Director of Product Strategy
Toronto
Enterprise Solutions /
Full-Time Permanent /
Remote
ABOUT APPLY DIGITAL
Who we are: We're a global digital transformation partner for change agents, working to modernize their organizations.
Who we help: Our 650+ digital specialists have helped global companies like Kraft Heinz, Moderna, Lululemon, Games Workshop, Atlassian, and The Very Group create business impact.
What we do: We offer clients end-to-end expertise across Business Strategy, Commerce, Platform, Products, Innovation, and beyond.
How we help: We work together as one connected team to drive business impact and ensure every strategy is actionable through to execution in the context of your organization’s broader ecosystem. We collaborate as cross-disciplinary pods and as extensions of client teams - ensuring the right perspectives contribute to creating connected, value-generating outcomes.
If you'd like to learn more about Apply Digital's culture click HERE.
LOCATION: Apply Digital is hybrid/remote friendly. The preferred candidate should be based in the Greater Toronto Area of Canada, working in hours that align to ET.
THE ROLE:
As the Director of Product Strategy, you will provide subject matter expertise and leadership for the Apply offering. Leveraging your expertise in products, platforms, omni-channel, digital experience, and business outcomes, you will develop strategies tailored to the North American market, enhancing client relationships and driving practice growth. Your background in digital solutions and operations will be crucial in understanding the challenges and opportunities our clients face during transition and transformation.
A large function of the work, will be in the Discovery phase with our Clients. These are at the start of our engagements when the ambiguity is the highest. Discoveries come in many shapes and sizes and the Clients can come with legacy vendors all the way to advanced, modern suppliers of composable and modular capabilities. The conclusion of Discovery phases is a concrete plan of action and roadmap that is agreed upon at all Stakeholder levels. It consists of many deliverables which you will be a key part of such as the blueprint, technical and business requirements, the roadmap, go to market and value proposition.
You will provide territory-specific insight into market trends, leveraging your network of both enterprise brands and technology partners to ensure our successful positioning as solution leaders in the North American region.
At the conclusion of Discovery. you will join the build team to ensure the goals of Discovery are met for the lifetime of the Client relationship with Apply. You will retain the key Client stakeholder relationships even as your time scales back on the day to day, giving you space to begin the process again with a new client.
By collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will be central to driving revenue growth by helping our clients adopt advanced business capabilities, optimizing platform solution operations, and providing the vision and local leadership to ensure exceptional platform experiences for our clients.
RESPONSIBILITIES
- Strategic Leadership: Provide strategic leadership and direction for the Platform practice in North America, including contributing to setting goals, developing strategies, and establishing best practices. Lead the team in driving revenue growth, solutioning, and optimizing platform operations, and delivering exceptional platform experiences for clients.
- Client Relationship Management: Working with Client Services, building and maintaining strong relationships with clients in North America, acting as a trusted advisor and point of contact for all platform-related matters. Surface and understand clients' business objectives and challenges, and effectively communicate strategic solutions that align with their goals. Proactively identify opportunities to add value and expand the scope of services provided to clients and ensure client satisfaction.
- Cross-functional Collaboration: Partner cross-functionally to define the vision, roadmap, and lead discovery and delivery of industry-leading portfolio. Identify, socialize, and deliver new innovative opportunities to disrupt the way our clients operate today.
- Product Leadership: Seasoned authority of all things digital product technology and business strategy including planning, prioritization, requirements, experimentation, and execution to achieve critical metrics and optimize end-to-end growth.
- Partnerships: Develop and maintain relationships with key technology platform partners, using those relationships to innovate on emerging capabilities and features that can drive engagement.
- Discovery: Lead Discovery engagements, which means strong problem-solving skills to take an ambiguous problem and develop a structured and logical framework to define the problem, analyze data and make actionable recommendations that appeal to all stakeholders
- Thrive in Ambiguity: with a flexible operating range and constantly call into question assumptions and biases and motivate teams to do the same.
- Ability to be hands-on and go deep on a problem, uncover root causes, and find pockets of opportunity anywhere/everywhere via technology & design principles.
- Collaboration: Able to work with cross-functional teams, including sales, marketing, technology, and operations, to align platform strategies with overall business objectives. Provide expertise and guidance to internal stakeholders on platform strengths and weaknesses, best practices, user experience, digital marketing, omnichannel and channel-less operations and customer engagement.
- Project Delivery Collaboration: Actively participate in the delivery of client projects, working closely with the project teams to ensure the successful implementation of platform solutions. Leverage your technical and strategic expertise to guide project execution, thrive in ambiguous situations, and ensure that deliverables align with client objectives and expectations. Foster a culture of excellence and accountability, promoting close collaboration and clear communication across all stages of project delivery and various disciplines.
- Business Development: Working with sales teams, support business development efforts by identifying new business opportunities in the North American market, conducting market research and analysis, participating in sales presentations, and providing subject matter expertise. Develop and execute strategies to expand the platform practice while inspiring and exciting those you work with. While also developing new service offerings, supporting strategic partnerships, and staying up-to-date with industry trends and emerging technologies.
- Platform SME: formulating what questions to ask potential or existing clients to quickly understand where they are on their modernization or transformation journey, how they are set up from an operational perspective and to rapidly bring insight into the types of challenges they may be facing from joining up omni-channel or channel-less customer journeys to the differences between B2B, B2C and D2C and the specific complexities and differences of grocery, telecom, media & entertainment, healthcare, fintech, fashion, luxury goods, and so on. You will also be very comfortable engaging in conversations on classic enterprise touchpoints such as retail, contact centre, mobile, web, AR/VR, etc., all while being able to sympathize with the common challenges that enterprises face when shifting to sophisticated and advanced experiences and operations.
- Team Support: Working with cross-functional teams, contribute to team leadership and mentorship as the platform solution SME, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment. Identify opportunities to develop and execute training and development programs to enhance the skills and knowledge of platform practice members, and ensure the team is equipped to deliver high-quality services to clients.
- Thought Leadership: Stay up-to-date with platform technology and business trends, industry best practices, and emerging technologies. Share insights and expertise through thought leadership initiatives, including blog posts, whitepapers, webinars, and industry events. Galvanize the company as a leader in the platform solution space in North America through innovative strategies and industry recognition.
REQUIREMENTS
- Minimum of 10 years of related experience.
- A blend of consulting and enterprise experience is essential.
- Experience managing (directly and indirectly) large teams of people as well as the expectations of a variety of stakeholders (from C-level to consumers).
- Public speaking and presentation skills.
- Proven track record of success in leading and managing projects where complex solutions involving multiple systems and vendors were involved; driving revenue growth, and delivering exceptional client/stakeholder experiences.
- Deep knowledge of platform best practices, omni-channel or channel-less operations, user experience and digital marketing strategies.
- Strong understanding of headless and service oriented platforms.
- Strong understanding of ‘monolith to MACH/composable’ thinking and strategies.
- Excellent leadership and team management skills, with the ability to mentor and develop team members.
- Strong business acumen, with experience in business development, sales, and client relationship management.
- Highly capable technical acumen with experience leading or managing technical people (developers, architects, solution consultants).
- Excellent communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to effectively communicate complex concepts to clients and internal stakeholders.
- Ability to travel within North America as needed for client meetings and business development opportunities.
LIFE AT APPLY DIGITAL
- Flexibility - work where you work best
- Competitive benefits plan
- Generous paid time off - take the time you need to be balanced and energized
- A growing company means many opportunities for advancement - we like to promote from within!
- Regular team and company events (karaoke, escape rooms, axe throwing and more!)
- Training budgets, Days of Learning, company-wide training, Apply Library and our Hackathon for Good mean you have many different ways to learn and stretch yourself
#LI-Remote #LI-SE1 #Promoted
At Apply Digital, we value humanity, diversity, and authenticity as much as we do excellence and innovation. We aim to live our SHAPE values (Smart, Humble, Active, Positive, Excellent) every day in the work we do and how we work together.
If this aligns with your values, we encourage you to apply for a role that aligns with your experience.
