Lead Product Manager for Planning Solutions

Job Summary

This position is for a Lead Product Manager on the ABL Tech Digital Transformation team, with a focus on Demand and Supply Planning. You will develop deep technology, business, and domain expertise to execute the long-term vision and strategy for your areas. You will partner with cross-functional teams of product managers, engineers, UX designers, sales, marketing, supply chain, and operations, and, as needed with 3rd party vendors, to identify opportunities, define requirements, and deliver features that will help Acuity Brands drive sales, acquisition, and retention.

You will be a part of the team driving the re-invention of our IT Solutions ecosystem for a more impactful workflow and modern experience for ABL associates.

Key Tasks & Responsibilities (Essential Functions)

Success in this role requires a unique combination of skills and character traits which include:

• The ability to holistically view and understand Acuity’s IT ecosystem and focus on delivering technology that drives impact.
• A passion for intuitive, and easy-to-use products that are designed to reduce cognitive load and improve process execution.
• Empathy for users and a willingness to immerse yourself in users' day-to-day activities to gather feedback extract process insights and improve the user experience for ABL associates.
• A desire to drive measurable results in terms of end user experience and/or end-of-period financials, and a data-driven mindset to identify, articulate, and quantify the levers that will improve your product(s).
• Familiarity with systems-oriented thinking, and an aptitude for diving into the interconnectedness of marketing, sales, supply chain, inventory, and financial systems as part of building robust and scalable product(s).
• An unwavering personal integrity and work ethic. You believe in mission-driven organizations that serve a broader purpose. You want to work on products that improve people’s lives.

To be successful in this role, you’ll need to:

• Drive solutions for our internal associates and end customers that bring impactful changes to their day-to-day experience.
• Implement KPIs that continue to drive accuracy within the process. 
• Be laser focused on getting to the root cause of the problem versus approaching problems with pre-conceived solutions. You should ask questions and request information to make the best decisions for the product and the business.
• Have a bias towards action with an eye towards detail.  You can understand cross-functional needs and ruthlessly prioritize. Your product roadmap supports the ABL Tech product vision and the Acuity Brands strategy, business, and operating model.
• Tackle challenges with an entrepreneurial mindset. You’ll research, understand, and balance all aspects of various problems and approaches, while also crafting scenarios and getting buy-in for the best solution.
• Be passionate, intellectually curious, and analytically inclined about sales, sales industry metrics, seasonal trends, and economic indicators. You’ll need to establish frameworks that enable your team to focus on the most meaningful problems, ask the right questions, draw connections, and measure results.

In this role you will:

• Research and evaluate opportunities to increase productivity and optimize our technology systems with the primary focus on supply and inventory planning and the possibility to expand to additional areas across the enterprise over time. 
• Articulate the problem(s) and socialize the proposed solution(s) to relevant stakeholders and colleagues.
• Apply structured thinking to your problems in the form of journey mapping, value stream mapping, domain-driven design, root cause analysis, and dependency mapping.
• Own the entire product lifecycle including discovery, analysis, test and learn goals, MVPs, user stories, sprint execution, launch, and iteration. Develop systemic feedback loops to drive clarity on product iteration.
• Collaborate with cross-functional stakeholders such as sales, marketing, distribution, other product managers, engineers, and operations across multiple offices and time zones.

Skills and Minimum Experience Required

• 3+ years of experience in Product Management, Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Operations Consulting, or structured problem solving in the context of technology and IT systems
• Familiar with end-2-end planning and/or ERP solutions (e.g. Blue Yonder, Kinaxis, o9 Solutions, SAP, Oracle)
• Demonstrated track record of leveraging business intelligence data and/or usage data to prioritize the implementation of new functionality and guide day-to-day product execution
• Proven ability to identify, document, and articulate user needs and define the associated user experience 
• Excellent interpersonal skills with an ability to work well with highly cross-functional teams
• Intellectually curious with a data driven mindset. Experience shipping and iterating based on data
• Strong communication skills in both written and verbal forms
• B.Sc. in Business or Engineering
• Preferred: M.Sc. in Computer Science, Information Systems, or related discipline

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Travel Requirements