Manager : Product Portfolio

Bring your possibility to life Define your career with us
- With over 100 years of rich history and strongly positioned as a local bank with regional and international expertise, a career with our family offers the opportunity to be part of this exciting growth journey, to reset our future and shape our destiny as a proudly African group.Job Summary

Overall responsibility for ongoing management of the product portfolio, formulating, managing and executing product and proposition strategies for target segments based on robust and in-depth analytics, insights and customer segmentation.

**Job Description**:
This role will be in the Product Solutions Cluster in the Home Loans space

Accountability: Product Strategy and Planning
- Remain abreast of current industry standards locally and internationally to identify opportunities for improvement of Product sets, i.e. ensuring that product standards/offering are parallel or above industry and competitor standards
- Evaluate market opportunities and establish how we can benefit from the ideas/initiatives at a wider Group level.
- Ensure regular assessment of regional market and competitor offerings are undertaken
- Drive and direct product gap analyses as well as the establishment and management of product lifecycles
- Develop pricing, sales and product strategies to grow revenue and gain market share aligned to the sales and relationship team strategies
- Develop the short, medium and long term Absa product and related business strategies across the value chains.
- Formulate Product strategies informed by client strategies/needs to penetrate possible market opportunities in line with the larger business strategy.
- Ensure that the strategy includes conducting on-going local and international market analysis for new and innovative offerings for consideration in the different portfolios and continuous strategic alignment.
- Seek on-going improvement of Product cycle speed
- Ensure that all impacted stakeholders (RBB, Change, IT, Segment etc.) across the Group understand and support the agreed strategies for the area.
- Mobilise and support the implementation of the customer service culture and sales strategy

Accountability: Product Development and Management
- Direct and influence the management and prioritisation of the existing portfolio and new solutions
- Guide the Product team to strategically manage product planning / design / management / development in the context of a product roadmap based on the product lifecycle with its associated price, promotion, distribution and customer needs objectives.
- Monitor the continuous Product performance analysis in terms of all product parameters (including market share, customer take up, utilisation / activity, financial performance etc.) and create a focus on Market activity to gain traction and market share in the industry.
- Oversee and ensure that the implementation of regular profitability analysis is conducted on all products to determine their continued viability.
- Entrench governance and ensure that the Product development team works with Group Legal and Group Compliance and Group Operations to review product features, processes and procedures to ensure that they are compliant with legal and regulatory requirements (e.g. CPA, Competition Commission etc.) and incorporate best practices and efficiencies.
- Ensure that the Product team actively works with the management teams of the sales and operations/support areas to ensure a common understanding of the services required and the constraints within which those areas have to operate. Initiate process reengineering projects where required.
- Entrench the use of industry best practices for product planning, life cycle management, measurement, growth and profitability. This involves addressing the strategies covering the 8 P's of services (Product, Price, Promotion, Place, Processes, Physical evidence, People and Profitability).

Accountability: Commercial performance
- Deliver commercial performance against annual targets set
- Continuous review of product performance against key SLA’s delivering corrections where necessary
- Identify new revenue opportunities and opportunities for cost reductions
- Ensure on-going BAU compliance of all products to relevant policies
- Implementation of pricing strategy and governance to optimise revenue and to minimise revenue leakage
- Ensure processes for benefit tracking per product and segment is in place

Accountability: Business Management
- Develop and implement a sustainable Business model and marketing strategy for all products in collaboration with Manager for Product Marketing
- Participate in Group and Industry Forums to ensure alignment with the rest of the Group and industry at large.
- Using the defined customer strategy to ensure the appropriate delivery solution is in place to meet the customer needs. Partner with and influence senior leadership
- Implement the best in class customer experience to all clients
-