PRODUCT MANAGER at E-LUCID (UCL Business)
This is a fantastic new business opportunity for an experienced product manager to incubate a proven software product within UCL’s technology commercialisation company – the role will transition to building and leading the spin out company.
THE OPPORTUNITY?
UCL Business PLC (UCLB), the technology commercialisation company of UCL, has, over the past five years developed an efficient online system for transacting licences to UCL’s intellectual property (IP) ranging from software products to biological materials, copyright documents and images and even hardware devices.
The system is called E-lucid.
We are now recruiting a Product Manager / Owner to take on the next phase of adoption and development – running the project as a stand-alone business unit within UCLB initially, with the aim of gathering enough commercial momentum to spin out a limited company.
Equity will be offered.
E-lucid is the first of its kind in a University environment: it entirely simplifies the (usually complex) IP commercialisation process by allowing a potential licensee to view online the terms, conditions and prices of a product and if acceptable, to proceed to purchasing the licence online – quickly and efficiently.
Following significant success using E-lucid within UCLB, the platform is now available as a white-labelled service to other universities. Being the only UK-developed product of this nature and more advanced than any competing product available elsewhere, there are now three ‘Powered by E-lucid’ services in operation: at the IP commercialisation organisations of Manchester, Imperial and Edinburgh universities.
A recent marketing campaign has identified a number of warm potential new sales opportunities, including overseas.
THE ROLE?
The role is to take on product leadership, in all senses.
Ideally you will have a genius blend of technical skills and commercial acumen to go on to lead the creation of a spinout business (with the support of UCLB). You will aim to capitalise on the opportunity for E-Lucid to be the world’s leading IP commercialisation tool, responsible for the next phase of adoption and development of the platform.
The role is broad and hands on, with activities likely to include:
• Manage new feature development, platform development and bug fixing in conjunction with our retained system developer.
• Identify marketing opportunities to promote E-lucid amongst the IP commercialisation community.
• Lead in closing sales across the UK’s research institutions and working with their technology transfer managers to specify and implement the customised cloud-based system.
• Deliver training and provide first/second level support (shared responsibility) to external users.
• Manage and grow the E-lucid user forum which provides a resource for administrators to share tips and suggest new features.
• Act as lead administrator of UCLB’s E-Lucid system including working with UCLB business managers to market and grow the portfolio of UCL products offered through the portal.
• Work with UCLB colleagues to develop a strategy for growing the E-lucid opportunity and prioritise new feature and platform developments.
• Propose and implement appropriate support mechanisms to promote and deliver E-lucid services to non-UK institutions.
WHO ARE YOU?
• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• 4+ years product management experience including in the ICT space, preferably working with cloud-based business tools.
• Confident to delve into the detail of and operate business process-software tools.
• Basic HTML programming.
• Commercially astute – able to recognise and develop commercial opportunities; develop a business case as necessary to progress growth strategy.
• Excellent presentation, communication and customer service skills; whether face to face, over email or by phone.
• Evidence of having created and implemented a marketing plan and able to communicate a product’s value proposition.
• Sales pipeline progression and preferably demonstrable experience of securing paid customer engagement.
YOU AS A PERSON?
• Dynamic, motivated, well-presented self-starter.
• Good attention to detail and well organised: able to implement own processes to manage activities.
• Empathetic to customer needs and ability to communicate across levels, from senior academics to office administrators
In supporting the University to deliver commercial and social impact with its research outcomes, UCLB has proven itself as a leading IP commercialisation organisation in the UK. We are keen to share with the wider research community the tools and experience that have contributed to our success, helping to position the UK as a leader in impactful academic knowledge transfer. The successful applicant must therefore demonstrate enthusiasm and drive to help deliver this vision.
On successful demonstration of further market traction evidencing a scalable opportunity, support will be given to you to build a team and spin out the business as a limited company, with a clear equity opportunity. Therefore genuine ambition to be a future business leader is key.