Product Manager - Strategic Brands (Indianapolis)

Strategic Product Manager

Location: Greater Indianapolis, Indiana (On-site; relocation required)

Reports To: Strategic Brand Manager

Company Overview

Westfield Outdoors is a leading Indianapolis-based company specializing in durable goods manufacturing and international importing services. Our focus lies in outdoor leisure products, including camping furniture, tents, shelters, backpacks, trekking bags, soft coolers, pet products, baby products, hunting accessories, fishing tackle, and patio furniture.

As a global leader in OEM and private-label manufacturing for the outdoor industry, Westfield Outdoors is committed to delivering innovative, high-quality products while expanding our portfolio of owned brands and direct-to-consumer capabilities.

Position Summary

The Strategic Product Manager is responsible for helping define and advance product strategy, priorities, and commercialization plans for Westfield Outdoors’ strategic and owned brands. Reporting to the Strategic Brand manager, this role connects customer, market, competitive, product, design, engineering, and commercial inputs to support disciplined product decisions.

The Strategic Product Manager provides explicit cross-functional leadership for Industrial Designers, Product Designers, and Engineers assigned to strategic-brand priorities, coordinating their work and resource needs through their functional leaders. The role also coordinates across marketing, sales, sourcing, operations, and other partners to move priority products and initiatives from opportunity assessment through launch and post-launch learning.

Key Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Opportunity Assessment

• Support development of product, category, and portfolio strategies aligned with company and brand priorities.
• Assess customer needs, market trends, competitive offerings, channel requirements, and internal capabilities.
• Build clear opportunity briefs, recommendations, and business cases for product concepts and portfolio decisions.
• Help define target customers, use cases, value propositions, success measures, and key tradeoffs.

Roadmap & Prioritization

• Maintain clear product priorities, roadmaps, decision points, dependencies, and status reporting for assigned initiatives.
• Lead the cross-functional work of Industrial Designers, Product Designers, and Engineers assigned to strategic-brand initiatives, coordinating priorities, deliverables, timing, and resource needs through their functional leaders.
• Facilitate structured reviews and document decisions, actions, owners, timing, and unresolved risks.
• Balance customer value, brand fit, feasibility, timing, cost, and commercial potential when recommending priorities.

Commercialization & Launch Coordination

• Coordinate product information and cross-functional readiness for launches, channel presentations, and marketing activation.
• Translate the Brand Manager’s portfolio and brand priorities into aligned product value propositions, development priorities, messaging inputs, and launch plans.
• Ensure stakeholders have timely, accurate product details, milestones, decisions, and required deliverables.
• Identify launch risks and gaps early and coordinate practical resolution with the responsible teams.

Performance & Portfolio Learning

• Track agreed product and launch measures and organize post-launch reviews with cross-functional partners.
• Combine performance results, customer feedback, market information, and operational learning into recommendations.
• Support portfolio reviews, lifecycle decisions, product improvements, and future planning.
• Improve product-management tools, templates, documentation, and decision processes over time.

Qualifications

Education and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree in Product Management, Business, Marketing, Engineering, Industrial Design, or a related field preferred.
• 5–8 years of experience in product management, product development, category management, commercialization, or related consumer-product work.
• Experience leading matrixed, cross-functional product initiatives involving industrial design, product design, engineering, and commercialization from opportunity assessment through launch preferred.

Skills and Competencies

• Strong product, market, customer, and competitive-analysis skills.
• Ability to build structured recommendations and make tradeoffs across customer value, feasibility, timing, cost, and commercial potential.
• Strong project leadership, roadmap management, documentation, and cross-functional coordination.
• Excellent written, verbal, presentation, and stakeholder-communication skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office and common product, project, and reporting tools.

Leadership Attributes

• Customer-centered, commercially aware, and intellectually curious.
• Strong ownership mentality with disciplined follow-through and attention to detail.
• Collaborative matrix leader who can set direction, create alignment, and maintain accountability across design, engineering, and commercial functions without relying on direct reporting authority.
• Comfortable operating with incomplete information while making assumptions and risks explicit.

Why Join Westfield Outdoors?

Westfield Outdoors is strengthening the connection between product strategy, brand priorities, and commercial execution. This role offers the opportunity to influence product and portfolio decisions and work closely with leaders across product development, strategic brands, marketing, sales, sourcing, and operations.

Compensation and Benefits

Westfield Outdoors offers a competitive salary and comprehensive benefits package, including:

• Health, dental, and vision insurance
• 401(k) retirement plan with company match
• Paid time off and company holidays
• Opportunities for professional development and career growth

Equal Opportunity Employer

Westfield Outdoors is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.