Manager of Product Strategy and Planning

GRACENOTE / MANAGER OF PRODUCT STRATEGY & PLANNING

Location:          Emeryville, CA 

ABOUT GRACENOTE

Gracenote, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, is the worldwide leader in information services for digital music and media. With the Corporate office located in Emeryville, California, global offices in Tokyo, Berlin, Hong Kong, and Seoul, and satellite offices throughout the US, Gracenote is expanding to make an even greater impact on the digital music world. Gracenote is looking for enthusiastic, high-energy people with a passion for music and digital media who want to make an impact in this growing industry. Our employees enjoy the opportunity to develop and enhance world-class technology working with some of the best software development talent in the world on products and projects for many of the worlds leading entertainment and consumer electronics companies.

As you would expect from a company revolutionizing the digital music space, Gracenote provides a fast-paced start-up environment where creativity and empowerment are encouraged. Because we work hard, all full-time employees are offered a very generous benefits packages and competitive salaries

POSITION SUMMARY

The Manager of Product Strategy & Planning is responsible for managing and executing product strategy, planning, research, analysis, R&D, and prototyping projects.  This position works closely with the Product Management, Media Technology Lab, Engineering, Marketing and Sales teams to understand customer needs and market trends, define market requirements, assess competitors, and translate these findings into effective product strategies.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

STRATEGY & PLANNING

Product Strategy & Planning

• Identify strategic market opportunities. Define and assess new product concepts. Develop business cases.




• Contribute to creation of corporate product roadmap as well as product platform & vertical solution plans.

Product Proposal and Marketing Requirements Development

• Research, develop, and present product proposal & marketing requirements documents.




• Define and communicate a coherent product vision and strategy, value proposition, use cases, and positioning for each proposed product. Analyze feasibility. 

 Product Requirement and Technical Design Partnering

• Work closely with product managers to translate the plan outlined in product proposals and MRDs into product requirement documents that capture specific requirements for each release of a product.




• Work closely with Engineering and Product Management teams to help translate the features and functionality outlined in PRDs into viable technical designs.




• Maintain liaison with, and provide guidance to, Engineering & PM teams during development process. 

 RESEARCH & ANALYSIS

Corporate Development and Partnering Support

• Research, identify, monitor and report on potential partnering and M&A target opportunities.




• Help identify and develop strategic relationships that support product development goals. Provide build, acquire or partner recommendations to fulfill product strategy objectives. 




• Contribute to detailed due diligence processes.

 Competitive & Industry Research & Analysis

• Maintain standard set of internal company/product competitive analysis materials for use by sales, product management and executive management.




• Research target markets, emerging technologies, industry standards, and potential competition.




• Maintain product strategy intranet site and database. 

 Technology & Product Research & Analysis

• Regularly report to Management, Sales, and Product Management on important development and trends in digital media technology, products and content to help guide product decisions.




• Monitor industry newsletters, analyst reports, research papers, research journals, patent applications, blogs, print publications, websites, etc.




• Indentify trends by attendance at key technical conferences, industry conferences and trade shows.




• Write and publish conference reports and other summaries of research and investigation so as to efficiently apprise other team members of new developments.




• Manage secondary research budget. Research and select market research and analyst report publications; Maintain reference library and journal subscriptions. 

 Digital Media Product Feature Analysis

• Perform rigorous benchmarking & feature analysis of media technologies, services, products and devices. Report findings and recommendations.




• Maintain Product Evaluation Lab devices and digital media service accounts in partnership with IT team.




• Perform product walkthroughs for Senior Management, Sales, and Product Management. 

R&D & PROTOTYPING

R&D Liaison

• Assist in liaison with external technology, data and R&D partners. Manage partnering projects. 

 Demo and Prototype Design

• Contribute to functionality, UI and information design and development of demos, prototypes and products. 

MARKETING & SALES SUPPORT

Marketing, Sales and Professional Services Partnership

• Partner with Marketing to develop product strategy white papers and other marketing collateral


• Train Sales and Support teams and participate in the sales process as required.


• Evangelize products and solutions to partners, media, analysts, and customers.

QUALIFICATIONS:

 Education & Experience

• MBA degree preferred.




• BS/BA degree required; computer science/engineering degree or equivalent experience a plus.


• Minimum 5 years of increasing responsibility in software, web service or device product management, strategy, or research, preferably in the digital media or CE industry.




• International experience is a plus, especially Japan, Korea, China or Europe.

 Skills & Knowledge

• Strategic thinker; can manage long-term and cross-product issues.




• Must have a solid track record in design and delivery of successful projects




• Possesses excellent written and verbal communication skills with a demonstrated ability to develop and present highly professional, effective presentations for both business and technical audiences..




• Solid understanding of web, desktop and/or embedded software and database technology, including digital media and data-driven applications.




• Knowledge of entertainment media metadata and information architecture principles is preferred.




• Understanding of content analysis, data mining, and/or semantic technologies is a plus

 Personal Qualities

• Professional demeanor, strong presence and ability to interact with executives.




• Strong team player that thrives in a rapid-paced and fluid entrepreneurial environment.

.