Manager, Product Management

Manager, Product Management

Disney Experiences (DX) Technology & Digital, a division of The Walt Disney Company, creates world-class immersive digital experiences for premier brands including the Disneyland Resort, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani and more. Digital has offices in Orlando, Anaheim, Glendale, Hong Kong, Paris, Seattle and Shanghai, where we design and develop results-driven websites, mobile applications, and technological consumer products.

The Manager, Product Management leads a team within the Connected Products organization and partners with key stakeholders to inform product strategy and define and execute initiatives that support efficiencies, guest experience improvements, and revenue opportunities within the Connected Products space. They will manage and develop a team of Product Managers, setting direction and removing blockers to help them refine product vision and delivery plans. The Manager, Product Management will primarily be focused on the iOT access space, including MagicBand+ and initiatives related to physical-digital experiences in our parks. They will work closely with both internal stakeholders as well as external vendors to define the product vision for their space, guide their team in implementing feature updates and process changes once alignment is gained, and ensure the team's work is sustainable.

The ideal candidate will have complex technical system experience, demonstrated ability to define business cases and their associated product visions, demonstrated ability to gain leadership and stakeholder alignment, experience leading, coaching, and developing product management talent, and various different experiences with feature delivery. A successful candidate will be highly analytical, collaborative, able to work extremely effectively in a matrix organization, and adept at synthesizing a variety of technologies and capabilities into high quality deliverables.

Product Management:

• Instrumental in helping define the product vision and strategy based on multiple inputs from cross-functional teams
• Has knowledge of best practices and how they should be integrated; has awareness of the competition and how to differentiate from them
• Works with leadership, internal stakeholders and business partners to create product plans and plan and prioritize product roadmap while managing expectations of stakeholders
• Translates product concepts into user stories, epics, requirement documents, test cases and acceptance criteria, and go-to-market plans as appropriate and owns their quality
• Uses critical thinking to get to the root of product issues, executive questions, etc. and is able to provide a strategic analysis and recommendation in a clear and concise manner
• Ensures appropriate review and approval of essential deliverables with DX Technology & Digital teams and partners
• Proactively identifies and resolves (or escalates) blockers, issues and change in business strategic direction that could impair team's ability to meet strategic launch dates or impact scope/budget
• Oversees the on-time, on-budget, on-strategy delivery of work across their team's product area(s)
• Uses AI tools to improve efficiency and quality of work, consistently innovates with new tools and shares learnings with broader team

People Management & Partnership:

• Manages, coaches, and develops a team of Product Managers, providing regular feedback and clear performance expectations
• Leads hiring and onboarding for the team, and builds career development plans that identify growth opportunities and stretch assignments for direct reports
• Conducts performance reviews and provides ongoing coaching to help team members grow in their roles
• Sets team priorities and allocates workload and resourcing across the team's projects and initiatives
• Fosters a collaborative, inclusive team culture and models best practices in product management
• Removes organizational blockers for their team and escalates issues to leadership as needed
• Builds and maintains strong, trust-based relationships with key stakeholders, executive partners, and external clients/vendors to align on priorities and expectations
• Represents the team in cross-functional and leadership forums, ensuring alignment on strategy, roadmap, and trade-offs
• Serves as an escalation point for stakeholder and client concerns, balancing partner needs with team capacity and priorities

Technical Systems Knowledge:

• Responsible for comprehensive understanding the technical and operational systems of their product area, including all business rules, processes, legal requirements, and technical constraints
• Responsible for up-to-date documentation for their space and regular training of collaborator teams.
• Serves as first contact for triage and feasibility of existing product functionality.

Required Qualifications & Skills:

• Minimum 8 years of related work experience
• Demonstrated experience hiring, coaching, and developing product management talent
• Strong verbal and written communication and leadership skills, including an ability to communicate effectively at leadership levels
• Experience identifying, defining and addressing technical, user and business issues in a fast-moving organization
• Willingness to take personal initiative and accountability, self-starter
• Ability to work collaboratively across large matrix organizations
• Highly organized, critical thinker who is able to effectively navigate through ambiguity
• Knowledgeable across multiple functional areas such as product management, UX/UI, customer support, sales, marketing or finance
• Ability to work with teams in multiple locations, with varying/flexible work hours

Preferred Qualifications:

• Minimum of 5 years of product experience, including experience managing or directly leading product managers

Required Education:

• Bachelor's Degree in relevant field of study or equivalent