Senior Product Manager

Job Summary

The Senior Product Manager brings rigorous product management practice to bear on Infobase’s most ambiguous and complex product problems, working on a flexible, problem-driven basis rather than owning a single product area on an ongoing basis. The role partners closely with Franchise Owners - who own content strategy for their franchises - and with the Senior Director, Platform Strategy on the definition of new products and major product revisions on Infobase’s platform.

This is a senior individual-contributor role: for each assigned problem, the Senior Product Manager sets direction, builds the evidence base and business case behind major investments, and leads cross-functional alignment - including with Franchise Owners, the Senior Director, Platform Strategy, and Technology stakeholders - to move initiatives from strategy through adoption. Success depends on building alignment and driving outcomes through collaboration and influence rather than formal authority. This role will create presentations for executive leadership and should be comfortable interfacing with all levels of the organization.

Scope & Assignment

Assignments are based on the ambiguity and complexity of the business problem to solve - for example, defining a franchise’s multi-year evolution or transforming a franchise’s business model to withstand market shifts - rather than a fixed product line or market area. The Senior Product Manager moves successively between Infobase’s highest-priority strategic problems as they are identified, in partnership with the Chief Product Officer (CPO).

Franchise Owners hold steady-state, franchise-scope titles and retain ownership of content strategy and identity within their franchise on an ongoing basis. The Senior Product Manager and Franchise Owners work in close partnership on assigned problems, each bringing distinct expertise - product management discipline and rigor on one side, content and franchise knowledge on the other. While both positions interface with customers and solicit their feedback, voice-of-customer research represents a larger proportion of the Senior Product Manager’s time.

Essential Functions

Product Strategy & Roadmap Ownership

• Define product vision and strategy for each assigned problem, in partnership with the relevant Franchise Owner(s) and CPO, grounded in customer-centric design, market analysis, competitive dynamics, revenue analysis, and customer research.
• Own and prioritize the roadmap for each assigned problem, making the tradeoffs needed to balance customer value, business priorities, and delivery capacity.
• Build the business case for significant product investments, including tradeoffs and expected impact, and present recommendations to product and executive leadership.

Voice of Customer & Market Insight

• Lead voice-of-customer practices for each assigned problem - direct research, usage data analysis, customer feedback loops, and piloting - to keep decisions grounded in evidence. Distinguish between buyers (librarians) and users (educators and students) in creating winning products that increase classroom presence.
• Track competitive and market developments relevant to each assigned problem and translate them into roadmap implications.

Cross-Functional Leadership: Franchise Owners, Platform, & Technology

• Partner closely with Franchise Owners - who own content strategy and franchise identity - to align future product direction with content strategy on each assigned problem.
• Partner with the Senior Director, Platform Strategy on the definition and requirements of new products and significant revisions to existing products on Infobase’s platform.
• Establish feature trade-offs based on platform capabilities and strategy.
• Partner with Technology leadership to sequence delivery, resolve tradeoffs, and keep the roadmap realistic against engineering capacity.
• Influence cross-functional teams and stakeholders without formal authority, including in situations where priorities conflict.

Adoption & Business Impact

• Own the adoption and business-impact strategy for each assigned problem - coordinating go-to-market readiness with Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success and tracking results after launch.
• Define and report on KPIs and business outcomes for each assigned problem on a regular cadence to product and executive stakeholders.

Coaching & Product Practice

• Share domain expertise and product practice with other Product Managers, informally coaching on prioritization, requirements quality, and stakeholder management.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Product Strategy & Vision: demonstrated ability to build evidence-based product strategy and customer-centric design from scratch - market analysis, competitive dynamics, and voice-of-customer research - not just execute an existing roadmap.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: excellent stakeholder management and the ability to influence Franchise Owners, Technology, Platform, and other senior business partners without formal authority.
• Comfort with Ambiguity: ability to operate effectively as assignments shift between problems of varying scope and definition, without the structure of steady-state product ownership.
• Business Acumen: comfort building and presenting a business case, including revenue impact and investment tradeoffs, to product and executive leadership.
• Voice-of-Customer Instinct: strong ability to run and synthesize qualitative research alongside quantitative usage data to ground decisions in evidence and create customer-centric workflows that resonate with our user base.
• Communication: clear, persuasive written and verbal communication, including presenting roadmap, strategy, and outcomes to executive audiences.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, computer science, education, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 7+ years of progressive product management experience, including ownership of a product roadmap or product line and demonstrated cross-functional leadership.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in education technology, library technology, or another market where content and technology products are closely intertwined. K-12 market experience preferred.
• Experience partnering with content, editorial, or curriculum teams - such as Franchise Owners - as a distinct discipline from product or engineering.
• Experience operating in a flexible, assignment-based role - moving between strategic problems rather than owning a single steady-state product area.
• Experience building and presenting business cases to executive leadership.