Product Manager

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 products needed to safely and intuitively operate and automate residential and commercial swimming pools. The Product Manager for Control and Automation will define and manage the lifecycle of technical, rapidly changing, commercial and consumer automation control products. They will provide cross-category user experience insights feeding product design as well as daily product and business management functions. This will include matrix management of cross-functional marketing, manufacturing, operations and engineering and market development teams. The Product Manager role is key to the success of various product lines with a primary focus on pool automation equipment. This position reports to the Director of Product Management for Connected Products.

• Perform user research and usability testing, analyze feedback and translate to use-cases, product requirements, features and roadmaps.
• Define and own product strategy for pool automation and control systems with a deep understanding of adjacent products, company objectives and market demands.
• Develop and maintain a 5-year strategic product roadmap including new product development, research opportunities and product rationalization. Ties to 3-year Business Plan
• 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
• Collaborate with the Advance Engineering research pipeline to realize product platforming, technology evolution, and autonomous solutions.
• Integrate sensors, cloud-based data, mobile connectivity, and machine learning into automation platforms to achieve an autonomous and intuitive backyard experience.
• Monitor market changes and marketing needs, competitors’ product technology changes and manufacturing processes to recognize market opportunities for new and expanding products and identify marketing weaknesses.
• Becomes product line “Voice of the Customer” representative to all internal Hayward departments.
• Align strategy with the broader product categories in the context of the pool and backyard as a system.
• Represents Hayward to the industry as the expert for all aspects of automation 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.
• Leads product line marketing activity and development to optimize opportunity.
• Determines the effectiveness and impact on the company and provides reports and presentations to management.

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 recommend 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 Sales and Marketing developing special programs for product line.

FORECASTING

• Develop and maintain forecasts for all control and automation 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 Automation product development.
• Team member for all product development projects incorporating automation controls.
• Responsible for the successful on-time, on-budget launch of new products
• Directly responsible for all Product 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 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 the 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 of 5 years’ experience in technical Product Management or Product Engineering
• Experience in UI/UX design
• Extensive experience in new product development and introduction
• 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
• Strong presentation skills with ability to communicate to sales, customers, and executive team

EDUCATION

• Bachelor’s degree in engineering or Product Management, MBA preferred

OTHER SKILLS AND ABILITIES

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