Product Design Manager

Overview

The Product Design Manager is responsible for requirements gathering and aligning those requirements to one of the standard vertical solutions for NFI’s tier 1 and tier 2 WMS products - Manhattan and Softeon. This role is responsible for the design lifecycle for all new business or change requests; as well as administration of the document management tools and processes (Navex) used to document the product design, gather input from different stakeholders, approve design decisions and gaps, and facilitate product feature change management. The Product Design Manager ensures the design and solution for each implementation or change request will meet the needs of NFI’s customers and end users as well as drive profitability and efficiency. This position sits within Distribution Operations, interfaces closely with IT, and reports to the Senior Manager or Director of Product Design.

Responsibilities

Design / Requirements Gathering

• Identify and collaborate with stakeholders that need to provide requirements and design input for NFI’s new customers; stakeholders could be customers, operations, engineers, IT, superusers, or others.
• Work with various stakeholders to understand business processes, best practices, and customer touchpoints.
• Lead all WMS and Operational design discussions, internal or external, to drive timely and accurate decisions that will lead to excellent performance outcomes in a warehouse operation.
• Utilize experience to define how integration data mapping, WMS processing, WMS reporting, and warehouse layout/flow impact the end-user experience and performance in a warehouse.
• Understand capabilities of the various tools that will be supported (currently, Softeon and Manhattan) as well as how they best support the 3PL warehouse operations.
• Intake all requirements and incorporate updates to the Concept of Operations / Design Document / Business Requirements Document for that account.
• Receive and process user feedback, taking care to understand the underlying problem the customer/end-user is experiencing or looking to solve.
• Design and propose efficient best practices and product solutions to deploy that will meet the ever-changing requirements of the supply chain industry.
• Establish SOPs and best practices that support business needs, WMS capabilities, customer expectations, and compliance/legal requirements.

Documentation

• Utilize NFI’s document management system (PolicyTech/Navex) to document requirements, facilitate reviews, and ensure signoff/approval takes place for each new design document that is released.
• Ensure all new document releases follow the proper version control and approval processes.
• Provide/document any other necessary design artifacts that may assist users or developers interpret business requirements and operational processes. These may include process maps, SOPs, location files, slotting files, and/or report requirements matrix.
• Create reviews and attestations in Navex to ensure all sites are trained on those SOPs as they are released.

Continuous Improvement

• Facilitate product innovation workshops with different stakeholders for improving system processes, workflows, and functional requirements.
• Compile lessons learned and user feedback from each deployment and incorporate those learnings into the template that is in place for that business vertical.
• Ensure design and SOP documents are reviewed on a regular cadence to capture any business changes that may have taken place since the last review.
• Test new features as they are being built and find answers for users.
• Demo features, mockups, or prototypes to train users or gather feedback.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Information Technology, Logistics, or related field (recommended).
• 3+ years of experience using Manhattan and/or Softeon WMS in a 3PL environment.
• 2+ years of experience in a role that is responsible for gathering business requirements from stakeholders.
• This position does not have direct reports.
• Adept in Microsoft Office and/or Google Suite.
• Demonstrated history of integrating business insight into product experiences.
• Experience translating business requirements into documented process flows and business requirements documents.
• Passion, energy, and excitement, and high emotional intelligence to effectively work with both creative and non-creative professionals.
• Excellent technical, analytical, and problem-solving skills.
• Excellent knowledge of the software development life cycle is highly desirable.
• Ability to communicate on both technical and non-technical level.
• Ability to work in a self-directed manner with minimal supervision.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills.
• Positive relationship building skills in order to acquire trust of business partners.
• Strong confidentiality practices.
• Capability to travel domestically as needed.

Profit Center

PC-658