Product Manager - VMWare

Introduction
Ready to re-imagine the product management role? At IBM, as a Product Manager, you help manage the full lifecycle of an offering: from validating need to determining the business model and defining the solution requirements. Going beyond the traditional focus of timetables and budgets, you use your keen insights into what customers want in their own business plan – and work across disciplines to the best solutions to a problem.

Your Role and Responsibilities
As a Product Manager, you help influence product strategy, deliver business results through execution of that strategy, and help manage the lifecycle of the product. Other responsibilities include:

• Gather market and client requirements to support design and validation of product and recommend differentiation strategy and value proposition. Demonstrate product capabilities and drive stakeholder validation (e.g., beta and sponsor user programs), analyzing feedback to identify and address gaps or opportunities. Lead translation of prioritized requirements to development plans for a differentiated offering. Evaluate digital readiness. Collaborate with development, operations, and design leaders to create offering releases and align offering design with business objectives.
• Maintain a deep understanding of market dynamics, help define routes to market, develop Go To Market (GTM) strategy, and execute launch readiness plan for an product or feature. Create messaging briefs to help generate marketing content. Confirm technical accuracy of marketing communications. Collaborate with sales, marketing, and channel on GTM and partner enablement plans. Contribute to learning programs and enablement assets.
• Use internal and external sources to develop market Points of View (POV), using primary (e.g., customers, prospects) and secondary research to maintain a robust outside-in perspective on market requirements. Analyze research on competitive landscape and market influencers (e.g. capabilities, GTM strategies).
• Collaborate with broader product team to prioritize roadmap deliverables.
• Work with sales, design and product marketing to analyze metrics and product performance, gaps, and opportunities. Identify and address weaknesses or GTM execution issues. Monitor key deals and progression in sales pipeline. Drive win/loss data collection and analysis.
• Help broader product team develop business plans (e.g., financial model, product/market fit, resource capacity forecasting, etc.)
• Provide ongoing technical/operational guidance to lead professional work teams, conduct special projects.
• Accountable for department results and for activities and/or projects involving multi-functional teams.

Required Technical and Professional Expertise

• 5+ years of experience in product management, technical product marketing or related field
• 3-5 years of product management experience with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) or Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offerings
• Experience driving high growth business, new product introduction with strong focus on establishing credibility in the market
• Knowledge of the cloud infrastructure market segment – technologies, best practices, vendors, and competitive landscape
• Hands-on, data-driven approach, and an ability to work concurrently on several projects
• Cross-functional leadership experience across development, operations, design, support, sales, product marketing, marketing, and partners
• Experience with creating presentations and presenting to internal teams and clients

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• Knowledge of VMware technologies
• Knowledge of VMware-powered SaaS or IaaS platforms, or knowledge of AWS or Azure IaaS platforms
• Master’s degree in business or related field preferred