Company Overview
AGDATA is a leading provider of strategic data and analytical solutions to the world’s largest crop protection and animal health manufacturers, distributors and retailers. Founded in 1986, AGDATA operates throughout the United States and Canada, enabling agriculture and animal health industry participants to collect and analyze complex sales data, develop and manage sophisticated marketing strategies, and execute mission-critical sales and marketing programs. AGDATA is a business solutions provider that offers both tech-enabled Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services and market-facing SaaS applications, delivering end-to-end solutions to its customers.
We deliver superior client experiences and operational efficiencies while connecting the manufacturer and distribution channel through grower-verified, standardized data. We use Agile methodologies to drive product development and ensure responsiveness to market needs, customer demands, and technology trends. Levine Leichtman Capital Partners (LLCP) acquired AGDATA in 2022. LLCP is a strategic private equity firm with more than $10 billion in cumulative capital commitments to business services and technology companies. LLCP is a value-added investor, contributing professional expertise and multi-level support to help companies realize their full potential.
The LLCP investment approach is anchored by a sizable long-term capital base, experience in structuring technology-oriented transactions, and proven management techniques that yield both flexibility and opportunity.
The Position Summary
As part of AGDATA’s executive leadership team, the Vice President, Product Management will play a pivotal role in leading the product vision, strategy, and execution for our technology platforms. This leader will drive the evolution of our product portfolio, focusing on the migration from legacy systems to commercial solutions, optimizing our service delivery models, and ensuring alignment with both business and customer needs. (For clarity, this is a transformation opportunity and not a keep-the-lights-on role.) The VP, Product Management will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including Engineering, Operations, IT, and Sales, to ensure the successful delivery of high-quality, scalable, and efficient solutions.
Key Responsibilities
- Product Strategy and Vision:
- Develop and drive the product strategy and roadmap, ensuring alignment with the company's broader business objectives and reflecting AGDATA’s commitment to best-in-class solutions for crop and animal health manufacturers and channel partners.
- Lead the transition from legacy custom-built systems to commercial solutions, balancing customer needs, scalability, and cost efficiency.
- Identify market opportunities, as well as customer and operational pain points to inform new product development and feature enhancements.
- Stay current on industry trends, competitor products, and new technologies, particularly in BPO and technology-driven service delivery models.
- Agile Product Development:
- Implement and champion Agile methodologies across product development teams to ensure iterative, customer-focused, and efficient delivery.
- Work closely with Scrum teams, Product Owners, and Engineering leaders to prioritize product backlogs, define sprints, and manage product lifecycle phases.
- Ensure continuous feedback loops with customers, stakeholders, and internal teams to enhance product features and functionality.
- Leadership and Team Development:
- Build, mentor, and lead a high-performing product management team, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and accountability.
- Drive cross-functional collaboration with Engineering, Operations, Sales, and Marketing to ensure product success from ideation through execution and post-launch support.
- Establish clear product ownership and accountability across teams and ensure alignment with business objectives.
- Evaluate and optimize the Product Management team’s structure, roles and responsibilities, and processes (including cross-functional processes), emphasizing validated, data-driven learning, and creating a test-and-learn culture.
- Technology & Transformation Leadership:
- Lead the development and evolution of technology and BPO solutions to replace legacy systems, ensuring seamless integration with existing infrastructure.
- Partner with Operations,Engineeringand IT teams to manage the migration process, mitigating risks, ensuring data integrity, and minimizing disruption to client operations.
- Advocate for the adoption of emerging technologies such as AI, automation, and cloud-based solutions that enhance the company’s BPO service offerings.
- Customer and Stakeholder Engagement:
- Act as a key liaison between the Product organization and clients/prospects, translating customer feedback into actionable product enhancements.
- Present product roadmaps, progress updates, strategic recommendations, and business cases to executive leadership, board members, and other key stakeholders.
- Collaborate with Sales and Marketing teams to create and execute go-to-market strategies,supporting business development efforts with product insights, thought leadership content, and effective sales and demo tools.
- Collaborate with both internal and external stakeholders to ensure organizational readiness to support product launches and upgrades.
- Financial & Business Accountability:
- Manage the product P&L, ensuring alignment with company-wide financial goals.
- Work with key internal stakeholders to develop pricing, product positioning, win/loss metrics, and to evaluate build/buy/partner decisions.
- Track and report on key product performance metrics, customer satisfaction, and ROI to inform data-driven decision-making.
- Continuously seek opportunities to reduce operational costs and improve product efficiency, scalability, and time-to-market.
Qualifications:
- Bachelor's degree in business, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field (MBA preferred).
- Significant product management experience, including 5+ years in a senior leadership role in a technology-driven BPO or similar environment.
- Proven track record of leading large-scale product transformations, particularly migrating from disparate legacy to commercial solutions.
- Demonstrated ability to develop solutions for large/enterprise organizations, as well as scalable mid-size and emerging client solutions.
- Expertise in Agile methodologies and experience implementing Agile processes across Product and Engineering teams.
- Strong understanding of technology platforms, SaaS, and BPO solutions, with the ability to guide technical decisions that align with business objectives.
- Proven experience defining competitive landscape, performing industry analysis, and ability to analyze and present conclusions from customer interactions when defining portfolios.
- Experience with the complete life cycle of the product portfolio with clear success in achieving revenue, white space, and customer acquisition objectives.
- Experience with go-to-market strategy creation, execution, and refinement.
- Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence at all levels of the organization.
- Highly skilled in change management and driving organizational process improvements.
- Strong analytical and critical thinking skills, with experience in managing product P&L, setting KPIs, and driving results.
Key Competencies & Attributes:
- Strong leadership, mentoring, and team development skills
- Ability to balance and switch between both strategic visioning and tactical execution
- Ability to create a culture of enthusiasm, collaboration, and accountability
- Strong problem-solving/analytical and quantitative skills
- High ability to communicate complex, specialized information to non-expert audiences
- Customer-centric mindset
- Strong project and program management skills
- Balanced ability to lean into technical, business, and people acumen
- Proven ability to collaborate effectivelyin a matrixed, fluid cross-functional environment
- High energy
- Results-driven
