The Opportunity
Bloomsbury Publishing is looking for a Product Manager to manage products from our award-winning academic digital portfolio, including Drama Online, the forthcoming sister product Screen Studies, and additional projects as assigned, ensuring that the products meet the needs of academic users. The Product Manager will also assist in researching and business planning for new product proposals. The role reports to the Director of Product Management, Digital Resources Division.
The Role
Product Development & Product Management
- Support the Director of Product Management in leading the team’s activity in market research, market analysis and competitor analysis
- Work with the Academic Publishing Director and Editorial leads to develop new digital product ideas from initial concept to proposal stage, by researching content and feature requirements, carrying out competitive analysis and library market research, and contributing to Business Case documents and P&Ls, including market sizing and sales forecasts
- Work with Project Managers, Editorial project leads and Content team during the Design & Development Phases of new products, taking responsibility for product requirements and acceptance criteria, scope and Minimum Viable Product
- Carry out market research with librarians, end-user interviews and User Experience research to ensure that product requirements meet user needs (both before and after launch)
- Use the Bloomsbury platform admin interface to build and configure new sites, working with Marketing and Editorial to agree site layout and visual design elements
- Perform User Acceptance Testing for new development work, ensuring that this meets agreed business requirements
Content Management
- Manage the content requirements for new products: liaising with Production on content conversion and with Editorial on the development of taxonomies
- Responsible for indexing content (overseeing the work of freelance indexers)
- Ensure that content updates and enhancements for digital products are performed to an agreed schedule
Discovery & user engagement
- Manage relationships with discovery services & Knowledge Base vendors, liaising with Project Management to ensure that Bloomsbury’s content is successfully integrated with library systems; investigate prospective new discovery & user engagement tools
Interdepartmental Liaison
- Liaise with sales, marketing and customer services to communicate addition of new content and product enhancements
- Act as ‘product champion’, using product expertise to respond to queries from sales, marketing and customers, troubleshooting and escalating issues as required, and contributing to strategic development of those products
- Monitor sites for bugs and improvements, respond to customer and sales requests for product enhancements, and prioritise requirements based on business priority
- Provide regular website usage analytics reports and advise on opportunities for improving content & features based on analytics
Representation
- Promote the Digital Resources team within the wider company, and demonstrate an aptitude for managerial responsibility
- Represent the company externally, e.g. at meetings with partners, conferences, and presentations to customers
- Channel feedback from the market by meeting end-users through user testing sessions, focus groups, conferences or sales visits
Skills, Knowledge, Experience
- 5 years’ experience of digital product development, with a demonstrable record of delivering successful digital products
- Understanding of the needs of the academic library market and library systems
- Understanding of project management & development processes
- Experience of gathering & interpreting web usage analytics
- Experience of conducting quantitative and qualitative market research
- Excellent implementation and time-management skills
- Excellent eye for detail and a logical, problem-solving approach
- Experience in working with content management systems
- Firm grasp of web usability issues
- Proactive, “can-do” attitude
- Curiosity and willingness to learn
- Passion and interest in developing a career in digital product management
- Excellent communication skills (written and verbal)
This role is based at Bloomsbury’s London office, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP.
To apply, please send a CV, covering letter, current salary details and notice period to sally.coleman@bloomsbury.com. Sally Coleman, Human Resources Manager. The closing date for this role is Sunday 18 December 2016.