Product Manager
Bangalore, India or Chennai, India
The Opportunity:
Anthology delivers education and technology solutions so that students can reach their full potential and learning institutions thrive. Our mission is to empower educators and institutions with meaningful innovation that’s simple and intelligent, inspiring student success and institutional growth.
The Power of Together is built on having a diverse and inclusive workforce. We are committed to making diversity, inclusion, and belonging a foundational part of our hiring practices and who we are as a company.
For more information about Anthology and our career opportunities, please visit www.anthology.com.
The ideal candidate for our Product Manager position has a solid understanding of users, the marketplace, and the competition and of future trends for the domain or type of system being developed. The Product Manager writes and supports requirements for the product functionality being developed and prioritizes the product backlog. The Product Manager is always available and actively engaged with the teams.
The Product Manager role requires working closely with key stakeholders throughout the organization and beyond, so this person must be able to communicate different messages to different people about the project at any given time. The Product Manager works closely with the Product Management organization to understand the market needs. This person is responsible for conveying the market needs to the Scrum team in the form of Features and Product Backlog Items. The Product Manager is also responsible for prioritizing the backlog based on business value and serving as the point person for the coders and testers on the Scrum team. The Product Manager participates in standard Scrum ceremonies including stand-ups, backlog grooming, sprint planning, poker planning, release planning and release readiness. The Product Manager is also responsible for signing off on features to ensure they meet the agreed upon acceptance criteria and overall market need.
Primary responsibilities will include:
- Developing Features and Product Backlog Items for all new functionality, presenting Features and Product Backlog items to the product teams in grooming and design sessions, ensuring that new functionality meets the acceptance criteria, so the work can be designated as complete
- Assisting the Scrum team with release planning, functional research, and release testing
- Assigning prioritized items (Features and Product Backlog Items) from the Product Backlog to the Scrum Teams (team or teams), participating in team planning meetings and providing advice, clarification, and guidance during the execution of each Sprint
- Championing sufficient customer engagement during the development through, for example, product demonstration and customer feedback
- Inspecting, accepting, or rejecting completed work from the development Sprint
- Completing final sign-off of the product release at the required different levels
- Owning internal stakeholder management, engaging with internal stakeholders (i.e. other PMs, Professional/Implementation Services, Global Support Services, Senior Leadership, Design (UI/UX), Accessibility, etc.) to ensure that all relevant inputs to the product backlog have been collected and prioritized
- Ensuring that the product backlog is constantly prioritized to secure delivery of maximum business value. In determining relative business value of the backlog items, the Product Manager uses necessary inputs such as customer priorities and the need to address technical debt. The resultant product backlog is aligned with various stakeholders
- Building positive relationships and trust through on-time delivery, high quality, and continuous innovation
- Product Knowledge – is or becomes a subject matter expert in the relevant product domains. It is expected that the Product Manager will quickly become an expert in the product from a feature/functionality perspective
- Market Knowledge – developing an understanding of target market and user base and using this to guide product decisions
- Demonstrating proficient use and knowledge of established standards and procedures
- Attending and presenting at industry trade shows, customer meetings, and our Annual User Conference
The Candidate:
Required skills/qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
- At least 2-3 years of relevant product management, product owner, or business analysis experience with 5-8 years of overall professional experience
- Proficiency in Agile or Scrum methodologies to manage product development cycles, sprints, and iterative enhancements
- Experience of working with CRM platforms (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, etc.)
- Understanding of CRM systems integrations with other systems and tools
- Basic technical skills as well as college management industry knowledge and experience
- Skilled at meeting facilitation and presentation
- Strong time management skills and project management skills
- Must thrive in a collaborative, time-compressed and dynamic environment
- Skilled at writing acceptance criteria
- Familiarity with requirements management tool, such as Azure DevOps, JIRA, Aha
- Experience with requirements writing
- Excellent communication and coordination skills
- Fluency in written and spoken English
Preferred skills/qualifications:
- Experience in Story Mapping
- Experience with CRM functions and processes relevant to the higher education context
- Good understanding of university operations, student lifecycle management, admissions processes, and academic functions
- Ability to analyze data related to user behavior, system performance, and product metrics to make informed decisions and drive improvements
- Understanding of CRM integrations with other system specifically to Higher Ed e.g. learning management systems (LMS), student information systems (SIS), etc.
- Ability to facilitate multiple people towards a common goal
- Project management experience
- Scrum Product Owner certification (CSPO)
- Product company exposure
Pay range is $x - $x/year depending upon experience. We use national and industry-specific survey data to assist in determining compensation. Additionally, we consider factors such as external market rate, budget for the role, and the compensation rates of current employees performing the same function. Some roles will have variable pay.
This job description is not designed to contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties, or responsibilities that are required. Nothing in this job description restricts management's right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities at any time.
Anthology is an equal employment opportunity/affirmative action employer and considers qualified applicants for employment without regard to race, gender, age, color, religion, national origin, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, protected military/veteran status, or any other legally protected factor.