Senior Product Manager, Bloomsbury Professional Online

Bloomsbury Professional Online is our market-leading research platform designed to provide up-to-date content and commentary to support busy legal, tax and accountancy professionals in their client work. We are looking for a highly experienced Senior Product Manager to steer BPro through an exciting phase of development, while being responsible for delivering and maintaining all Bloomsbury Professional Online products, ensuring that they meet the demands of the professional market and end-users and commercial partners. 

You will be joining a dynamic and friendly team, who are re-imagining Bloomsbury’s academic and professional publishing for a digital environment. We are part of Bloomsbury Digital Resources (BDR), which sits within the wider Bloomsbury Academic and Professional Division.

Bloomsbury strives to be an inclusive employer and publisher, and is the 2022 winner of the London Book Fair Inclusivity in Publishing Award. In 2021, we were winners of The Bookseller’s Academic, Educational & Professional Publisher of the Year Award.

Bloomsbury values the importance of life–work balance and we offer flexible working options. This role is only expected to be in the office 2 days per week (Wednesdays and Thursdays) and we offer a core hours policy of 10:00 am to 3:00 pm, with ‘Flexible Fridays’ throughout the year. See below for further details. 

The role

Product Development

• Provide strategic input on new business cases working with the Editorial and Commercial Leads to define the product solution.
• Oversee design and development phase of platform migration of Bloomsbury Professional Online, by supporting User Experience (UX) colleagues to define product requirements, including those related to accessibility and scope.
• Implement product offerings and enhancements on behalf of commercial partners.
• Work with the UX Team to carry out market research with buyers and decision-makers in customer and potential customer firms, end-user interviews and UX research to ensure that product requirements meet user needs.
• Advise on functional and user issues from a product innovation perspective, inputting into development plans for the overall platform, in consultation with the Commercial Lead, UX Team and other stakeholders.
• Act as escalation point to Technology colleagues for prioritisation of product development issues and bugs.
• Perform User Acceptance Testing during product development, reporting and ticketing bugs to ensure that the sites meet the agreed requirements.
• Work closely with Marketing and UX Teams on platform strategy to create a consistent user experience, visual design, and branding, to drive increased usage and engagement and to align with Bloomsbury’s broader portfolio of digital products.

Product Management

• Work with the Content Manager to ensure that content updates and enhancements are performed to an agreed schedule and within the agreed budget.
• Support Project Management and UX Teams to define requirements for development projects, and day-to-day management of issues and bugs. Work with Technology colleagues and other stakeholders to sign off and prioritise development work.
• Liaise with sales, marketing and customer services to communicate addition of new content and product enhancements, including preparation of post-sales documentation, e.g. guides, product demonstration videos.
• Work with internal stakeholders to agree and monitor the product launch and updates schedule.
• Monitor sites for bugs and improvements, respond to customer and sales requests for product enhancements, and prioritise requirements based on business priority.
• Monitor the BPro Capex and Opex budgets, following consultation with other key stakeholders, and P&L for sign-off by Commercial Lead, Managing Director, BDR, and Group Finance Director.
• Act as ‘product champion’, using product expertise to respond to queries from sales, marketing and customers, troubleshooting and escalating issues as required, and contribute to strategic development of those products.
• Interpret usage analytics reports and advise on opportunities for improving content and features based on analytics.
• Ensure that content requirements for new products, ongoing developments or any upcoming migration are clearly specified, liaising with UX, Content Architecture and Production Teams on data planning, content conversion and content loading.
• Ensure that new content and product enhancements are communicated to sales, marketing and customer services

Documentation, workflows and processes

• Point of escalation: in line with existing protocols, alert Commercial Lead and BDR MD (as appropriate) for sign-off when changes to schedule, scope, or budget are required and calls meetings with appropriate shareholders as per guidelines.
• Responsible for overseeing the creation and maintenance of (and in some instances producing) documentation to ensure business continuity and clarity of roles, responsibilities and processes, integrating these with existing academic and professional processes, documentation Wiki) and infrastructure to maintain efficiencies and transparency.
• Work with relevant stakeholders to ensure data integrity and compliance – for example, around Biblio, scheduling and data for Sales team to enable maximisation of sales.
• Identify improvements to processes and workflows.
• Support alignment of BPro with BDR’s processes and workflows, suggesting improvements as appropriate, whilst also considering the needs of this specialised market.

Representation

• Provide training and outreach to other departments as required.
• Promote the Product Innovation team within the wider company, and demonstrate an aptitude for more managerial tasks.

Channel market intelligence and customer feedback through external outreach, and engaging with end-users through user testing sessions, Win-Loss analyses and focus groups. 

Knowledge, skills and experience 

• Extensive experience of digital product management, with a demonstrable record of delivering successful digital products.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, and ability to lead by persuasion and influence
• Commercial business sense
• Proactive problem solving and analytical skills
• Ability to prioritise and focus to drive successful delivery
• Understanding of project management and software development processes
• Technical fluency and, ideally, an understanding of user-centred design principles
• Excellent time management and efficient execution of tasks
• Flexibility and ability to adapt and respond to change
• Experience of gathering & interpreting web usage analytics
• Experience of conducting user research
• Excellent implementation and time-management skills
• An excellent eye for detail and a logical, problem-solving approach
• A firm grasp of web usability issues
• A proactive, “can-do” attitude
• Experience in editing XML and working with Content Management Systems (including, knowledge of HTML and CSS) an advantage
• Understanding or experience of the professional legal market an advantage
• Experience of overseeing platform migrations also an advantage

Additional information

The role is a full-time and permanent position.

The role is based at our London office 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP on a hybrid working pattern of 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred). Allocated office days for this role are: Wednesday and Thursday

Please apply with a CV and covering letter addressed to Human Resources (Word or PDF format only) via the ‘APPLY NOW’ button detailing how you meet the requirements outlined above for this role by Monday 28th November 2022.

Bloomsbury reserve the right to close the role early if we exceed the required number of applications

Bloomsbury Benefits

As well as a fantastic opportunity to join a global award-winning organisation, Bloomsbury offers the following competitive benefits package:

Working Pattern

• hybrid working pattern of: 2 days office based / 3 days home based (or fully office based if preferred)

Holidays

• 25 days holiday
• 3.5 days Christmas company holiday

Other Benefits:

Two paid Personal Wellness Days

Flexible Fridays – take Friday afternoon off by working an additional 3 hours and 45 minutes earlier in the week

Season Ticket Loan

Sharesave Scheme

In-house Doctor

Eyecare Voucher Scheme

Company culture! – Employee Voice Meetings, Staff Networks (Bloom, Disability, Mental Health, Pride and Parents, Guardians and Carers), 12 Mental Health First Aiders trained across the UK offices, Publishing Events and access to free Publishing Resources

For additional benefits see below

Bloomsbury is a place where anyone of any background, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality, gender identity, age, ability, or socio-economic status can thrive, feel comfortable, and be heard and accepted. We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all sections of the community.

We are willing to make any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process, please flag to the recruitment team if required

Applicants must have the legal right to work in the UK.

The Company

Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Bloomsbury Publishing is a leading independent publishing house, established in 1986, with authors who have won the Nobel, Pulitzer and Booker Prizes, and is the originating publisher and custodian of the Harry Potter series. Bloomsbury has offices in London, New York, New Delhi, Oxford and Sydney. Within Bloomsbury’s Academic division, it publishes under Bloomsbury, as well as under a number of prestigious and historic imprint names. Read Our Story for how it all began. 

 Bloomsbury is committed to creating a working environment that stimulates creativity and collaboration, is respectful of difference, is inclusive and ethical in its practice, and promotes well-being. We are determined to nurture and develop our employees to reach their highest potential, and we know that our success is down to the passion, commitment and hard work of our talented people. We recognise the urgent need to attract and support applicants from all backgrounds and identities to become part of the global publishing industry, allowing diverse voices to reflect and shape our culture and society.

Please read more on our Missions and Values here.

Please read our environmental policy here.