Product Manager - IoT

Hayward Holdings Inc. (NYSE: HAYW) is a global leader in pool and spa equipment, designing and manufacturing innovative solutions that enhance water experiences. As the world’s largest manufacturer of residential swimming pool equipment, we continue to expand our presence in the commercial pool market. Headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, Hayward operates facilities across the U.S., Canada, Spain, France, Australia, and China.  This position is located in North Kingstown, Rhode Island.

Hayward Industries designs, manufactures and sells a wide range of pool equipment products needed to safely and conveniently operate pools. Each product line is exclusively managed by a Product Manager who is responsible for strategically leading a technical, rapidly changing, multi-channel product vertical. The IoT product manager will operate outside of these traditional product verticals and ensure the IoT strategy incorporates all products where an improved mobile application UI/UX would be valued by consumers as well as the Trade Professionals. This will include matrix management of cross-functional marketing, manufacturing, operations, product engineering and market development teams. Ultimately the Product Manager is responsible for all successes and failures of the product line.  Position reports to the Director of Connected Products.

GENERAL

• Develop and lead a comprehensive strategy and robust pipeline comprised of internet of things (IoT) products and services expanding and strengthening Hayward’s IoT ecosystem.
• Work closely with other Product Managers to understand IoT capabilities and needs for their respective products.
• Manage seamless integration between the IoT product’s software, hardware, cloud platform and mobile applications.
• Leverage design commonality across IoT products to minimize SKUs and optimize installation familiarity.
• Annually develops/updates rolling 3-year Product Line Business Plan including top-line revenue, sizing the total addressable market, market share, market penetration, product development, gross margin, operating income and strategies for achievement
• Annually develops/updates 5-year Strategic Product Generation Plan, including new product development, research opportunities and product rationalization. Ties to 3-year Business Plan
• Represents Hayward to the industry as the expert for all aspects of IoT products, ultimately establishing themselves and Hayward as the Industry expert for the business.
• Becomes product line “Voice of the Customer” representative to all internal Hayward departments
• Researches, analyzes, and monitors financial, technological, and demographic factors to develop plans to maximize business opportunities. Develops marketing programs and plans that increase market share, revenue, profit and connected users.
• Monitors market changes and marketing needs, competitors’ product technology changes and manufacturing processes to recognize market opportunities for new and expanding products as well as identifying marketing weaknesses.
• Leads product line marketing activity and development for the Domestic and International markets to optimize global opportunity. Develops budgets of all product line-related promotional marketing and sales plans. Determines the effectiveness and impact on the company and provides reports and presentations to management.
• Manages sku rationalization of product line to minimize excess and obsolete inventory

BUSINESS REPORTING

• Reports as follows exhibiting comprehensive insight and command of business performance including all financial metrics
  • Monthly Top-line Business Review
  • Monthly Field Response
  • Quarterly POB Business Review with full P&L
  • Quarterly Market Share Report
  • Quarterly Competition Activity Report
  • Other business and product related reports as necessary

PRICING

• Develops and recommends pricing strategy for the product line which will result in maximizing profitability as measured by revenue, margin $s and margin %
• Maintains price list/terms of sale information.
• Works closely with VPs of Sales and Marketing developing special programs for product line.

FORECASTING

• Develops and maintains forecast for all products.
• Is responsible for forecast accuracy to establish goal.
• Deliver market segmentation analysis; market trends and opportunity analysis

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

• Is the “champion” of all new product development of IoT products.
• Team member for all product development projects for product line
• Responsible for the successful on-time, on-budget launch of new products
• Directly responsible for all Marketing deliverables of Hayward’s internal Phase/Gate process, including Return on Investment analysis, Voice of Customer, Project Request Document (PRD) and Capital Appropriations Request (CAR)
• Develops/updates HDLS 5-year product plan
• Champions new product idea generation supporting growth of the business
• Responsible for internal and field training plan for product line

MARCOM SUPPORT

• In combination with Marketing Communications team, develops annual plan and budget for all marketing collateral, events and product-specific programs including advertising, literature and trade shows in context of overall sales strategy and budget.
• Supports all Marcom efforts with timely direction or approval of product-specific collateral.

• Minimum 5 years technical product management experience or 5 years product engineering experience
• Bachelor’s degree in Marketing/Business Management or Engineering degree
• Extensive experience in new product development and introduction.
• Extensive UI/UX experience.
• Creative problem solver
• Design for simplicity
• Strong data analytics skills
• Project management experience.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional teams.
• Strong business management and reporting skills
• Solid understanding of marketing, engineering, and sales functions.
• Excellent interpersonal and team building skills.
• Strategic planning capability.
• Strong presentation skills with ability to communicate to sales, customers, and executive team.
• Ability to lead without direct authority
• Excellent communication skills.

EDUCATION

B.S. degree, MBA preferred

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES

Computer proficiency in Excel, MS Word, PowerPoint, MS Project, Digital Marketing a plus

At Hayward, we are committed to quality, innovation, and sustainability—delivering solutions that inspire happiness and well-being. If you’re passionate about solving complex problems and driving product excellence, we invite you to join our team!