Lead Product Manager -Payroll

What you’ll do

• Confidently execute core product management role responsibilities including identifying customer problems and definitions solutions to test, developing and managing product roadmaps or strategies, and developing product release strategies
• Lead the development of networks across Xero to frame how products fit into Xero's strategy, objectives and future
• Consistently review, monitor and interrogate the commercial & customer results of products, areas and teams to inform product strategy and practice
• Lead and manage a product or group of products across the end-to-end lifecycle (e.g. launch through to sunset) to ensure maintenance and support throughout the life of the product
• Drive decision-making across products and/or teams weighing up all inputs and information, and working as a tie-breaker where there isn’t consensus
• Connect products and their teams in various phases of development to ensure continuity and cohesiveness, and alignment of products across Xero
• Train, coach and up-skill product team members to build product practice and embed best practice across Xero
• Develop and document, in consultation with product leadership, a suite of product practices to standardize the best way to do product at Xero.
• You will collaborate and consult effectively with the broader Portfolio leadership team on product delivery and strategy: Engineering, Product Operations and Product Strategy, Product Marketing Management and Product Design.
• Identify and roll out improvements to product practice and operations
• Develop high-level strategy for the product management craft, shaping the execution of product management within Xero
• Support recruitment of new Xero's as required, ensuring team members are high quality, fit Xero's culture, and are onboarded effectively
• Works directly with 10-20 engineers and is responsible for signing off on an overall technical direction and architecture from the product perspective (ie, that tradeoffs are aligned with product direction).

Success looks like

• You’ve supported the establishment of team OKRs and your work is contributing to team OKRs
• You deeply understand our customers and their problems across the breadth of the portfolio
• The Product team has a set of rituals and are continually improving their delivery performance
• You have strong relationships with your stakeholders who are engaged and have a thorough understanding of your vision, strategy and roadmap
• You are improving product team members skills, use of methods and tools across the portfolio
• You continually refine the product vision and strategy for your product group / area
• You are known as an advisor for product throughout the business; a respected voice in product management on best practice and improvements
• You are consistently advocating for, and either iterating or embedding, Xero’s product framework, principles and practices
• The teams impacted by you have a greater awareness of all the connecting dots and how to achieve seamless experiences
• You step into and effectively manage or solve complex and difficult issues within product teams, when others can’t.
• You demonstrate and amplify Xero’s Values

What you’ll bring with you

• Critical capabilities
Love customer problems:
• Creates new tools and processes for collecting and synthesizing feedback within and across products to shape Xero's user research methodology
• Defines "Big Bet" customer problems the market cannot articulate for itself to influence Xero’s approach to market and corporate strategy
• Leads cross functional groups in defining and developing solutions to complex problems that span products and/or geographies
• Leads the development of new discovery techniques for experimentation driving a culture of experimental design
Look to the future:
• Provides subject-matter expertise and thought leadership to Xero executives, industry or governing bodies for a given product / domain
• Leads the development of new products and initiatives, in support of Xero’s strategic intent
• Assesses global markets, technologies, disruptions and expert thought leadership to drive an innovation culture at Xero
Work the Xero way:
• Leads a culture of courageous prioritization across teams and geographies to improve Xero’s product decision-making capability
• Refines and evolves Xero’s PM ways of working to continuously improve Xero’s approach to PM
• Designs innovative release strategies and processes to reduce release lead time and impacts
Demonstrate commercial acumen:
• Leads groups and coaches others in market definition, sizing and segmentation
• Teaches others to develop product success criteria driven by an understanding of the product-market fit to ensure success criteria reflect market needs
• Monitors and guides decision-making across the product group to ensure all teams balance customer, commercial and product implications in decision-making
Do it together:
• Effectively facilitates ad hoc meetings or redirects meetings in-flight to manage difficult situations or stakeholders, and ensure meaningful outcomes
• Mentors others in articulating a product narrative in a coherent, logical and simple way to improve product understanding and buy-in
• Teaches and supports others to practice cross-functional collaboration creating links across teams, geographies and networks to drive improved product outcomes.
Explore the data:
• Coaches others in new analytical approaches to generate insights and improve the
• effectiveness of product decisions
• Teaches others to meaningfully translate information and insights for different stakeholders and audiences
• Collaborates across functions to integrate information from a variety of sources and teams and generate meaningful insights


Experience
• Extensive experience in enabling new and improved approaches to product practice
• Demonstrated experience collaborating with diverse and senior stakeholder groups to realize customer / commercial outcomes
• Strong track record of addressing customer needs through innovative use of technology
• Effectively influenced outcomes at all levels in a variety of contexts
• Extensive experience in product practice thought leadership, defining product roadmaps and long term planning at a Portfolio / Sub-portfolio(s) level
• Extensive experience in leading cross portfolio initiatives to deliver customer / business outcomes
• Extensive experience in mentoring, supporting and coaching