The OTIS Product Manager is responsible for the award-winning Online Triage, Intake and referral System (OTIS), managed by Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO). This product guides people with limited resources to the best available legal help for their Illinois legal problems. The Product Manager works closely with legal services partners, who use the system to screen potential clients and receive online applications. The Product Manager seeks out and interacts with system stakeholders to assess their needs, gain insight into how the system can best serve both legal services and client users, explore opportunities for further development, define requirements for the system, provide product support to legal services partners, and conduct regular evaluation of system use and performance.
The Product Manager is an on-site position located at Illinois Legal Aid Online’s office in the Chicago Loop.
What You’ll Be Doing
- Developing and managing relationships with partners at 7-10 legal services organizations, keeping them informed and engaged throughout product lifecycles
- Evaluating business needs, analyzing their impact on OTIS, and envisioning solutions to meet those needs
- Encouraging innovation and experimentation within the OTIS ecosystem
- Writing detailed requirement documents, workflows, use cases and training materials and owning the OTIS product backlog
- Collaborating with staff and ILAO’s engineering team to leverage new technologies to improve the OTIS platform and implement your solutions; ensuring that business requirements are understood and executed
- Developing and executing a user engagement strategy with partner stakeholders and client users to inform ongoing product strategies
- Mapping and refining triage logic to manage a statewide triage rule library for partners
- Setting benchmarks, evaluating data, and continually analyzing how well the product is working
- Solving problems and providing product support to partner organizations
Core Competencies
- Strong leadership skills, including ability to influence stakeholders, manage change, and encourage a culture of experimentation and innovation
- Experience conducting effective stakeholder and user interviews
- Strong analytical, problem solving and diagnostic skills.
- Understands business and user needs through intuition, market research, and analytics
- Translates needs into solutions and builds a product backlog to implement those solutions
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate between technical and non-technical audiences
- Strong public speaking and presentation skills
- Experience mapping and understanding complex ecosystems
- Understands software design and development processes and ability to work effectively with software engineers and designers
- Understands basics of user experience and usability testing
- Detail-oriented and self-directed
- Passion for the mission and vision of Illinois Legal Aid Online
Education/Experience
- Bachelor’s degree in business, design, information science, human-computer interaction, information management systems, or a related field or equivalent experience
2-4 years in product management, product ownership, or similar experience - Demonstrated experience communicating with stakeholders, and development teams to ensure clear goals and business objectives
- Demonstrated experience with planning and executing pilot projects, analyzing information, and communicating results to stakeholders
- Demonstrated success managing products and optimizing their performance
- Demonstrated experience defining software requirements and drafting documentation
- Demonstrated experience working with software engineers, designers, and/or UX professionals
- Demonstrated ability to manage multiple projects and priorities simultaneously
- Preference given to candidates with:
Experience using legal technology, triage systems, or experience in the legal industry
Experience working with Agile development
Experience with Jira
Experience writing queries with SQL databases - Must be authorized to work in the U.S. for any employer and have a valid driver’s license
About ILAO
For almost 20 years, Illinois Legal Aid Online (ILAO) has simplified the law so that all people can seek justice and resolve their problems. Through innovation, we lower barriers to justice, so that people can understand their legal options, make informed decisions and, when necessary, represent themselves in court.
ILAO’s free programs provide essential legal services and support 24/7/365 to the people of Illinois, focused on lower-income individuals and families, legal aid advocates and pro bono professionals.
ILAO offers a full package of benefits, including health insurance, 403B plan, generous paid time off, paid parenting leave, paid holidays, life and disability insurance, and a flexible work schedule.
To Apply
Email your resume, a cover letter detailing your fit for the role, a recent writing sample of your work, and your salary requirements to hiring@illinoislegalaid.org. No phone calls; no recruiters, please.