Product Manager

Job summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.

We have around 1000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

Find out more about DDTS:

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Job description

The product manager role is responsible for the quality of products. The role holder will be expected to use their knowledge of user needs and business goals to frame problems and set priorities for delivery teams.

The following skills are needed for this role:

Agile working. You know about agile methodology and can apply an agile mindset to all aspects of your work. You can work in a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative method and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery. You are unafraid to take risks, willing to learn from mistakes and appreciate the importance of agile project delivery for digital projects in government. You can ensure the team knows what each other is working on and how this relates to practical government objectives and user needs.

DDaT perspective. You can demonstrate an understanding of user-centered design, technology and data perspectives. You understand the range of available technology choices and can make informed decisions based on user need and value for money. You understand the variety and complexities of digital contexts and can design services to meet them. You have knowledge of the wider digital economy and advances in technology.

Experience of working within constraints. You understand and can work within given constraints (including but not limited to technology and policy, and regulatory, financial and legal constraints). You know how to challenge constraints that can be changed. You can ensure compliance against constraints by adapting products and services where needed.

Financial ownership. You can secure funding for agile delivery through a business case and through delivering a good pitch in government. You can prioritise spending based on return on investment (ROI) and strategic intent: this may include contract ownership and accountability for realisation of benefits.

Life-cycle perspective. You understand the different phases of product delivery and can contribute to, plan or run these. You can maintain a product or process through the delivery phases, into live and then into retirement. You know how to lead a team through the different phases of the delivery product life cycle. You can maintain and iterate a product over time to continuously meet user needs. You understand incident management and service support so that products are built effectively.

Operational management. You can manage the operational process of designing and running a product or service throughout its entire product life cycle. You know how to implement best practice in new product or service development and know how to plan and put into operation the stages of new product or service development. You can overcome operational constraints to deliver a successful product or service. You know how to work closely with other operational delivery teams.

Problem ownership. You can understand and identify problems, analysing and helping to identify the appropriate solution. You can classify and prioritise problems, document their causes and implement remedies.

Product ownership. You know how to use a range of product management principles and approaches. You can capture and translate user needs into deliverables. You know how to define the minimum viable product and make decisions about priorities. You can write user stories and acceptance criteria. You know how to work with a range of specialists in multidisciplinary teams.

Strategic ownership. You can focus on outcomes, not solutions. You are bold and can develop ambitious visions and strategies. You know how to get the organisation and team to buy in. You can translate the vision into prioritised deliverable goals.

User focus. You understand users and can identify who they are and what their needs are, based on evidence. You can translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. You can engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. You put users first.

Person specification

A product manager defines, owns and solve problems. At this level, you:

• will manage a product through discovery, alpha, beta and live states
• will support lead and senior product managers
• will own the vision for the product(s) you own and engage teams and stakeholders in the development of that vision over time
• will lead the production of roadmaps, release plans and lifecycle plans for the delivery and maintenance of the product(s) from inception right the way through to retirement as well as inputting into the departmental wide approach to road mapping/lifecycle planning
• will represent users and focus on their needs throughout the delivery process
• will lead the prioritisation process for the work that needs to be done by the development team by creating and maintaining a product backlog which balances immediate user needs with the long-term investment in development and overall business benefits
• will Coordinate UR, design and QA together with development work to align to roadmap priorities
• will provide final sign off on any completed functional development prior to the deployment to a production environment for your product(s)
• will take the lead in using product or service usage data, and user feedback to devise new ideas for functionality or new ways of working with a continuous improvement mindset and take a lead in promoting such evidence/data driven design across the wider department.

The successful candidate will demonstrate the following skills as aligned to the DDaT framework:

• Agile working: You can identify and compare the best processes or delivery methods to use, including measuring and evaluating outcomes. You know how to help the team to decide the best