Director Product Management at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is a learning technology company committed to delivering connected solutions that engage learners, empower educators and improve student outcomes. As a leading provider of K–12 core curriculum, supplemental and intervention solutions, and professional learning services, HMH partners with educators and school districts to uncover solutions that unlock students’ potential and extend teachers’ capabilities.

HMH serves more than 50 million students and 4 million educators in 150 countries. For more information, visit www.hmhco.com **

What You'll Do**

The Director, Core Product Management & Strategy is a pivotal role on the Core Math PM&S team who will lead as the strategist, P&L manager, and spokesperson for all assigned Math solutions, currently focused on the Into Math product line. The Director, PM&S drives full lifecycle strategy, implementation, and market success of the assigned programs within the Core Math K-12 product portfolio, including product creation, product roadmap, pricing and offerings, overall business case and, go-to-market strategy.

This position will drive strategy and problem discovery for the Into Math and Into AGA core solutions math product lines. This person will be instrumental in product discovery, development, and delivery and coordinates with product management teams in other lines of business, Sales, Finance, the Revenue Operations, Global Supply, Marketing, and other internal groups to drive customer success and achieve business goals.

The Director role reports to and is a key partner to the VP, Product Management & Strategy of Math K-12 Core Solutions to coordinate closely on all decisions, actions, and development plans that impact the assigned math and product portfolios, as well as being a key people leader on the team. **

Responsibilities**

Market and Product Strategy:

• Develop and execute a comprehensive product strategy for the Into Math product line, aligning with HMH’s overall goals.
• Proactively drive problem discovery in the market by interviewing customers, recent evaluators and untapped, potential customers. Validate urgent problems to show their pervasiveness in the market using lean-agile methodologies.
• Evaluate product-market fit for the Into Math product line on an ongoing basis, using data-driven analysis to conduct win/loss analysis and understand the buying process
• Articulate and leverage the organization’s unique abilities to deliver value to the market.
• Identify competitive and alternative offerings in the market and assess their strengths and weaknesses.
• Develop a strategy for winning against the competition.
• Inventory HMH assets (technical, skills, services, patents, other) and determine ways that they can be leveraged.
• Map needs with target markets and analyze the market segments to actively pursue.
• Ensure that the targeted segments are large enough to support the current and future business of the product line.
• Determine which channels best align with your markets’ buying preferences

Business Strategy

• Perform objective analysis of potential market opportunities to provide a basis for investment, articulating market learnings and quantifying the risk, including a financial model.
• Establish a pricing model, schedules, guidelines and procedures.
• Determine the most effective way to deliver a complete solution to an identified market problem. Where you have gaps in your offering, analyze whether to buy, build or partner to complete the solution for your market.
• Monitor and analyze key performance indicators to determine how well the product is performing in the market, how it impacts the company operations, and ultimately, how it contributes to profit.

Product Planning And Lifecycle

• Position the product by its ability to solve market problems.
• Create internal positioning documents that will be used to develop external messages focused on each key buyer or persona.
• Define the archetypical users of your products or services through user personas.
• Articulate and prioritize personas and their problems through requirements so that the appropriate products can be built.
• Build an effective relationship and team between PM&S and development
• Serve as a checkpoint along the way to provide context and clarification to development
• Illustrate market problems in a “story” that puts the problem in context. Use scenarios are one component of requirements.
• Manage proactive communications with relevant stakeholders from strategy through execution.

Launch And Support

• Plan, execute and measure effectiveness of strategic launches.
• Provide needed market and solution information to support the operations group.
• Communication & Supervision:
• Maintain strong, ongoing channels of communication with sales force, Marketing, Learning Experience Design, Technical Product Management, Content Delivery, and other internal departments
• Lead cross-functional teams to execute processes and plans

What You'll Need

• Bachelor's Degree
• Minimum 7 years of industry experience in K12 educational technology and/or Higher Ed
• Minimum 5 years in product management
• Experience using lean-agile and design thinking methodologies to develop and launch products

Preference will be given to candidates who also have

• People Leadership experience
• Experience with STEM background
• Experience in an entrepreneurial or start-up environment
• MBA or Masters
• Pragmatic Marketing Framework certification

Skills Needed To Be Successful

• Demonstrated strong leadership skills
• Superior verbal and written communication skills; superior presentation skills
• Superior inter-personal skills with all levels including executive management
• Demonstrated conceptual & analytical thinking; vision; leadership & management; prioritization; collaboration; decision-making; negotiation; problem-solving; tactical execution; product & market knowledge.

Physical Requirements

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing).
• The person in this position needs to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and on-camera online meetings

Benefits And Salary Range

Salary Range - $110,000 to $130,000. Our salary ranges are based on national averages. We have wide ranges so we can be flexible and determine compensation based on a number of factors including the candidate’s skills, experience, education, and location.

Our Culture and Benefits - https://careers.hmhco.com/content/culture_benefits **

Application Deadline**

The application window for this position is anticipated to close on March 1, 2024. We encourage you to apply as soon as possible. The posting may be available past this date but is not guaranteed.

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) is fully committed to Equal Employment Opportunity and to attracting, retaining, developing and promoting the most qualified employees without regard to race, gender, color, religion, sexual orientation, family status, marital status, pregnancy, gender identity, ethnic/national origin, ancestry, age, disability, military status, genetic predisposition, citizenship status, status as a disabled veteran, recently separated veteran, Armed Forces service medal veteran, other covered veteran, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local law. We are dedicated to providing a work environment free from discrimination and harassment, and where employees are treated with respect and dignity. We actively participate in E-Verify.