Description of the role

Reporting to the Manager of Product Management, the Product Owner focuses on understanding market needs and challenges in key HA and other Latin American countries. The goal is to develop high-value digital products and services within a given portfolio. They are accountable for providing overall product management leadership by establishing a strategic vision for their portfolio, contracting and managing subject matter experts, setting budgets, seeking market feedback, and ensuring efficacy. The Product Owner works closely with marketing, sales, production, and digital groups. You will drive the growth and ongoing development of your portfolio to support the sales and marketing teams across the region in identifying, assessing, and prioritizing market opportunities and customer pain points, as well as responding to competitor activity. Working closely with sales, marketing, and customer insights colleagues, you are also responsible for contributing to go-to-market plans for our courseware products.

 

About the team

This is an exciting opportunity to be part of our International Higher Education Product Management team. We are an incredibly supportive, diverse and collaborative group. We partner with customers in the higher education sector to provide world-class products and services that meet their needs and those of their learners, both today and tomorrow.

 

Key responsibilities

List management 

● Build discipline and market expertise for your portfolio

● Maintain and build a profitable, well-balanced, and up-to-date portfolio

● Manage author and subject matter relationships and communications

● Collaborate with colleagues from Product, Sales & Marketing, Efficacy & Learning Research teams to innovate and create products that improve learner outcomes

● Develop and maintain excellent understanding across Pearson’s digital courseware product models and feature sets.

 

Market research and customer insights 

● Scope, lead, and manage research activity to maintain understanding of educator and learner needs

● Identify, understand, and represent subject, educator, and learner needs in your portfolio

● Identify customer/learner problems-to-be-solved and opportunity size, identify possible solutions and test problem-solution and product-market fit

● Identify competitors to new and existing products and complete analyses to inform business cases and product plans

 

Strategy 

Build and maintain an understanding of educator and learner challenges and needs in HA. Scan for, and respond to, market trends, challenges, and opportunities as well as share customer insights and feedback on new and existing products Use data as an integral part of the product development process Working in partnership with sales colleagues, provide support and information around your portfolio to help colleagues secure new business.

Go-to-market and customer experience 

● Lead market development activity for new digital products, shaping strategies to build an early adopter community

● Be accountable for the customer experience of products in your portfolio

● In collaboration with sales and marketing colleagues, agree go-to-market strategies and plans for your portfolio

● Act as an ambassador for your portfolio, generating excitement and enthusiasm internally and externally

 

Required skills, knowledge, and experience

A good understanding of the product management process Extensive understanding of education and learning, preferably higher education Entrepreneurial and able to use own initiative and judgement, and make appropriate decisions Excellent organizational and analytical skills Able to prioritize to deliver portfolio strategy, ensuring that it stays on track to achieve its strategic objectives Exceptional communication, influencing, negotiation, and presentation skills Strong collaborator, able to work effectively in cross functional teams and in a fast-paced environment Skilled ability in the use of market research techniques such as surveys, focus groups, questionnaire design, observation, etc. Experience of working directly with customers, building relationships, and developing communities both in person and online Creative thinking and customer/learner empathy Familiarity with digital content development and instructional design is an asset