtaining product feedback
• Understands complex concepts and can follow discussion with stakeholders including end users
  
  

Collaboration

• Forms close working relationships with peers and key stakeholders, creating an environment of open collaboration
• Facilitates and works closely with teams in estimation and review sessions, challenging appropriately to meet product goals and achieve product vision
• Works closely with UX teams to ensure product design is focused around usability and quality
  
  

Problem Solving

• Leverages multiple sources of information to analyse user, system, and customer behaviour to diagnose and form clear recommendations
• Evangelises and embeds best practices in tracking, analysis, and data-driven problem solving
• Drives through issues and ambiguity with a structured approach and facilitative approach
  
  

This role description is a summary of the typical functions of the role, not an exhaustive or comprehensive list of possible role responsibilities, tasks and duties.

Knowledge, Skills And Experience

Key Competencies

• You actively lead and role model Ocado Technology behaviours
• You contribute to being part of a high performing product teams, working alongside engineering
• You respond positively to new / changing business requirements and prioritise accordingly
• You are highly organised and able to plan, manage, track and deliver effectively
• You are assertive but diplomatic and have a bias for action, collaboration and optimism
• You proactively solve problems, facilitating decision making processes and comfortable putting together recommendations based on insights drawn from data
• You are comfortable sorting out ambiguity and bring structure and clarity of purpose to a conversation
• You communicate directly and clearly, with a strong emphasis on careful listening
• You don't settle for good enough, you strive for great in every aspect of your work
• You have a great track record of working with engineering and design teams so that people will always want to have you in their teams
• You share knowledge with others internally
• Autonomy – accepts ownership of what they do; relishes empowerment to drive innovation; takes accountability and responsibility for their own own actions.
• Learn Fast – ability to learn fast through experimentation; understands that failing is acceptable; recognises the importance of learning from failure quickly, without attributing blame.
• Leadership – proven ability to inspire, motivate and empower others; able to make tough decisions and handle difficult situations and face major challenges with positivity, confidence and pragmatism; adept communicator.
  
  

Key Experience

• Relevant experience in the software technology industry
• Deep understanding of the SDLC processes. Experience of working on the engineering position (software, cloud, SRE, other) and technical background strongly recommended.
• Experience in working with at least one cloud platform (AWS, GCP or other).
• Strong understanding of networking and runtime areas in cloud infrastructure
• Ability to read and understand the software technical documentation
• Passion to technology, curiosity and ability to make a constant discovery of the cloud platforms offering and conduct analyses of the complementary tools available on the market
• Experience with managing products built by engineering teams
• Knowledge of working with multiple functional areas, including product management, engineering, UX/UI
• Proven ability to plan, manage, track and deliver on commitments
• Ability to work in a team effectively and / or work autonomously
• Ability to handle multiple competing priorities in a fast-paced environment
• Defining product roadmaps, building collaboratively with design and engineering peers, and shipping at scale
• Capture, documentation and communication of requirements to support product realisation
  
  

What We Offer You

Our employee benefits are designed for you, we care about people and we’ve ensured we have a wealth of benefits that focus on your well-being. We regularly review our benefits to ensure we are supporting our employees appropriately.

• 30 days ‘working from anywhere in the world’ policy
• Wellbeing support through dedicated apps and an Employee Assistance Programme
• 25 days annual leave, rising to 27 days after 5 years service (plus optional holiday purchase)
• Pension scheme (various options available including employer contribution matching up to 7%)
• Generous Private Medical Insurance (within the first month of joining!)
• Income Protection (can be up to 50% of salary for 3 years) and Life Assurance (3 x annual salary)
• 22 weeks paid maternity/primary parent leave and 6 weeks paid paternity leave (once relevant service requirements complete)
• Train Ticket loan (interest-free)
• Cycle to Work Scheme
• Free shuttle bus to and from Hatfield Train Station to the Hatfield offices
• Free shuttle bus to and from Welwyn Garden City Train Station to the Welwyn Garden City offices
• Opportunity to participate in Sharesave and Buy as You Earn share schemes
• 15% discount on Ocado.com and free delivery for all employees (within the first month of joining!
  
  

Ocado Group is an equal opportunities employer and as such makes every effort to ensure that all potential employees are treated fairly and equally, regardless of their sex, sexual orientation, marital status, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, age, or disability or union membership status.