Commercial Product Manager for a small B2B media business – London
- Full time – hybrid (generally 2-3 days in office / 2-3 days remote p/w)
- We would consider a four-day week PT applicant, for pro rata salary
We’re looking for a commercially oriented product manager to own an early-stage data product which forms a small but powerful part of a wider B2B media company – our B2B data product, Unicorn. This isn't a role for a dedicated technical product manager.
We need someone who's as comfortable speaking to clients and prospects as they are working with Jira and numbers. You'll be leading roadmap and technical development and you’ll be responsible, alongside sales, for driving growth in new sales and retention, getting involved in sales calls and demos, marketing and commercial strategy as much as product dev.
You’ll be responsible for delivering on and shaping product strategy, roadmap generation and more, and be a significant stakeholder in customer success, go‑to‑market planning and value proposition definition.
https://www.unicorndataservice.com/
This is a great opportunity for a product owner or junior PM to take on a product in full in a startup‑style state, and take a slightly different track to technical product managers.
Preferred business experience and skills
- 2+ years’ product experience (eg product owner, junior product manager, or similar) within media, research or software
- Experience of data information products an advantage but not essential
- Legal / professional services sector experience an advantage but not essential
- Official/certified training in product management would be an advantage, verifiable in‑role training also advantageous
- A logical mind and an interest or even facility/training in the technical side of the role, such as SQL/databases, UI/UX, etc
Overview
We’re looking for a commercial product manager looking to take the next step in their career and own a new and developing data product for the legal sector.
You will in be a team of one but you will not be alone, with access to internal dedicated assistance and outside technical/dev and DPO capabilities, and team growth in the plan as we bring in revenue. This means you'll need to get your hands dirty on the guts of the product and BAU, as well as being able to think and act strategically. Bringing this product to success will mean being able to hire in the future, and other roles in the business are involved in the product.
About the product
Our product is a data service for companies selling products and services to law firms, holding data on contacts and business accounts. We soft launched in August 2020 as a list service and since then have launched and iterated UI‑led versions of the product. The product is still technically in beta, with PowerBI‑based front end, with a dedicated web setup in the longer‑term roadmap.
https://www.unicorndataservice.com/
We need a dedicated product manager to drive the product and business unit forwards, to develop a product and service that users can get ever more value from; and to be deeply involved in gaining new accounts and retaining clients.
What do we need a product manager to do?
- Carry out customer listening with existing clients and prospects to determine what they think of the product/service, what would get them to renew/buy, and how to develop the product in line with customer needs
- Act as the expert in the room for the product with the commercial team, and take part in sales calls and demos with prospects and help get them ‘over the line’
- Own the product roadmap, planning and delivering continuous product improvement, across:
- The data points the service should store; including creating the processes to source and build that data
- Back‑end and front‑end improvements
- Integration with other Burlington Media platforms
- Manage third parties such as our data verifying/cleansing partner
- Manage ad hoc and regular contractors
- Work with internal and external people on development of go‑to‑market strategy
- Focus on legal and compliance strategy for the product
- Marketing and content creation from the data
- Hold operational (spend) financial responsibility for the product area
- Work closely with the sales team on prospect targeting and pipeline
- Help the wider business understand what you are doing, how and why, and to communicate product development and commercial progress
What we expect you to be able to do/skills we think you will need?
- Agile working. You will need to develop the product using an Agile methodology, with an awareness that Agile is new to the business. You’ll need to be able to prioritise work, manage resources, deliver an MVP to scope and iterate based on customer insight. You’ll set and measure outcomes so we are clear on what ‘good’ looks like. Skill level – we expect you to be able to do this fluently and have experience in it.
- Experience of working within constraints. You can identify constraints, can communicate these to stakeholders and work within them. You will also know how to challenge the validity of constraints and be creative in problem‑solving. You can ensure standards are being met while avoiding scope‑creep. Skill level – we expect you to be able to do this fluently and have experience in it.
- Financial ownership. You will understand the need for commercial goals for the business unit and your part in achieving them. You will need to create mini business cases/explanations for spending. You should be able to prioritise spending based on return on investment. Skill level – You will have worked with budgets and business cases, and you will understand commercial goals, but you may not have been responsible for spend or commercial goals.
- User focus. You will need to be our user researcher and represent users internally. You understand the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You can champion user research to focus on all users. You can prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. You can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to be used. Skill level – We expect you to be able to do this fluently and have experience in it.
- Life‑cycle perspective. You should be able to manage product phases, and recognise when to move from one stage of a product life cycle to another, making sure you bring the business with you. Skill level – We expect you to have at least been involved in this before and fully understand it.
- Operational management. You should know how to design operational processes for the running and maintenance of products or services throughout their product life cycle. You can redesign operational processes, amend existing processes, and plan and put into operation the stages of a new product or service development. You can act as the escalation point for operational issues and can fix complex operational issues. You know how to overcome operational constraints to deliver a successful product or service. Skill level – You will have a working understanding of this area and be willing to take on responsibility for it rapidly.
- Best practice awareness. You know the fundamentals of product management best practice and how to apply tools, terms and concepts in a variety of ways. You can be flexible, consider new ways of working and adapt to change. You are comfortable at introducing others to new concepts and strive to keep yourself abreast of the best ways of working. Skill level – we expect you to have seen this in action and be keen to introduce others to best practice.
- Strategic ownership. You will need to know how to get buy‑in from the business. You can work with scant information and explain it in abstract terms. You can develop a strategy for the product over time. Skill level – We expect you to have been involved in strategy setting before and have an ambition to own strategy for the product in future.
Who will you work with?
- You will be assisted internally by our CRM, marketing and data executive inside the business
- We have dedicated marketing manager resource for Unicorn
- We will review the possibility for further recruitment to the Unicorn business area regularly
- We have external partners for product dev, data verification, data protection (Unicorn already has a consultant DPO) that you will work with regularly
- You will report directly to one of the co‑CEOs - this is an important area of potential for the business
Benefits include
- 25 days (pro rata) annual leave, plus a day off for your birthday, and Xmas Eve
- Generous Westfield health cover for everyday healthcare
- Cycle to work scheme and commuter season ticket loan
- Commit a working day to charity each year on us
- Early finishes on a Friday, even earlier on payday
- Free fortnightly online yoga session
- Free access to our Mortlake office's micro‑gym
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