Adaptive Lab is a full-stack innovation agency, who create new digital products and services for forward thinking companies. Think of us as a startup or skunkworks for hire: we work with clients to understand their needs; devise product concepts that hit the sweetspot where business goals and user needs overlap; build prototypes to test our ideas; and then iteratively design and build the final product.
We’re looking for people who can comfortable combine high-level and hands-on. You’ll either need to be demonstrably strong in the following three areas – or at least have potential and the willingness to become amazing at them:
Client relationships
Because this role involves such close work with our clients, we’re looking for someone with the skills to manage and develop client relationships. That involves both keeping clients engaged and informed throughout the project, but also coming up with new features or products and persuading the client that they’re brilliant, must-build ideas. You’ll also be getting involved in the sales process: drawing out client needs and goals, and coming up with product ideas to pitch to them.
Project management
We’re a small, fast-moving team, so you’ll need to be comfortable working autonomously. That’s not to say the rest of us won’t be there to support you, help you and talk things through. But you’ll be the one driving your projects forward, and deciding what needs to be done when. This will require some knowledge of the technology you’re working with, and an eagerness to fill in the gaps of your knowledge. We work in an agile way, so you’ll either need to already be fluent in stand-ups, iterations and planning poker, or a quick learner.
Product ownership
On top of all of this, you’ll need to have a passion for delivering great products. That means you’ll always be thinking about the user; be able to balance technical and business considerations; and be as comfortable fleshing out the details of a feature as building a high-level product roadmap. We want someone who can master the details without losing sight of the high-level view. If you’re in the habit of asking “how does doing this right now now help us to achieve our long-term goals for the product”, we want to talk to you.
Responsibilities
- Manage product priorities – balancing client requirements, user feedback, insights from analytics and testing, technical debt, our own ideas and keeping track of it all using the relevant tools
- Come up with product and feature ideas – whether you’re working out ways to delight users of existing products, or conceiving entirely new products to help clients achieve their goals, you’ll need to have a creative bent, and enjoy generating ideas with the rest of our team
- Work with the developers & designers, not against them – give the team the product knowledge, clear priorities, and sensible process they need so they can build the right things for the product, in the right way. And make sure nothing gets in the way.
- Getting under the bonnet – you’re the product guru so no-one should know it better than you
- Customer champion – you should live, breath and fight for the customer (end-user)
- Build client relationships and develop new business – everything from spotting new opportunities to helping us wow clients at pitches.
- Help build a better company – play your part in making Adaptive Lab a better place to work
- Grow the team – attract great new people
Desired skills and experience
- Some experience in a product management, digital producer or project manager role.
- Communication skills Steve Jobs would be proud of. You’ll need to be able to talk in broad brush strokes with strategists and in bits and bytes with developers; to charm clients with big-picture visions but also explain details clearly enough so everyone’s always on the same page.
- A passion for learning and testing – both in product management but also in the related fields of technology, design, business, marketing and wider areas
- Confidence in numbers – web analytics and defining measurement metrics and excel/similar applications
- You love solving problems
- Knowledge and/or experience of agile development practices
- Experience defining and delivering MVPs is a plus
- An opinion on whether we should get an office dog or an office nanocopter or both, and a willingness to join in this rolling debate.
If this sounds like you, send us an email introducing yourself and a CV to jobs+productmanager@adaptivelab.co.uk