Milwaukee Tool is looking for a platform leader with a startup mentality to help lead the continued growth of products across our organization. As a Platform Product Manager, you will be primarily responsible for the strategy, definition, and development of our platform portfolio, working alongside your partners in the business to establish platforms as a core part of their growth plan. This opportunity requires a person with a proven track record of creating and executing a shared vision by building consensus across teams and with end users on roadmap priorities that help us meet our organizational goals. An ideal candidate is data-driven and an excellent communicator who can work well across and up different business partner functions, from engineering to marketing. Consistently keeping the user at the center of all decisions is critical for this role.

This job is for you if:

• You rally your team around the outcomes you wish to achieve.
• You’re obsessed with creating platform solutions that deliver value to our users and business.
• You enjoy solving complex problems using qualitative and quantitative insights.
• You can help yourself and others navigate new ways of thinking.
• You have a firm grasp on platform or product management fundamentals.

Your Role on Our Team 

As a Platform Product Manager, you will drive the strategy and execution of the physical experiences that interact directly with our product solutions. With a deep focus on user-centered design and data-driven decision-making, you will lead the development and enhancement of these solutions, which directly impact a user’s experience with owning our solutions, the operations of their business, and differentiate us from the rest of the industry.

You will work with partners in the business, our users, and leverage industry knowledge to craft and maintain a compelling product vision that stretches across our brand. You will help teams set themselves up for success in folding platforms into their product portfolios and create business cases for the opportunities that drive the entire business forward. It will be your responsibility to always advocate for the end user, integrating feedback and analytics to ensure our products not only meet the current needs, but can anticipate future demands.

Your skills in strategy, lifecycle management, collaboration, data-driven decision-making, communication, and leadership will be integral to your ability to demonstrate a clear destination and progress for the organization as we explore product ecosystems more deeply.

You’ll be DISRUPTIVE through these duties and responsibilities:  

• Define clear user problems or opportunities that lead to product features and capabilities, emphasizing measurable usability, productivity, and value.

• Consult with partners in business to fold platforms into our existing business cases and proformas.

• Responsible for driving platform initiatives from inception to execution and iteration.

• Be a subject matter expert in the product market and provide vision and leadership to your product team.

• Work closely with engineering and product design, building viable platforms that can scale while delighting our customers

• Work closely with platform team members, internal stakeholders, and external clients to deliver a user experience that includes industry best practices.

• Prepare, maintain, and evangelize the product roadmap defining product enhancements for short- and long-term releases.

• Develop and deliver concise and meaningful presentations to promote your platform to internal and external stakeholders/users.

• Work with cross-functional teams to enable your platforms success and create customer demand for further enhancements.

• Act as a Platform Champion within the organization.

• Operate with a holistic perspective: balancing the top-down strategic view within the context of a bottom-up detail focus to ensure program efficacy within the context of the business objectives.

• Make recommendations for primary research including surveys and focus groups.

• Perform end user interviews, job site visits and field testing. Provide customer input throughout the platform development process.

• Draft launch materials for assigned platform that build awareness, adoption, and education.

• Integrate user feedback into product requirements to ensure products satisfy user needs as well as wants.

• Collaborate with cross-functional partners in commercializing platforms, including attendance at trade shows and industry events.

• Perform other related duties as required and assigned.

The TOOLS you’ll bring with you: 

• Bachelor’s degree in marketing, business, product development, or another customer-oriented related field is recommended.

• A minimum of 5-7 years of experience in platform or product management or product leadership.

• Knowledge of design thinking strategies, instructional design, resource creation, and communications for optimal adoption.

• Strong consultative, relationship-building, interpersonal and influence skills, and effective at quickly establishing credibility and collaborating with others.

• Previous experience working with and impacting user experience.

• Possessing a strong analytical mindset; able to understand and communicate large data sets to a variety of audiences.

• Solid customer orientation, core understanding of the user lifecycle journey and user needs, and how user insight and user strategy drive experience.

• Experience in Agile frameworks, phase-gate processes framework.

• Strong planning and organizational skills required with the demonstrated ability to balance competing demands.

• Basic technical understanding of power tool technology.

• Ability to travel 25-30% of the year.

• Proficiency in PC skills including MS Office and Internet usage is required.

We provide these great perks and benefits:  

• Robust health, dental and vision insurance plans 

• Generous 401 (K) savings plan 

• Education assistance 

• On-site wellness, fitness center, food, and coffee service 

• And many more, check out our benefits site HERE.