Pivotal Labs is a recognized leader in modern software development practices. We work with many of the world’s most influential companies, helping them not only build great software, but fundamentally create a culture of innovation. We also developed Pivotal Tracker, the project management and collaboration tool used by thousands of agile teams worldwide. Our approach is informed by over 20 years of experience and continuous improvement, and blends agile/XP, lean startup and user-centered design.
We’re looking for a passionate Product Manager who knows how to help define, de-risk and execute against a product vision. This is a consulting role that demands being able to work collaboratively with clients and colleagues on cross-functional and co-located product teams. The role demands strong product instincts, excellent communication skills, technical fluency, empathy, humility and an appreciation for and understanding of lean startup, agile and user-centered design values, principles and practices.
Responsibilities
- Quickly understand a specific domain and identify the trends and opportunities in that space
- Ask the right questions, craft solutions and deliver validated digital products to our clients
- Bridge business goals, user needs and feasibility as you help design and ship product
- Work closely with your team to help create positive business outcomes for our clients
- Confidently run a room as small as three members to as large as an executive conference room, while drawing out all the voices by facilitating the right activities to get the right information
- Mentor, coach and collaborate with the embedded client product team members to drive decisions
- Mentor and train client PMs on lean startup/agile XP/user-centered design methods
- Work with your team to discern what needs to be tested and how to test it
- Conduct interviews with stakeholders and end-users and synthesize insights into actionable next steps
- Create a backlog, write user stories, and manage releases
- Communicate effectively across all team roles
- Act as an ambassador for your team to all stakeholders so they can focus on building the right product
Who would love this role?
Someone who enjoys working in a highly collaborative environment. Our project teams can include PMs, designers, engineers, data scientists and other roles – and pairing across these specialties leads to incredible results.
Someone who can’t get enough of product and learning. Our clients come from nearly every vertical out there and you’ll be able to work hand-in-hand with the decision makers in each. In fact, you will be partnering directly with a client PM and coaching them on modern product development practices.
Someone who enjoys being a leader and an influencer. In this role, you will work with the project team, client execs and the whole spectrum of PMs (project, product, program and any similar roles that a client may have) – to progress the goal of shipping the right product to the client’s users.
Someone who brings a balanced, holistic and flexible mindset to product development. We share the overall success of the product with our clients. This means that we don’t just help our clients ship features, or define and validate product direction. We do what needs to be done to ensure that both the product and the engagement are successful.
Someone who is comfortable with ambiguity. We work in an iterative and incremental way, balancing many different inputs and constantly making trade-offs. This requires us to be comfortable moving forward with imperfect information.
Someone who can go home at the end of the day. There are no product launch slog weeks in this role. Work / life balance isn’t just something that we want you to have, but something we need you to teach to our clients.
Minimum qualifications
- Product Management or product design experience for digital products
- Empathy for the end user
- Demonstrated bias towards action
- Excellent written and oral communication skills
- Ability to break down complex problems into actionable steps
- Has shipped digital products
- Experience or bias towards leading from within a product team
Preferred qualifications
- Has worked in a lean startup product environment
- Software development experience
- Consulting experience
- You have been responsible for and contributed to more than just product development
We’re looking for a special edition to our team
Beyond the description above, we’re looking for someone in particular to:
- Bootstrap our Product Management practice – Integrate product thinking and Agile project processes alongside Engineering and Design on our engagements.
- Hire and Build Out the team – We’ll want you to also find great people and hire them to help you in growing this practice team, growing along with the increased demand for PM with all engagements with our clients
- Lead Projects – The importance of good product and project management is a critical advantage for us, and being able to shepherd clients, many of them new to modern product management in terms of business value, prioritizing, agile delivery, and trade-offs is essential. Along with the technical anchor and design lead, we’ll want you to take on a leadership role where needed.
- Mentor and Promote Literacy – As part of hiring new PMs, you’ll also be involved in mentoring and growing them in the team as well as making sure to train and teach Design and Engineering teams in good product and project management and making sure we have a high degree of product literacy across the organization.