Head of Product

Head of Product – located in central London with some opportunity for remote working and some travel to partners.

Overview

We are a growing data company based in London (Old Street), Dubai, India and with team members spread across the globe. We work with banks, retailers and FMCG companies to increase sales and optimise operations using data. We are looking to hire our first Head of Product to lead:

• Our own product development – we are moving from a services business to a product and services business and have our first product in beta testing. We need someone to head up creating and rolling out new commercial products in the data and AI field which both serve our existing clients and new markets, for example our new product is for both the retail and charity market.
• Product development for our clients – we work with Heads of and Directors of Innovation in leading businesses to support them to address pain points in their organisation and shape future strategy. We need someone to sit at the heart of this process and design and work with the team to deliver the most user-friendly product for our clients and their customers.

We want to find a high-energy technology leader to help deliver our product vision and lead this new function. The person will have input on key decisions on which potential Profusion products to take through to testing. They will oversee the end-to-end product process working to create the MVP, shape products from that MVP based on thorough user insight through to their launch and maintain, support and refine products once launched. They will work closely with our clients and technical teams to deliver effective new solutions. The individual must enjoy start-up environments and be capable of managing a team but delivering themselves.

We offer a high trust culture that provides flexibility, autonomy and a sense of contribution. You will learn from and share knowledge with a range of talented colleagues, and our academic partners, the University of Essex, who bring the best of academic thinking to influence our products. All of this while embarking on an exciting journey with a company situated at the heart of London’s Tech City.

Key responsibilities:

• Build and oversee the product function of the business to enable new ventures in the data and AI fields and delivery of client projects. Have a vision of what to build and turn that vision into a reality working with the broader Profusion team, users, external stakeholders, current and future potential clients.
• With the CEO and the Board, assess internal and external product ideas and make decisions on whether Profusion invests in these and takes them forward.
• Build out the timeline and costings of the proposed products, dependencies and risks working with the relevant Profusion teams and the ‘venture owner’ (equivalent of business owner). Input into the feasibility assessments of new ideas. Set up the agile process for each product to move from feasibility assessment to MVP, MVP to launch and maintenance and future refinement of launched product.
• Create specification documentation, including clear and complete epics and user stories.
• Gather user requirements, managing the User Researcher(s).
• Manage multiple products (and in time) multiple managers of products effectively, efficiently and with creativity. Manage developers to deliver against the product specifications.
• Work closely with the MarComs team to manage the development and release of supporting micro-sites for the products and ensure content/copy within the products is of the highest quality and responds to user needs.
• Oversee the budget or investment allocated to each product, manage external partner costs and internal development time against plan.
• Prioritise tasks and products to best deliver against business and client priorities. Be accountable to the CEO, Commercial Director and clients for decisions about product functionality and prioritisation. Oversee the Scrum Master to ensure they manage product delivery to time and budget, risks are identified, escalated and managed early and issues resolved quickly. Manage the interdependencies of the development process smoothly.
• Work with the Scrum Master to ensure the task list is visible, transparent, and clear to all, such that everyone knows what is being worked on, when, and why.
• Provide timely communications to the team, client and the Board – communicate early and often about expected delays or other issues.
• Set up the customer service/QA function required as we launch products and oversee the smooth delivery of this to ensure bugs are squashed quickly and major issues are escalated whilst minor ones are handled in the appropriate fashion.
• Manage the digital product release schedules and mitigating risks as appropriate with these.
• Work closely with the Head of IT for Profusion to manage IT security relating to products.
• Review and refine the productisation and dev ops processes.
• Support the Business Manager and Sales team with relevant product information or presentations for bids and reports to external funders and new clients.
• Build the organisation’s understanding of product development.
• Support our Profusion Cares foundation pro bono projects where product skills are required to provide the solution to the social cause.
• Ad-hoc projects to support delivering Profusion’s ambitions as the role requires.

Knowledge and experience:

• Previous experience with team leadership and end-to-end product ownership, preferably at an agile, SaaS organisation, preferably with some experience of managing data/AI products.
• Previous experience working with and leading cross-functional internal and external teams.
• An ability to envision and help design high-quality, innovative products that meet the needs of multiple end-users simultaneously.
• The ability to think through complex use-cases and create ironclad product testing plans, such that potential technical issues are often caught long before release to production, and even before development begins.
• An understanding of how to build new products and iterate on old ones based on user research.
• Experience with briefing and managing freelancers, meeting with potential commercial partners, and working directly with technical teams. While you don’t need to be able to read or write code, you should have a solid understanding of how APIs, databases, single-page applications, and so on work.
• Demonstrable experience of working within teams based on agile or lean project management methodologies, such that you are comfortable executing against shifting priorities on short timelines while delivering a consistent and compelling narrative to stakeholders.
• Experience running projects and owning products that do not exceed budget requirements, and therefore may require you to wear a lot of hats in their execution.
• Experience of working in a start-up environment.

Essential skills:

Leadership: Ability to lead a team and establish shared culture and processes. Ability to work with the MD of Profusion Ventures, the Board and across the Profusion teams to develop a coherent shared vision of Profusion Ventures’ products.

Technical understanding: Good digital and technical understanding, able to work
with external partners, freelancers and in-house teams. Must be able to communicate complex technical ideas to general audiences.

Product management: the ability to manage and deliver products to time and budget which meets user needs.

Adaptable: Able to respond quickly to changes in industry developments. The ability to deal with ambiguity and work in a rapidly scaling organisation.

Creative: Has the ability to generate ideas and deliver products and services in coherent programmes that are compelling to the users for whom they are intended.

An understanding of stakeholder and user research, as well as general UIX best practices.

Excellent communication and interpersonal skills: the ability to persuade a variety of
audiences and encourage others to use new ways of working, including at senior levels.

Collaborative: Good at building relationships both internally and externally. Ability to work collaboratively with colleagues across all areas of the organisation and beyond to achieve one vision.

Confident in scoping new ideas for development, with the ability to challenge others and to be challenged.

The ability to help turn requirements into reality in the digital world.

Reward:

It’s so important to do a job you love, with colleagues whose skills you respect and whose company you really enjoy. You also need to feel valued, recognised and rewarded. At Profusion we encourage and support our people to develop themselves, their ideas and their careers. We provide a competitive salary and attractive benefits package, including: 25 days’ paid holiday (plus 8 bank holidays); discretionary bonuses and on the spot WOW Awards; professional development; benefits including free health insurance, subsidised gym membership, pension and interest free season ticket travel loans; opportunities to get involved in charity work and volunteering; flexible working; Friday team drinks, social events, and a friendly culture in a great brand new office in Tech City, just 4 minutes’ walk from Old Street Station.