The purpose of the S&P Creation Products department is to enable operational excellence and future readiness of Apparel, Footwear and A&G Product Creation, covering global Creatin functions and Sourcing, incl. supply partners. The key objectives of the department are: 

• Translating strategic direction & demand into a product area strategy and product portfolio which is well-balanced between solving operational problems (12-month horizon) and enabling future readiness (3+ years horizon)
• Executing product ownership for all digital products in the creation area.
• Executing business process ownership on an operational level.
• Provisioning of change management & support for these processes & the related systems.

As a Director Product Ownership at S&P Creation Products, you are responsible for the quality and strategic impact of a wide range of digital products and related processes within the creation area. Together with the product owners and product teams you work on continuously improving and evolving the product area in order to maximize the value for all internals customers.

Partnering with your business customers, Tech and all stakeholder groups you are responsible to define a robust product backlog, managing capability expansion increments and leading the team towards definition of new functionalities & best practices. Additionally, you will be the strategic interface to all global key stakeholders, including global creation functions, stakeholders in the global Sourcing organization and adjacent Global teams such as Digital Brand Solutions, driving user engagement and satisfaction, as well as ensuring future readiness.

Key Responsibilities 

Scope:   Accountable for a specific product / set up products

1. Product Strategy & Delivery

• Be accountable for the success of the product, considering the value for the consumer and the company (ROI).
• Drive the strategic evolution of the product in line with companywide strategic goals.
• Define the mid to long-term vision and roadmap of the product considering the value for the user community and the company.
• Be accountable for product delivery in line with the roadmap and committed delivery dates.
• Identify and solve dependencies within and beyond your product to ensure efficient delivery.
• Ensure the provision of user training & business support for the product.

2. Demand Management 

• Capture, communicate and drive refined and prioritized Demand via your Product Roadmap and OKRs.
• Create transparency on capacity constraints through review of skill, headcount gaps for alignment with the Product Area Lead.
• Align product Tech demand with other products across the product area.
• Ensure business cases are well prepared in order to control and monitor performance and results of all investments into the product portfolio.

3. Stakeholder Management

• Represent the business for your product, fostering strong relationships with key stakeholders to ensure that their views and requirements are captured in the product backlog
• Act as the ambassador for your product, showcasing the key functionalities, driving product adoption and assuring operational excellence together with Tech peers.
• Manage relationships outside the product efficiently.

4. Backlog Management

• Drive the evolution of the product backlogs in collaboration with the product owners.
• Coach the product analysts in your area to ensure that the product teams are delivering the right enhancements to drive user satisfaction and business value.
• Influence backlog priorities in the own product.
• Influence dependent product backlogs from other products.

5. Monitoring e2e

• Be accountable for monitoring, optimization and enhancement of the configuration, features and functionalities related to the product(s).
• Ensure that objective data sources and feedback are used for the optimization of the product area.

6. Data Ownership for GOPS Product Data

• Drive alignment with the Product Area Lead on the conceptual data model for your product in reference to the entire product area.
• Support alignment of strategy and roadmap across all stakeholder groups – closely working with group data management
• Support the cleanup of reference data and implementation of adequate measures ensuring data quality across creation area.

7. People Management

• Drive product led transformation in your product and build the appropriate structure to be able to manage the product team effectively, identify and develop the future talents and create realistic succession scenarios within the product team.
• Ensure appropriate leadership skills are present at every level by creating a motivational and supportive work environment in which employees are coached, trained and provided with career opportunities through development.
• Promote a high-performance culture by setting clear expectations and individual goals
• Continuously monitor and evaluate team workload and organizational efficiency with the support of data and team feedback and make appropriate changes in order to meet business needs.
• Provide team members/direct reports with clear direction and targets that are aligned with business needs and strategic objectives

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• The qualities necessary to forge strong interpersonal alliances and motivate others at all levels both within and outside the global organization. Leverage relationships effectively to drive individual performance and move the team agenda forward
• Strong analytical skills
• Strong Product Creation / Product Development knowledge
• Strong understanding of Tech products and capabilities
• Demonstrated strategic thinking / Big Picture in supported initiatives
• High business acumen around data architecture, data modeling and process architecture
• Experience in transformation programs and change management projects
• Excellent communication skills and facilitation skills especially when interacting with different levels of business
• Pro- active (engaging & impact-oriented) mindset, ability to think end-to-end
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with different international cultures
• Ability to travel, domestic or international, as required
• Fluent English (verbal and written)
• Excellent presentation skills

Requisite Education and Qualifications: 

• University degree in business administration or a related field

• Minimum 8 years of relevant business experience in experience working in Product Creation / Development / Tech

• 2+ years of experience in leading a team
• Experience in working with stakeholders and experts at various organizational levels
• Experience as a Product Owner or Business Architect in other product areas or domains