Product Owner

Job Description

Job Requisition ID: 15628

Additional Locations:

Summary

As a Product Manager, you will provide leadership and vision for a cross-functional product development team to develop an innovative platform for the K-12 classroom. As Product Owner for the Content Authoring and Services teams, the Product Manager will prioritize and help the agile teams execute the work that enables:

• HMH to deliver integrated solutions in a cohesive and pleasing way to teachers and students.
• HMH to collect analytical insights about our content
• Content authors at HMH to more efficiently deploy content in a variety of modalities, including print and digital.

The Product Manager will succeed in this work by collaborating closely with other product owners and stakeholders. They will need an adept understanding of HMH’s platform and content strategy, and be able to communicate that strategy succinctly to the teams he or she works with.

Responsibilities

As a team leader for HMH’s teaching and learning platform , provide overarching leadership, strategy, and product management for all product development efforts of a cross-functional team (including engineering, editorial, user experience, research, marketing, and QA). This includes, but is not limited to, the following activities:

· Implement product strategy and vision in order to integrate with overall program initiatives and deliver high quality products on schedule that meet customer needs

· Lead Agile product development team as Product Owner for medium to large projects by establishing product vision for aspects of the platform, leading the product development effort, managing Sprint planning and review, prioritizing the Product Backlog, writing and sizing user stories, monitoring milestone and release dates, and considering stakeholder interests

· Partner with Engineering to determine product features and manage trade-offs for quality product release

· Partner with internal stakeholders to determine direction and obtain approval on product requirements, design, and functionality

· Partner with marketing, research, and other key stakeholders to determine product definition and requirements that meet customer needs

· Practice effective risk mitigation: Prioritize and make trade-offs to ensure delivery of product on time and within budget, while maintaining educational integrity of products

· Effectively lead and manage change within the organization by building consensus and open communication among all stakeholders

· Manage project resources (budget, schedule, and internal/external staffing) and prioritize allocation

· Maintain consistency across products by collaborating with other team leaders

· Proactively communicate to internal and external stakeholders at all levels, including but not limited to:

· Product development status and issue escalation to leadership and support teams

· Project scope changes, prioritization reasoning, and decisions affecting product delivery

· Market and industry key trends and changes

· Ability to perform other duties as required

Qualifications

· Bachelor’s degree in education, business or technical discipline preferred (Master’s degree a plus)

• 3+ years managing and leading educational software development projects and teams required
• 3+ years in e-learning or education technology industry required
• Solid understanding of and prior experience leading teams with Agile methodologies and project management tools (e.g. JIRA, Confluence)
• Agile Product Owner Certification preferred
• Demonstrated success leading cross-functional technology project teams (PMI Certification a plus)
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office suite

Other

• Knowledge of education technology (K-12) industry technology trends, user experience (educators, students, and administrators), and classroom needs
• Ability to encourage team creativity and innovation
• Strong organizational and multi-tasking skills
• Ability to proactively and creatively solve problems
• Ability to build strong collaborative internal and external relationships
• Demonstrated ability to work under pressure and tight timelines
• Strong conflict management skills
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to easily communicate to varying audiences
• Travel to participate in department-wide planning meetings, conferences, and/or customer or field test school locations.

PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS

• Might be in a stationary position for a considerable time (sitting and/or standing).
• The person in this position needs to move about inside the office to access file cabinets, office machinery, etc.
• Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity machinery, such as a calculator, copy machine, and computer printer.
• Must be able to collaborate with colleagues via face to face, conference calls, and online meetings.

ABOUT US:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (NASDAQ:HMHC) is a global learning company dedicated to changing people’s lives by fostering passionate, curious learners. As a leading provider of pre-K–12 education content, services, and cutting-edge technology solutions across a variety of media, HMH enables learning in a changing landscape. HMH is uniquely positioned to create engaging and effective educational content and experiences from early childhood to beyond the classroom. HMH serves more than 50 million students in over 150 countries worldwide, while its award-winning children's books, novels, non-fiction, and reference titles are enjoyed by readers throughout the world. Follow HMH on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. For more information, visit http://careers.hmhco.com

PLEASE NOTE:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is an equal employment opportunity employer and participates in E-Verify. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment and will not be discriminated against on the basis of gender, race/ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, protected veteran status, disability, or other protected group status.