These are exciting times at MOJ Digital and Technology. We have a clear vision – to develop a digitally-enabled justice system that works more simply for users – and we’re looking for talented people to help us achieve it.
We’re making things better by building adaptable, effective services and making systems that are simple to use for staff and citizens. It can be challenging but it’s also important and rewarding.
As well as doing great work, we’re creating a place that’s great to do work in. We offer tip-top kit, brilliant training opportunities and support from expert colleagues. On top of that, you’ll find flexible working, an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.
The Legal Aid Agency is looking for a Product Manager who wants to make a difference by working on public services that really matter. The Legal Aid Agency is transforming at pace. It is our ambition to provide fair access to justice for people in need through user focused services, so that they can find and get legal support. We want to do this by overhauling the legacy technology that underpins our systems; better leveraging our data; and building our services with ever greater efficiency.
The Role:
You will be an experienced Product Manager leading a multidisciplinary team, supporting and continuously improving products of significant scale and complexity.
You will take products through discovery, alpha, beta and live phases of development with the goal of making government services simpler, easier and faster to use. You will devise and iterate the product roadmap and backlog, be a champion for user needs, document product knowledge, and communicate plans and progress through various channels including the blog, stakeholder meetings and demos. You will also be an active part of the broader product management community, receiving coaching and mentoring from your senior colleagues and taking part in informal support networks with your peers.
As a Product Manager for MOJ Digital you will work with other delivery agencies within the justice system, central government departments, and the wider public sector to transform public services.
Product Managers at MOJ work on exciting products in support of services that improve lives. It is an opportunity to work with committed and talented user researchers, developers, designers, analysts, agile, and content specialists who share a vision for making better government through smarter use of technology.
Our product management profession is described on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/service-manual/communities/product-and-service-community.
LAA Digital is one part of the MOJ Digital and Technology team. What we have in common is we develop services that improve lives and we look for people who want to transform government and solve tough problems.
Government Digital Services are a beacon of user centred design. We are looking for Product Managers who put users first and understand the value of defining problems before developing solutions. This means we need people who understand user research, user experience and design.
We apply a lean startup mentality at scale and need product managers who can operate in areas of extreme uncertainty by working with agility. We want product managers who can make data-driven decisions within an empowered, co-located software team of specialists including developers, researchers, designers and stakeholders from across the justice system. We have a great culture and modern tools (like Macbooks, Slack and Google apps).
We are actively improving the diversity of our workforce in order to get the best talent available. We want our workforce to represent the variety of people in the UK population and do not discriminate based on age, sex, pregnancy or family commitments, disability, race, religion, gender reassignment or identity, marriage or civil partnership, sexual orientation, cognitive diversity, shared parental leave, or need for flexible working.
Life’s too short not to do something important so join a team with a mission to improve millions of lives.
You will:
take products through discovery, alpha, beta, live, maturity, and retirement phases of the product life cycle with the goal of making government services simpler, easier and faster to use
devise and iterate the product strategy for a product
be a champion for user needs, document product knowledge, and communicate plans and progress through various channels including the blog, stakeholder meetings and demos
take part in a professional community of product managers through coaching and mentoring
take part in informal support networks with your peers.
You’ll have:
Product ownership – the core tactical skills of product management, capturing user needs to inform decision-making and prioritisation, and translated into actionable goals for a team (often through tools such as the backlog and user stories). You’ll be working to at least ‘practitioner’ level, capable of working with a range of specialists in a multidisciplinary team and applying the tools, terms, and concepts in a variety of ways to suit your context
Strategic ownership – the core strategic skills of product management, building the overall value proposition, business model, vision and roadmap that enable us to focus on outcomes, not outputs. You’ll be working to at least ‘practitioner’ level, capable of building a strategy from scant information and getting buy-in from colleagues
Lifecycle perspective – Understanding of the different phases of the product lifecycle and and the impact this has on product strategy. You’ll be at least ‘working level’ in this skill, have expertise in moving a product or service from one stage of the product lifecycle to another (e.g. how this informs the the product’s goals, users, and team)
Problem ownership – we make promises to solve problems, not commitments to specific features or solutions so require people who can explore and define problems before they design solutions. You’ll be working to at least ‘practitioner level’
User Focus – User-centred design is at the heart of our work. You’ll be working to at least ‘practitioner’ level in this area: able to collaborate with user researchers and can sell or represent users internally; understand the difference between user needs and desires of the user; able to champion user research to focus on totality of all users; able to prioritise and defines approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so; can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to be used
Agility – we believe in the intent behind the Agile Manifesto for Software Development and require people who focus on releasing value to users early and often within clearly framed hypotheses, combined with a commitment to improving team performance. You’ll be working to at least ‘practitioner’ level, able to support your team to choose the best delivery model(s) to suit your context, and leading to increase the value of your product each increment as efficiently as possible through application of concepts such as minimum viable product
Desirable:
DDaT perspective – Able to demonstrate a working understanding of design, technology and data principles. Understands the variety and complexity of users’ digital needs and how the product will meet those needs. Understands the importance of assisted digital. Able to design services and make decisions to meet users needs.
Financial ownership – Understands the market place, realising the benefit and persuading others that a product is the right one to use. Able to integrate a product with other services. Capable of ensuring products get used. Able to realise benefits by linking work in progress back to the business case. Able to build business cases based on user needs.
Understanding constraints – Can identify and understand constraints, and is able to communicate these and work within them. Is able to challenge the validity of constraints. Capable of ensuring standards are being met.