Product Portfolio Manager

Description

Position at Hearth & Home Technologies, LLC

Hearth & Home Technologies (HHT), a subsidiary of HNI Corporation, is a leading manufacturer and supplier of hearth products, including gas, electric, wood, and pellet fireplaces, inserts, stoves, and related products. HHT's portfolio includes well-established brands serving consumers, builders, dealers, distributors, and other partners throughout the hearth industry.

The Product Portfolio Manager - Wood Fireplaces, Facings & Mantels is responsible for the strategy, performance, marketing, and lifecycle management of these product categories within HHT's Fireplace Business Unit. The position combines traditional product portfolio management of an established wood fireplace business with a significant growth and portfolio-development mandate for facings and mantels.

The wood fireplace portfolio is a mature, stable business. The Product Portfolio Manager owns the conventional responsibilities associated with this category, including product positioning, lifecycle management, competitive analysis, roadmap execution, sales enablement, product changes, commercialization, and ongoing performance management.

The facings and mantels categories present an opportunity to "own the wall." This leader will help reimagine how these products are organized, marketed, presented, and sold alongside fireplace appliances. Working collaboratively with Product Development, Design, Marketing, Sales, Channel partners, and other stakeholders, the Product Portfolio Manager will develop cohesive collections that reflect current design trends, simplify the customer buying experience, and enable retail partners to expand beyond the fireplace appliance itself to sell a more complete hearth solution.

IDEAL CANDIDATE PROFILE

For the wood fireplace portfolio, the Product Portfolio Manager is a disciplined product manager. They can step into a mature category, quickly understand approximately the core products and the many configurations built from them, maintain appropriate positioning and sales support, answer leadership questions about product performance, manage lifecycle decisions, and protect the health and profitability of an established business without creating unnecessary complexity.

For facings and mantels, that same individual needs to operate more like an entrepreneur building a business within an established organization. Rather than simply inheriting a roadmap, they can look at the existing assortment, understand changing consumer and interior-design preferences, identify what is missing, and develop a compelling vision for how fireplaces, facings, and mantels can become a more cohesive commercial offering.

They are particularly good at turning a broad idea such as "own the wall" into something testable and measurable. They can identify a small number of products and collections to pilot, work with Marketing to create the right presentation, teach selected retail partners how to sell the concept, observe how customers respond, and use sales and profitability data to determine what should happen next.

Most importantly, the successful candidate thinks beyond the boundaries of individual products. They understand that the strategic opportunity is not merely to sell more mantels or more facings-it is to help HHT capture a greater share of the customer's total fireplace project by making the complete solution easier to visualize, easier for channel partners to sell, and more compelling for customers to purchase. They combine product judgment, marketing capability, financial discipline, and execution skills to turn that opportunity into a scalable portfolio strategy.

WORKSITE DETAILS

The Product Portfolio Manager - Wood Fireplaces, Facings & Mantels is a full-time, direct-hire, salaried position with Hearth & Home Technologies. This role will work onsite four days a week (M-Th) and remotely on Friday. Candidates seeking a fully remote worksite arrangement will not be considered.

COMPENSATION

The posted salary range reflects a total target compensation: base + incentive. For detailed information about the complete benefits package, please visit our benefits page.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Product Portfolio Strategy & Ownership

• Own the strategy, positioning, commercial performance, and lifecycle management of HHT's wood fireplace, facing, and mantel product categories.

• Develop short- and long-term category roadmaps aligned with customer needs, market trends, competitive dynamics, channel opportunities, and business objectives.

• Maintain sufficient command of the portfolio to explain product-level performance, strategy, investment, and expected return to business leadership.Evaluate portfolio performance to identify opportunities for investment, expansion, repositioning, simplification, refresh, or discontinuation.

• Facings & Mantels Growth Strategy - "Own the Wall"

• Serve as a key product leader for HHT's initiative to expand the commercial potential of facings and mantels as complementary components of a complete fireplace solution.

• Reevaluate existing products through the lens of customer needs, current design trends, portfolio cohesion, channel effectiveness, and growth potential.

• Develop concepts for coordinated product families and collections that enable fireplaces, facings, and mantels to be presented and sold together.

• Identify opportunities to reorganize, simplify, refresh, reposition, or expand existing offerings to create a more intuitive and compelling portfolio.

• Develop recommendations for new products, styles, materials, finishes, configurations, or collections where gaps exist.

• Concept Development, Experimentation & Piloting

• Identify existing products and capabilities that can be repackaged, repositioned, or combined to test concepts before significant new investment is required.

• Develop disciplined, cost-conscious pilots in selected markets or retail locations to validate customer interest and sales potential.

• Partner with Sales and retail partners to gather structured feedback regarding customer response, ease of selling, product combinations, and merchandising. Analyze pilot results to determine which concepts should be expanded, modified, discontinued, or subjected to additional testing.

• Scale successful concepts into repeatable product, marketing, merchandising, and sales approaches.

• Product Positioning & Go-to-Market Strategy

• Develop differentiated positioning, messaging, value propositions, and target-customer strategies for assigned product categories.

• Lead go-to-market planning for new products, collections, significant enhancements, and portfolio changes.

• Evaluate post-launch performance and incorporate lessons learned into subsequent portfolio and commercialization decisions.

• Marketing Direction & Product Storytelling

• Provide product and commercial direction to HHT's internal Marketing and Creative resources responsible for developing portfolio collateral.

• Develop clear creative briefs defining the target customer, product positioning, value proposition, competitive differentiation, and desired product story.

• Review marketing materials for product accuracy, commercial effectiveness, visual consistency, and alignment with portfolio strategy.

• Retail Partner Enablement & Pilot Support

• Work directly with selected retail partners to implement and evaluate new facing and mantel concepts.

• Develop sales approaches that help partners move from selling individual fireplace appliances toward selling more complete fireplace environments.

• Train retail and dealer partners on product collections, positioning, customer benefits, configuration, and upselling opportunities.

• Refine product, merchandising, and sales strategies based on field experience.

• Sales & Channel Enablement

• Provide Sales, dealer, distributor, and retail partners with the product knowledge and resources necessary to effectively position assigned products.

• Partner with Sales leadership to identify opportunities to increase attachment rates between fireplace appliances, facings, mantels, and complementary products.

• Maintain regular communication with Sales regarding portfolio changes, launches, performance, and emerging opportunities.

• Product Performance & Business Analysis

• Maintain detailed knowledge of sales, margin, volume, mix, and other performance measures for assigned products and categories.

• Monitor performance at both the category and individual product level.

• Identify underperforming products and determine whether performance issues relate to positioning, channel execution, product-market fit, price, complexity, competition, or other factors. Develop recommendations to improve performance, reduce cost, simplify the portfolio, or redirect investment.

• Prepare clear analyses and recommendations for leadership regarding category performance and strategic initiatives.

• Product Lifecycle & Portfolio Optimization

• Manage products throughout their lifecycle from concept and commercialization through growth, maturity, refresh, rationalization, and discontinuation.

• Coordinate lifecycle changes with Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Operations, Supply Chain, and channel partners.

• Develop transition strategies that minimize disruption when products are changed or discontinued.

• Ensure portfolio documentation, sales tools, and marketing materials remain current as the offering evolves.

• Participate in continuous-improvement initiatives intended to improve product development, commercialization, and portfolio-management processes.

EXPERIENCE

• 8+ years of progressive experience in product management, product marketing, portfolio management, new product commercialization, or a related discipline, consistent with the baseline established in the existing role description.
• Demonstrated experience owning or substantially managing a portfolio of physical products.
• Proven experience developing and executing go-to-market strategies and new product commercialization.
• Experience managing established products throughout the complete product lifecycle.
• Demonstrated ability to use market research, customer insights, competitive analysis, and sales performance to make portfolio decisions.
• Experience developing new product or portfolio concepts and taking them from idea through testing, commercialization, and performance evaluation strongly preferred.
• Experience working directly with Sales and channel partners to improve product positioning and commercial performance.
• Experience directing cross-functional Marketing or Creative resources in development of product collateral and sales materials.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Consumer/Builder focused: Deep understanding of consumer and builder needs with the ability to provide clear and effective product solutions for your category
• Go-to-Market Strategy Execution: Proven experience in planning and executing go-to-market strategies for new product launches
• Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills to effectively convey product value propositions and messaging including public speaking skills
• Analytical Thinking: Strong ability to analyze market trends, consumer/builder feedback, and sales data to inform and refine marketing strategies
• Product and Marketing Expertise: In-depth understanding of product positioning, competitive market positioning and marketing strategies
• Collaboration: Skilled in engaging with cross-functional teams, including Sales, Marketing and Product Development to ensure successful product launches
• Strategic: Ability to see the "big picture" and think both long-term and short-term to develop actionable and well-defined strategic marketing plans for your product category

RELEVANT SKILLS

• Entrepreneurial Thinking: Comfortable taking an emerging business concept, creating structure around it, testing it economically, learning from results, and scaling what works.
• Business Acumen: Understands that product portfolio management ultimately requires delivering profitable growth, not simply maintaining an assortment of products.
• Product Judgment: Able to evaluate individual products in the context of customer needs, portfolio cohesion, competitive differentiation, operational complexity, and financial performance.
• Strategic Thinking: Connects individual product decisions to longer-term category strategy and business objectives.
• Commercial Curiosity: Actively seeks to understand why customers buy, why sales partners recommend certain products, and what prevents an attractive concept from converting into a sale.
• Analytical Discipline: Uses evidence to test assumptions and can speak confidently to leadership about individual product and portfolio performance.
• Financial Discipline: Looks for cost-effective ways to validate ideas before committing significant resources.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Mobilizes Product Development, Marketing, Sales, Creative, Operations, and channel partners without relying on formal authority.
• Communication & Storytelling: Can articulate a product vision clearly enough that internal teams and external partners understand both what is being offered and why customers should care.
• Self-Direction: Comfortable operating with broad objectives where the path to the desired outcome has not yet been fully defined.
• Execution & Follow-Through: Can move from strategy into the detailed coordination required to actually launch, test, measure, and improve a concept.

WE LOOK FORWARD TO HEARING FROM YOU!

In addition to your salary, this position may be eligible for a range of benefits (e.g., Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance, Health Savings Account, Disability Benefits, Life Insurance, Paid Time Off and Holidays, and Retirement Benefits). Hearth & Home Technologies benefits are subject to eligibility requirements. Our company endeavors to make www.hearthnhome.com accessible to any and all users. If you would like to contact us regarding the accessibility of our website or need assistance completing the application process, please contact us at 952-985-6000 or via email at [email protected]. The Company is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, or other characteristics protected by law.