Description
Our digital products and service delivery empower young people to use technology to solve environmental, social, and community problems they care most about. We are looking for an experienced product manager to help us ensure these are all user-centred, intuitive, and impactful.
Who we are
Apps for Good is a small independent charity giving young people the skills they need to thrive. For 10 years we’ve worked with teachers, unlocking the potential of over 200,000 students around the UK, and beyond, with our free technology courses.
Our courses encourage students to think about the world around them and solve the problems that they find by creating apps and products with machine learning and the Internet of Things.
Our digital products and services are the backbone for our charity. They enable us to engage the teachers who deliver our courses, support the students who participate, and coordinate our volunteers. They also help us understand and measure our impact and drive improvements to our programmes.
Why we exist
Too many young people don’t have access to the skills they need to succeed in life. We support and empower educators to teach students everything they need to create a brighter future for themselves and for their community.
The tech sector is not inclusive enough, we want to ensure that the industry is open to everyone making sure it works to solve society’s biggest problems.
The team
We are a charity with a start-up mindset. We are a small, close-knit, highly ambitious and energetic team who all believe strongly in our mission and values. We’re currently working very effectively remotely but when possible we expect to continue to be a distributed team with regular meetings in London.
If you believe in the power of technology and education to transform lives, then you will be the perfect fit.
The role
We’re looking for an experienced Product Manager to work closely with the CEO, COO, development agency, and the wider team to develop and implement product strategy.
You will oversee day-to-day management of our product, working with our development partners at social innovation agency, Super Being Labs. You will lead the development and implementation of new features and improvements to our digital service, gathering requirements and translating these into user stories for our developers, overseeing the development process, curating a backlog, and working closely with relevant stakeholders.
We’re looking for someone who is passionate about social impact and building products to support our teachers, students and volunteers. You will have the opportunity to drive forward a strategy and work hands-on to improve our product and services to deepen and grow our impact and ensure a user-centred, intuitive, and impactful service.
Key Responsibilities
- Support the senior team to develop vision and strategy for our technology platforms and related service design, building on and improving our existing strategy.
- Translate technology/product strategy into a roadmap, with quarterly objectives and resourcing/budgeting plan to achieve strategic objectives.
- Project manage strategic initiatives, leading on implementation, supporting product owners and feeding back to all relevant stakeholders.
- Work with our development agency to support sprint planning, estimation, commitment and execution of sprints.
- Ensure requirements are curated into a managed and continuously reprioritised backlog.
- Central point of contact between the team and our development agency.
- Support the team to gather requirements based on data and user research and translate into user stories and deliverables.
- Ensure projects are delivered on time and within budget.
- Transparent communication of bugs, key issues and progress.
- Help us solve problems creatively using tests and experiments.
We promote equality, diversity and inclusion in our workplace and make recruitment decisions by matching the charity’s needs with the skills and experience of candidates, irrespective of age, disability (including hidden disabilities), gender, gender identity or gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, or sexual orientation. We are keen to encourage a diverse range of perspectives, skills, experience and knowledge within Apps for Good.
Requirements
Essential
- At least two years’ experience in product management and/or digital project management.
- Understanding of website development and digital technology principles.
- Practical experience and knowledge of all aspects of the product life cycle.
- Effective project management skills – ability to prioritise and manage multiple work streams and activities.
- Ability to collaborate with a cross-functional external development team.
- Excellent coordination and consultation skills, with experience soliciting strategic priorities and requirements from community and programme owners and working in partnership to develop and implement digital solutions.
- Positive, communicative and proactive approach to work and problem-solving.
- Experience of user story writing and mapping.
- Experience of data tracking tools and related principles.
- Experience of analysing user research and data to inform development
- Enthusiasm for Apps for Good’s mission.
Desired
- Experience working within a distributed team and/or digital agencies.
- Experience of using Contentful or another CMS, Github (or similar too) and Mixpanel
- Good understanding of agile and lean start-up methodologies.
- Understanding of technical opportunities and limitations of Ruby, Heroku, Contentful, Zapier, Typeform and other technical elements or off-the-shelf services.
- Interest in keeping up to date with new management tools and techniques.
- Experience of working in the charity or education sector.
Benefits
Salary range £30,000 – £33,000 pro rata, 3 days per week (£50,000 – £55,000 full time equivalent) depending on experience.
Joining a small collaborative team means you’ll contribute to a variety of projects and have a voice on strategy. We’re committed to developing our team and supporting their career aspirations.
This is a part time (3 days per week) permanent role working remotely with regular travel, mostly to London, when possible. We offer flexible working, health care insurance, good holiday allowance, plus you get your birthday off.
Apply
Apply with your CV and a short statement about why you’d like to join the Apps for Good team and why you are suitable for this role. Please apply by 17:00 on 31/03/2021.
Contact
If you have any questions or would like to informally discuss the role please email: Natalie Moore, Chief Operating Officer: Natalie.Moore@appsforgood.org