Product Specialist at Discovery Limited

Specialist / Manager
Key Outputs

• The successful applicant will be responsible for but not limited to the following job functions:
• Be involved in executing the Vitality strategy in particular and Discovery strategy as a whole by introducing and enhancing various products and features in line with said strategy
• Be product lead of cross functional development teams for new products or features, including large projects and launch items
• Be able to successfully take a new product or feature from conceptualization through to implementation.
• Be aware of customer experience, digital and gamification trends and innovations in this field to act as an expert in guiding Vitality’s new product or feature experience and enhancing Vitality’s current product or feature suite to achieve strategic outcomes
• Maintain awareness of trends and innovations in health and wellness
• Work with various stakeholders including marketing, systems, graphics and usability experts to ensure great member experience in new and current product enhancements
• Manage the priority of work and ensure delivery of work within each product’s stream as well as where it fits in with the bigger picture of Vitality’s strategic outcomes according to greatest ROI and value.
• Ensure all products are designed to optimize self-servicing and are operationally efficient
• Hold strategic relationships with certain Vitality partners and suppliers.
• Ensure the system’s solution is efficient in achieving ROI and not doing more systems work than is necessary to achieve both short term product goals as well as long term sustainability goals of the same product and the Vitality eco-system in general
• Develop a broad knowledge of Vitality’s product and feature offering and assess the impact of new products/feature and product/feature enhancements to the greater Vitality business.
• Identify critical elements of each product that must contribute to the product’s success in particular and Vitality’s strategic success as a whole
• Identify key failure points in products and ensure that appropriate mitigations are in place either in product design or efficient operational processes
• Contribute to formal and informal research to assist in product design and refinement
• Develop presentation decks for meetings both internal and external
• Develop product/feature specifications for product/feature launches and enhancements as well as medium to large projects

Responsibilities

• The successful candidate will assume overall responsibility for:
• Liaising with other areas of the business such as marketing and systems on an ongoing basis.
• Compile business cases to motivate for the implementation of a new or enhancement to existing product/feature
• Present information to an audience to gain buy-in and approval for a project or feature
• Approve business specifications and system’ user specifications
• Approve marketing content and UX / member journeys that they are in line with the strategic outcomes of the product
• Approve testing plans to ensure all scenarios are catered for when new features and products are introduced.
• Ensure operational efficiency is built into new and existing products.
• Liaise and manage other business leads from other departments such as marketing, systems, operations, servicing, project office and finance to ensure their specifications fulfill the strategic and functional objectives of the products as well as implementation of the project is successful.
• Support the head of Vitality Product management to:
• Plan and drive the delivery of new Vitality products/feature and existing product/feature enhancements.
• Define and execute the Vitality strategy and ensuring projects further the business strategic objectives.
• Perform other functionally related duties as assigned.
• Maintain operational processes where strategic input determines the direction of product developments

Qualifications and experience

• Minimum of a bachelors degree.
• Post graduate degree or business diploma is preferable but not essential
• 3 - 5 years’ experience in product development / management and/or digital marketing and strategy.
• Experience at managerial level is preferred
• Exposure to digital trends and strategies
• Experience in agile product ownership.
• Proven track record of leading projects and people.
• Proven track record of project implementation
• Relationship building experience;
• Track record of working well across various departments in a large organization is preferable
• Key personality traits and competencies
• Personality traits and culture fit:
• Resilience and persistence
• Optimism and creativity
• Self-confidence to thrive in dynamic, changing and fast-paced environment.
• Strong leadership ability
• Self-motivated and driver of initiatives.
• Excellent and well-structured written and verbal communication
• Well organized
• Eye for detail and big picture simultaneously

Competencies:

INNOVATION

• Creative Problem Solving ability
• Creative thinker who can generate innovative ideas and turn these into implementable products and processes
• Is able to define new product requirements holistically using systems thinking
• Demonstrates an understanding of how one issue may be a part of a much larger system

ANALYSIS

• Analyse data and other sources of information and break the information down into components, patterns and relationships
• Makes rational judgments from the available information and analysis
• Produces a range of solutions to problems Produces new ideas, approaches and insights
• Extract principles from broad sets of requirements

TEAM WORK

• Expresses opinion and key points of information clearly
• Adapts to team and works well in a team environment
• Gains clear agreement and commitment from others by persuading, convincing and negotiating
• Has the ability to manage assigned personnel by providing orientation, guidance, assistance and developmental training, if organizational structure requires this
• Consistent positive and transparent engagement with key stakeholders
• Manage teams to ensure teams work together