Product Manager, Zendesk Ticketing & Knowledge Management Systems

Company Description

Uncommon Schools  is a nonprofit network of high-performing, public charter schools providing an outstanding K-12 education in historically under-resourced communities. We have proudly built schools that reflect our student population, with more than 60% of our teachers and staff across our network identifying as a person of color. Uncommon currently manages 52 schools serving more than 20,000 students in five cities: Boston, Camden, New York City, Newark and Rochester. We are proud that Uncommon graduates persist in and graduate from college at five times the rate of their peers nationally. We achieve this by offering strong academic, co-curricular, and social-emotional learning that prepares students for success in college and beyond.

Job Description

As a member of Uncommon’s Product Management Team, the Product Manager will own work streams that will help ensure the Team achieves its goals and objectives. Beyond technical knowledge, the Product Manager must have strong change management, planning, and communication skills in order to manage technology and processes at Uncommon’s scale and high standard. Star team members are focused, self-driven, fast, and hold themselves and their work to a high standard.

Responsibilities:

• Manage Use Cases: Deeply understand stakeholders’ goals and use cases for the platforms (i.e. respond to general questions, manage VIPs, track SLAs, coach new support staff, and understand how documents and files are stored and used by Instruction, Operation, and team like HR in support of our schools)
• Own Processes: Develop and manage implementation of all processes for day-to-day platform use (i.e. automations, security protocols, deletion policies, best practices for cross-team work)
• Own Policy & User Management: Build policy resources, including user management policy around roles, access level, and responsibilities for stakeholders and the Data & IT team
• Troubleshoot: Troubleshoot & work with vendor to resolve Tier 3 issues
• Own the Product Roadmap and Maintenance Strategy: Manage system upgrades, backups, testing, connectivity with other enterprise applications
• Build Expertise: Attend training/webinars offered by vendor to build expertise

Work with Business Process Owner(s) to understand and champion the appropriate long-term vision for the platforms [Zendesk, Qualtrics]:

• Process improvement: Use robust product knowledge to improve systems and process
• Enhancements: Identify new areas/ways the product can be used (either internally and externally)
• Project Support: Support the implementation and roll-out of new applications alongside our Data & IT team colleagues

Training and documentation:

• Knowledge Base: Own creation and management of all internal and school-facing Knowledge Base articles on support, troubleshooting, and best practices for the platform[s] - including home office policy and best practice documentation in the form of an intranet
• Training: Develop and Facilitate Training
  • School facing: Develop and facilitate training for school leaders, which they will turnkey to their staff 
  • Data & IT: Help define and coordinate vendor-offered training sessions at the right level for those managing the Service Desk and Relationship Managers.
• Process Documentation: Work with School Leaders and other Home Office Leads to document existing processes related to supported applications (e.g. documentation of methods and procedures)

Vendor Management:

• Contract & Payment: Manage renewal and payment of yearly contract
• Manage Relationship: Build relationships with vendors, act as a liaison between vendor and Uncommon on any projects, and own school-level escalations & difficult conversations.
• Escalations: Work with Director to manage vendor issues

Organizational Relationships:

• Work closely with regionally-based Associate Chief Operating Officers, school-based Directors of Operations, other Home Office Leaders, and members of the Data and IT Team. 

Qualifications

Education Requirements:

• Bachelor's Degree; Master's preferred 

Experience Requirements:

• 5+ years of work experience (customer-focused role preferred) 
  • 3+ years in K-12 environment 
  • 1+ years supporting user provisioning based on an ERP or Active Directory
  • 1+ years managing Zendesk Ticketing System OR 2+ years managing a Ticketing System other than Zendesk
  • 2+ years managing or supporting student-facing technology 
  • Familiarity with Agile principles of product management 
  • Experience creating and managing shared knowledge sharing sites, including intranets and learni