At TLScontact, we work with governments from around the world to provide visa and consular services on their behalf to travellers and citizens. Our core expertise, built up in visa processing, enables us to apply our secure processing experience to a wide range of government and citizen services, both abroad and in-country. Harnessing new technology, we support governments in their digital transformation, helping to improve efficiency and enhance customer service.
Currently in our Technology Team in Belgrade we are opening a new vacancy: Product Manager.
Place of Work: Airport city, New Belgrade.
Key responsibilities and deliverables:
1. Product vision and roadmap
- Creates and maintains a long-term, complete, audacious vision and a high-level roadmap that are used in pre-sales and to drive product development activities
- Drives product innovation:
- Leads/facilitates design sprints, innovation workshops,
- Monitors government and technology trends,
- Performs competition analysis / peer studies,
- Leads client co-creation / co-innovation workshops,
- Monitors start-ups, identifies opportunities for acquisition, investment, collaboration and presents them to the senior management,
- Attends/speaks at relevant industry events.
- Orchestrates multiple stakeholders (such as marketing, sales, business operations, finance, business development, bid, and account management) to work with product delivery teams to set priorities for the product roadmap.
- Works with the functional Technology leads (eg Heads of Cyber Security, Software Engineering, Infrastructure, Service Operations) or their delegates to align product vision and roadmaps with security and enterprise architecture guidelines, requirements, and constraints.
- Builds the business case and maintains the financial P&L view for the product. Provides input into IT budgeting process.
- Responsible for knowledge management for the designated product(s). Delivers training courses and workshops to transfer product knowledge, maintains the product wiki section.
2. Customer Experience (CX) mandate
- Drives the strategic CX mandate by applying Product Management discipline combined with human-centric design approaches to managing omnichannel experiences and customer journeys holistically, across channels. For example, an introduction of a new mobile app or a website change impacts the end-to-end omnichannel customer experience. The holistic human-centered approach helps maintain focus on the whole customer journey, as opposed to a specific touchpoint or channel in isolation.
- Uses design thinking and human-centered design techniques and approaches, such as persona analysis, customer journey mapping, jobs to be done, focus groups.
- Visualizes and studies citizen/agent/case worker journeys and experiences, produces valuable insights to continuously optimize and improve CX.
- Continuously analyzes customer feedback and customer satisfaction metrics, works with stakeholders to design CX improvements and create product backlog items.
3. Pre-sales support
- Provides technical pre-sales support for TLS products and services, collaborates with business development, account management, and bid management teams. Maintains deep knowledge of the designated product(s) and good knowledge of the entire TLS product portfolio.
- Meets with clients to present complete TLS product portfolio and high-level vision, empathize to their needs and priorities.
- Leads the development of pre-sales collateral for the designated product(s).
4. Product development and service operations
- Leads and provides direction to agile, self-organizing cross-functional product development teams/workstreams comprised of internal and external, dedicated and part-time resources, e.g. software engineers, security architects, business analysts.
- Works at a fast delivery cadence, applies agile development methodology and drives rapid incremental delivery of product functionality using themes, features, minimum viable products or epics.
- Accountable for maximizing product value while optimizing total cost of ownership and risks throughout the product/service lifecycle—design, development, transition, and operations
- Researches and defines how clients, customers, business operation employees are served by the product. Develops a deep understanding of client/customer goals, the value clients/customers derive from the product. Continually reviews and enhances the current product to ensure it is in tune with customer needs and delivers an excellent user experience—applies proven human-centered design practices and approaches, such as design thinking and user journey maps.
- Product Manager is the sole person responsible for managing the product backlog. Prioritizes the delivery of product capabilities and experiences (product roadmap/backlog) so as to maximize customer value and business impact, and to drive growth from digital initiatives. Ultimately, Product Manager is accountable for ensuring that the product backlog is aligned with the desired business outcomes and customer value.
- If vendors are used, manages vendor relationship and ensures maximum value for TLS throughout the product/service lifecycle, in both development and operations.
- Accountable for service transition and operational integration. Product Manager works closely with the Head of IT Operations and Global Service Desk Manager to ensure service monitoring, reporting against SLAs, operations dashboard integration, Tier 1/2/3 processes and capabilities are in place along with business continuity and disaster recovery measures.
- Accountable for service performance against clients’ SLAs and continual service improvement. Product Manager reviews operational reports, identifies product improvement needs and adds them to the product backlog.
Additional relevant areas:
- The product manager can also act as a project manager responsible to deliver a client project, or an internal transformation project, on time, quality, and budget commitments. Several products may be in scope of such a project. This implies covering all additional project management areas: engagement of relevant stakeholders, communication, procurement, risk, scope management all along the project life cycle (initiation, planning, executing, closing) project and according to the project portfolio management guidelines.
- Proactive contribution to build / improve PPM framework, standards, methods according to internal and external best practice.
Essential Requirements:
- Master degree in Engineering / Computer Science or a related technical discipline
Previous Experience
- Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills
- Strong experienced in digital/IT product management
- 7+ years of industry experience
- Human-centered design techniques, design thinking, customer journey mapping, jobs to be done, focus groups, service blueprinting, persona analysis
- Strong presentation, slide/document creation, and business writing skills
- Experience in suppliers’ coordination and client relationship
- Entrepreneurial mindset, passion to delight customers and innovate
- Experience with Agile Scrum processes, certification desired
- Project/program management experience, PMP/Prince II certification would be an advantage
- Team player, proactivity, continuous improvement mindset
- Ability to work as part of a remote international team
- Master’s degree in Engineering/Computer Science or a related technical discipline
Main KPI
- Deliver new features on time - quality – budget
- Internal or external Client satisfaction
- Quality of user’s stories and backlog planning & prioritization
- PPM KPI related to product management capability
We offer:
- Work in a multinational team with experienced and helpful colleagues,
- A competitive salary,
- Great career opportunities,
- Friendly, inspirational and creative work environment.
Only short list of candidates will be contacted.
