Product Manager

The Product Manager is the cross-functional point of contact between a software engineering team and business, content, or marketing teams. They receive tactical and operational direction from the Director of Product + VP of Engineering. Their primary working focus is leading an engineering team by generating tasks and requirements for products, features, proofs-of-concepts, and/or processes that align with business objectives in giving everyone the opportunity to learn to read. The Product Manager will focus the team’s work through epics or outcomes, not solutions. They will heavily communicate asynchronously through written communication (user stories, acceptance criteria, specifications, scopes of work, etc.) and monitor product development projects and project resources– with a keen eye toward making sure task work flows, identifying and communicating impediments to flow, making sure next steps necessary and by whom are clear, and communicating follow-ups to remove impediments.

● Writes user stories and acceptance criteria for epics and tasks, specifications, and scopes of work that are communicable to all and keep a full, prioritized backlog.
● Able to articulate goals or outcomes with input from cross-functional teams. Clearly understands and articulates requirements for projects and user stories and can independently answer questions relating to these requirements for engineers.
● Along with the engineers, can perform acceptance testing or bug fix verification.
● Ensures engineers follow outlined Lean operational practices. Serves as an SME on said practices, reinforces practices with the team over time, and can bring new team members up to speed.
● Fosters an inclusive, collaborative team environment geared around learning toward an outcome and participation in the creative process.
● Monitors engineer team progress– aims to collect and communicate the information necessary to keep the team happy and productive with an eye toward project flow. Takes ownership in removing impediments and escalates to Director of Product when required.
● Communicate proactively with Director of Product and VP of Engineering when the engineering team faces issues that will strategically impact current or future task prioritization in a project.
● Welcome change.

● 3-5+ years of Product Management experience with a track record of helping projects navigate to successful completion and providing impact.
● Agile project management experience– lean preferred. Knowledge of Jira and can get up to speed with the Socratic project management tool.
● Strong written and verbal communication skills are required. Errs on the side of oversharing and seeks clarity.
● Superior organizational skills and detail-oriented.
● Able to work asynchronously with remote teams.
● Past individual contributor experience in marketing, UI/UX, data analysis, or software development.
● Expert in requirements definition via excellent epics organization and user story definition with clear acceptance criteria.