Product Development Manager

About the position

The Product Manager will play a crucial role in ensuring our Advisor firms' satisfaction with the Insurance Exchange platform by delivering valuable and innovative capabilities that meet operational requirements and drive business growth. You will act as a bridge between our clients, multiple internal teams (e.g., Implementations, Client Engagement, Platform Support and Operations) and the Development team, ensuring that client feedback and requirements are effectively translated into actionable product features and improvements. You will work closely with other departments to develop product capabilities that are aligned with the greater organization's strategic objectives. This role is crucial in driving client satisfaction and retention, as well as contributing to the success and growth of the company. The Product Manager serves as a key link between clients and product development, ensuring that customer needs are at the forefront of product decision-making.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate closely with onboarding clients, established clients, and internal teams to identify opportunities for product improvements that will enable client business growth.
• Maintain awareness of general product strategy for Insurance Exchange, market needs and trends, and provide input to strategic roadmap content and sequencing.
• Meet with onboarding and established clients to understand their business objectives, challenges, and pain points.
• Conduct thorough needs assessments to identify areas where product enhancements can provide value for one or multiple clients.
• Collaborate closely with the Platform Support team to resolve client issues in real time, help with deeper technical triage, and identify bugs in product code.
• Regularly assess trends in the defect queue and implement creative solutions that act as preventative measures for the trending defects.
• Identify business value of product enhancements and help set product strategy with internal stakeholders.
• Gather and document business requirements.
• Ensure the Development team has a comprehensive understanding of client needs, business context, and timing requirements for delivery.
• Assist in definition of technical requirements.
• Write user stories and define acceptance testing criteria.
• Participate in agile development processes, including sprint planning, backlog grooming, and sprint reviews.
• Facilitate User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
• Collect user feedback and work with the development team to promptly remediate identified issues.
• Execute platform launch and training.
• Continually assess platform benefits and utilization.
• Accountable for platform outcomes.
• Develop, maintain and manage a product roadmap.
• Align the product roadmap with both the company's strategic goals and objectives and the specific requirements of individual clients.
• Utilize data-driven decision-making processes to prioritize product features and enhancements.

Requirements

• Minimum of two years of experience with variable and fixed annuity products.
• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, computer science, or a related field (or equivalent work experience).
• Proven experience (3-5 years) as a Product Manager or similar role, preferably in a client-facing or customer success capacity.
• Strong understanding of Agile and/or other software development methodologies.
• Strong analytical, critical thinking and problem-solving skills.
• Process orientation and attention to detail.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong intrapersonal skills and ability to form collegial, collaborative working relationships with colleagues and clients.
• Enthusiasm for data, data analysis and data-driven applications and interfaces.
• Strong organizational skills to manage multiple priorities and deadlines.
• Adaptability, flexibility, ability to work in a fast-paced, constantly changing environment.
• Customer-focused mindset with a passion for delivering exceptional client experiences.

Nice-to-haves

• Familiarity with project management tools and product management software is a plus.
• Strong Excel, Word, and Power Point skills required.
• Lucid or Visio skills preferred.

Benefits

• Equal opportunity employer.
• Not eligible for overtime pay.