Head of Product Portfolio & Strategy

Summary

The Head of Product Strategy & Portfolio leads SHRM's product strategy, portfolio management, and product incubation functions, providing enterprise-level leadership for how SHRM evaluates, prioritizes, invests in, and evolves its product portfolio. The role translates business priorities, audience needs, market opportunities, and product performance into actionable portfolio strategies and investment recommendations that support growth and long-term customer value.

Reporting to the Senior Vice President, Products, this role establishes and leads the governance, processes, and decision frameworks for portfolio planning, product lifecycle management, and new product validation. The role provides senior leaders with data-informed recommendations regarding product investments, resource allocation, portfolio trade-offs, and emerging opportunities. The position also provides strategic oversight of the SHRM Labs WorkplaceTech Accelerator and leads the Product Strategy & Portfolio and SHRM Labs teams.

Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Portfolio Management

• Lead the development and ongoing evolution of SHRM’s product portfolio strategy, ensuring alignment with organizational priorities, audience needs, market opportunities, and financial objectives.
• Translate business and audience priorities into actionable product strategies, portfolio priorities, and investment recommendations.
• Lead portfolio planning and prioritization, providing recommendations regarding investment allocation, resource trade-offs, portfolio balance, and growth opportunities.
• Establish and maintain portfolio governance, decision frameworks, and performance criteria for evaluating strategic alignment, financial performance, customer value, market potential, and scalability.
• Lead portfolio reviews and guide recommendations to invest in, enhance, consolidate, reposition, or sunset products.
• Evaluate portfolio performance and identify opportunities to improve overall portfolio health and long-term value.
• Identify opportunities across the portfolio to integrate offerings, reduce duplication, improve customer experience, and create more cohesive customer solutions.

Product Incubation & Validation

• Lead the identification and evaluation of new product opportunities based on unmet customer needs, market opportunities, organizational capabilities, and strategic priorities.
• Establish and oversee a disciplined product incubation and validation process, including concept development, MVPs, pilots, customer validation, financial analysis, and business-case development.
• Establish clear criteria and stage gates for evaluating new concepts and determining whether they should advance, be revised, placed on hold, or discontinued.
• Ensure validated concepts have a clear path to integration into an existing product line or to scale as a new offering.
• Partner with Product Line, Technology, Digital, Marketing, Finance, and other stakeholders to evaluate feasibility, investment requirements, market potential, and launch readiness.
• Apply learnings from pilots and validation efforts to strengthen future product development and investment decisions.

Market & Portfolio Insights

• Incorporate customer insights, market trends, competitive intelligence, financial considerations, and product performance into portfolio strategies and decisions.
• Partner with Audience Leads to translate audience needs and growth priorities into product implications and opportunities.
• Collaborate with Knowledge to identify product opportunities informed by SHRM research, thought leadership, expertise, and emerging workplace trends.
• Identify emerging market, technology, and customer trends that may create opportunities or risks across the product portfolio.
• Provide senior and executive leaders with clear, data-informed recommendations regarding product opportunities, investments, risks, and trade-offs.
• Translate complex market and portfolio information into actionable insights that support strategic decision-making.

SHRM Labs WorkplaceTech Accelerator

• Provide strategic oversight of the SHRM Labs WorkplaceTech Accelerator, including its strategy, priorities, operating model, and performance.
• Guide the evaluation of growth-stage workplace technology companies and their alignment with SHRM’s audiences, strategic priorities, and business objectives.
• Strengthen opportunities for participating companies to expand distribution, enter new markets, elevate their brands, and engage with SHRM’s audiences and ecosystem.
• Identify technologies, insights, emerging trends, and potential partnerships from the Accelerator that may support SHRM’s broader product and innovation priorities.
• Build connections between Accelerator activities and SHRM’s product portfolio to identify opportunities for collaboration, experimentation, and innovation.
• Evaluate Accelerator performance and recommend opportunities to strengthen its strategic and business impact.

Team & Cross-Functional Leadership

• Lead, develop, and set priorities for the Product Strategy & Portfolio and SHRM Labs teams, building capabilities aligned with evolving organizational and business needs.
• Serve as a strategic advisor to senior leadership on product portfolio opportunities, risks, investments, and trade-offs.
• Build alignment across Product, Audience, Marketing, Technology, Digital, Finance, Strategy, Knowledge, and other functions to advance enterprise product priorities.
• Establish clear governance, decision rights, roles, responsibilities, dependencies, and accountability across portfolio initiatives.
• Facilitate cross-functional discussions and decision-making when priorities, resources, or business needs compete.
• Drive continuous improvement in product strategy, portfolio management, incubation, and validation practices across the Products organization.
• Champion a customer- and market-driven product culture that strengthens the use of data, experimentation, customer insights, and disciplined decision-making.
• Develop team capabilities, provide coaching and feedback, and foster a collaborative, accountable, and high-performing environment.

Education & Experience Requirements

Education

·         Bachelor’s degree in business, product management, strategy, marketing, technology, or a related field, or relevant equivalent experience in lieu of degree.  Master’s degree preferred.

Experience

• At least 10 years of progressive experience in product management, product strategy, portfolio management, business strategy, or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience working in a complex, multi-product organization with matrixed decision-making and competing business priorities.
• Demonstrated experience developing product and portfolio strategies and prioritizing investments across multiple products, services, or business lines.
• Demonstrated experience developing, validating, launching, scaling, repositioning, or sunsetting products and services.
• Experience developing and presenting portfolio strategies, investment recommendations, and business cases to senior and executive leadership.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing teams and influencing senior leaders and cross-functional stakeholders in a matrixed environment.  Experience applying customer insights, market intelligence, financial analysis, and performance data to product and portfolio decisions.
• Experience in subscription, platform, membership, learning, certification, professional services, or workplace technology environments preferred.

Certifications

• Relevant product management or product development certifications are a plus.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Strong product and business judgment with the ability to make disciplined portfolio, investment, and prioritization recommendations.
• Advanced knowledge of product strategy, portfolio management, customer discovery and validation, business-case development, product incubation, and product lifecycle management.
• Strong business and financial acumen with the ability to evaluate investment opportunities, business cases, performance, and trade-offs.
• Strong analytical, critical-thinking, and problem-solving skills with the ability to synthesize complex information and identify actionable insights.
• Ability to translate organizational strategy, audience needs, and market opportunities into clear product and portfolio priorities.
• Demonstrated ability to influence decisions, navigate competing priorities, and build alignment without direct authority.
• Strong executive communication, facilitation, storytelling, and presentation skills.
• Ability to communicate complex product, market, and financial concepts clearly to executive, technical, and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to create clarity, establish structure, and build momentum in ambiguous, complex, or rapidly evolving environments.
• Demonstrated people leadership, coaching, talent development, and team-building skills.
• Strong collaboration and relationship-management skills with the ability to work effectively across organizational boundaries.
• Practical understanding of AI and emerging technologies, including their potential application to product development, innovation, operational efficiency, and customer value. Ability to effectively leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools and technologies to streamline workflows, enhance productivity, and improve overall work quality.

Physical Requirements

This position operates in a typical office environment (which includes a home office setting) and requires the ability to perform essential job functions with or without reasonable accommodation. Physical requirements may include:

• Prolonged periods of sitting at a desk and working on a computer.
• Frequent use of hands and fingers for typing, handling documents, and using office equipment.
• Occasional standing, walking, bending, and reaching.
• Ability to lift and carry up to 30 pounds as needed.
• Clear verbal and written communication skills for effective interaction with colleagues and stakeholders.

Work Environment

Hybrid Schedule (3 Days In-Office/2 Days Remote)

This position follows a hybrid work schedule, with Tuesday through Thursday in office and Monday and Friday remote.  Employees must be available during standard business hours, with core hours beginning between 8:00–9:00 a.m. and concluding between 5:00–6:00 p.m. local time.

Travel:  Occasional 0 – 20%

#LI

The hiring range for this position is $135,000 to $175,000 per year. This range is an estimate, and the actual salary may vary based on the candidate's experience, skills, and qualifications. SHRM offers a competitive and comprehensive total rewards package. The benefits for this position include professional growth and development, health, dental, vision, well-being, health savings, flexible spending, retirement, open leave, and annual discretionary bonus and incentives.