Product Manager

Job Purpose

This role is responsible for managing the credit cards acquisitions and product programs at Mashreq across the customer life cycle (product development, acquisition, early account management, life cycle management, product profitability, product maintenance). The objective of the role is to achieve sustainable growth in business volumes, revenues and net profits through developing attractive & sustainable products, optimizing credit cards acquisition, and running innovative portfolio and lifecycle programs.

Key result Areas

• Design, develop and maintain attractive and sustainable card products that drive customer acquisition and sustainable card usage – proposition, target customer segments, financial viability, market positioning & launch strategies, implementation roadmaps, sales strategy and BAU maintenance
• Continually explore potential co-brand and other product partnerships in the market, prepare business case pitch decks along with detailed financial models and align with such potential partners as well as internal stakeholders on the product constructs and their implementation
• Evaluate the existing value propositions on a regular basis and make strategic as well as tactical changes to ensure the CVP remains best-in-class
• Run simulation models and analyses to conduct detailed cost estimations and cost-benefit analysis across products
• Identify and form strategic, long term as well as event-based partnerships to augment CVPS. Drive onboarding and integration of all partners with relevant internal stakeholders – Procurement, Finance, Legal, IT, Ops etc.
• Drive product launches, re-launches and maintenance, working closely with internal stakeholders such as IT, Ops, Marketing and Digital. Ensure all approvals are in place as per the bank's policy guidelines
• Conceptualize and drive credit cards acquisition strategies – digital user experience, policy optimization, channel management, and performance monitoring
• Work closely with the risk team to evaluate the performance of existing policy programs, and propose and implement policy changes and/or test programs in order to maximize the risk-adjusted returns from new acquisitions for the business
• Design and run an effective onboarding and early account management program, aimed at maximizing activation and early spends
• Adopt a digital-first strategy for all product and portfolio actions – acquisitions, early account management, card maintenance, card services, portfolio/inorganic sales, engagement programs and customer retention
• Own the end-to-end customer experience for all initiatives – digitization of services, straight-through processing, first-point-resolution, management of customer complaints and resolution TATs
• Work closely with the Payments' Schemes, including the commercial and legal agreements with the Schemes
• Deliver management presentations and updates on regular business performance, opportunities and key risks

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Bachelors and Masters in Finance/Economics/Strategy/Business Administration with 6+ years of banking/payments/consulting experience, with at least 3 years' experience in cards portfolio/product/P&L management
• Strategic thinking – ability to understand the key dynamics and drivers of the cards business; understand industry trends and visualize what new trends and technologies would emerge in the near to medium term future; and devise strategies to respond to such opportunities/threats to ensure the bank stays ahead of the curve
• Tactical nous – ability to also understand the immediate and short-term priorities for the business and ensure timely actions to honor such priorities
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills – ability to comprehend large problems, break them down into smaller executable tasks, and track such tasks to execution and closure
• Excellent communication skills – ability to easily and clearly convey ideas, action-ables and challenges across all levels of hierarchy in the organization
• A good team player – ability to work with stakeholders across various units; ability to influence and drive decision making in large groups, including in non-reporting relationships; ability to resolve conflicts constructively and lead the team to a consensus
• Passionate about change and making a difference – at Mashreq, the employee is empowered and encouraged to conceptualize and drive change to achieve improved business outcomes
• Self-initiated – open to learning new ideas outside scope or knowledge. Open to operating outside one's comfort zone
• Very strong management presentation skills