Senior Program Manager - Discovery

If you're passionate about building a better future for individuals, communities, and our country-and you're committed to working hard to play your part in building that future-consider WGU as the next step in your career.

Driven by a mission to expand access to higher education through online, competency-based degree programs, WGU is also committed to being a great place to work for a diverse workforce of student-focused professionals. The university has pioneered a new way to learn in the 21st century, one that has received praise from academic, industry, government, and media leaders. Whatever your role, working for WGU gives you a part to play in helping students graduate, creating a better tomorrow for themselves and their families.

The salary range for this position takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered in making compensation decisions including but not limited to skill sets; experience and training; licensure and certifications; and other business and organizational needs.

At WGU, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at or near the top of the range for their position, and compensation decisions are dependent on the facts and circumstances of each case. A reasonable estimate of the current range is:

Job Description

Essential Functions and Responsibilities

Product Discovery:

• Builds the business case for certificate offerings, in partnership with shared service teams such as marketing, research and analytics, design, business development, college partners and others.
• Partners across functional teams to ensure that the Voice of the Customer (learners and organizations) are known and incorporated in offering concepts.
• Collaborate with Research Team to design and conduct qualitative and quantitative studies, including user interviews, surveys, and focus groups targeting prospective and current learners.
• Collaborates on research plans for product feedback. Participates in both B-B and B-C research to ensure empathy for end users and purchasing organizations.
• Manages certificate academic product roadmap and backlog of potential future program ideas in partnership with Academy and college stakeholders.
• Identify target audiences (buyers and users) and develop appropriate go-to-market strategies for new certificate offerings.
• Ideation and Concept Development:Facilitate brainstorming sessions and workshops to generate innovative product ideas based on user research.
• Continuous Improvement:Stay up-to-date with the latest research methodologies and tools to continuously improve our product discovery processes.
• Supports the Manager, Product Discovery with additional side projects and new initiatives.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Certificate Launch

• Conducts essential product concept research, including (but not limited to) market sizing, competitive analysis, enrollment estimates, pricing models, and strategic insights to inform offerings' design.
• Engage cross-functional teams throughout product concept and charter creation (to ensure completion of product design, marketing, finance, GTM, enrollment, etc.).
• Regularly engage with regional sales leaders and strategic partnership managers to understand market needs, identify potential organizational buyers, conduct B2B research, pilot offerings, and engage with potential partners as SME.
• Ensures product launch and planning documents are well documented, detailed, and reflect relevant market insights to support GTM strategies.
• Partner to support proper pre-launch field training and offering
• Partner with Product Launch and Continuous Improvement teams to ensure successful, on-time launch.

Knowledge, Skill and Abilities

• Leads product discovery and influences product strategy and planning decisions for business-critical, strategic, complex, and innovative products.
• Actively builds and maintains a deep understanding of both employer and learner educational needs
• Serves as certificate SME with deep experience in product discovery, including methods for gathering and distilling insights, feedback loops, and customer testing
• Able to drive for results across a matrixed organization
• Diplomatic and composed under pressure, with a high level of organizational savvy.
• Strong organizational and communication skills (both written and verbal).
• Collaborative, able to work effectively across multiple teams with diverse needs and perspectives
• Executive presence and ability to influence and partner with senior leaders.
• Proven ability to drive discovery process in a matrixed environment.
• Strong critical thinking, empathetic listening, and product discovery skills.
• Skilled in consultative questioning to uncover key product and learner insights.
• Strong business acumen and strategic thinking abilities.
• Brings structure and clarity to ambiguous situations; comfortable with ambiguity.
• Significant experience in Online Education.
• Experience working with at-risk or underserved student populations.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's Degree
• 5 or more years of experience in program or product discovery
• Experienced professional seasoned in product discovery strategies

Preferred Qualifications:

• Prior experience in Education (including K-12) or Educational Technology

Physical Requirements:

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Must be able to lift up to 15 pounds at times.
• 10% or more travel required.

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Position & Application Details

How to Apply: If interested, an application will need to be submitted online. Internal WGU employees will need to apply through the internal job board in Workday.

Additional Information

Disclaimer: The job posting highlights the most critical responsibilities and requirements of the job. It's not all-inclusive.

Accommodations: Applicants with disabilities who require assistance or accommodation during the application or interview process should contact our Talent Acquisition team at recruiting@wgu.edu.

Equal Opportunity Employer: We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.