Head of Product

Full-Time Bristol city centre, Bristol Salary: On application Closes: 2019-11-30

About the role
Summary:

The Head of Product role is an exciting opportunity for an experienced and versatile product leader to help accelerate the role of Product in Hargreaves Lansdown, a FTSE 100 company and the UK’s number one investment platform. You will balance leading a team of ambitious Product Managers with playing a key role in the wider technology and business transformation of HL.

Hargreaves Lansdown has big plans for the future; helping more of the UK save and invest with confidence to ensure they are building a secure financial future for themselves and their families. As part of that we are investing in new technologies and embedding ways of working that enable us to continue to meet evolving client needs now and in the years ahead. User centred and fast-paced iterative change that allows us to develop market leading services and experiences is at the heart of our strategy. ‘Product’ is a relatively new concept in the business and, as a result, the Head of Product role has a key part to play in building understanding, as well as shaping how we evolve the organisation to deliver more value to users through digital products that clients love.

The Head of Product will have a clear track record of building and working in a strong product culture – able to give real examples of their own experiences to help guide and influence stakeholders. You will be tasked with developing concrete plans for delivering a strong and capable product function and culture at HL. You will also be able to demonstrate how your approach and thinking embodies the company values. You will strive to always make things easy by inspiring and empowering teams to go the extra mile, doing the hard work to make things simple.

You will be tasked with building a market leading and highly commercial team of Product Managers; training and coaching individuals to deliver impact. You will therefore have proven ability in developing others – working with them to address their weaknesses and exploit their strengths.

You will draw on your wealth of product management and transformation experience, to help cement the team’s pivotal role within the business, and develop others’ understanding of the role that product plays.

Your track record of delivering value and executing transformative plans will help you engage the team, key stakeholders and the wider business, to show the impact a product-led organisation can have. You will also draw on your knowledge and expertise in modern forms of product planning, customer discovery, product discovery and product development.

The Head of Product role will require you to be a thought-leader in your field, and as a result, use these skills to inform, inspire and motivate the wider business as well as your own team. Critically important to the role is establishing and building complementary working relationships through close collaboration with HL colleagues across all aspects of the organization; including IT, user experience, digital and change; with the aim of establishing the relevant communities of practice. A particular focus is working closely with the Heads of Digital Strategy, Proposition and Technology to ensure a collaborative and effective approach.

Key duties and responsibilities:

Lead the product team and evangelise its role in the business to ensure its place is both understood and valued.
Support and develop the product management team – helping coach and develop individuals to deliver to the best of their ability.
Play a key role in improving the organisational design and ways of working of the business to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the changes delivered.
Develop and execute a clear plan and vision on how HL becomes a more product-led organisation.
Positively engage stakeholders from around the business to obtain the appropriate support and buy-in for your plans.
Support the Chief Digital Officer and Head of Digital Strategy in leading the transformation of the ways of working in the business.
Provide thought leadership and facilitate ambitious thinking – for key stakeholder communities: the Board, ExCo and senior leaders and external bodies.
Develop and embed a collaborative culture – champion and shape a product culture and collaboration that makes sure people are recognised for their ideas.
Play a key role in the wider cultural shift and transformation of HL.
Accountable for the product roadmaps and backlogs.
Set up and champion the methodologies used by Product Managers and squads.
Champion the Communities of Practice, collaboration across communities and community goals.
Create strong, effective networks with external technology companies to the benefit of HL.
Drive continuous innovation throughout existing products, leading to full digital transformation.
Work collaboratively with Heads of Change and Proposition to drive business strategy and deliver successful, profitable solutions.
Work collaboratively with all areas of the business to deliver positive change, ensure collaboration and communication, remove silos and take accountability for identifying and solving pain points.
Deliver KPIs that demonstrate progress: client/colleague experience, revenue growth, cost reduction and efficiency gain.

Requirements
Essential skills and experience:

Degree or equivalent qualification or equivalent work experience
Experience of modern ways of working such as agile and lean
Understanding of business drivers, KPIs, stakeholder motivations and commercial metrics
How to develop and implement a forward-thinking, future-proof business strategy
Building and leading a high performing product team
Managing business-wide change programmes
Delivering complex change with multiple stakeholders
Strong stakeholder engagement and influencing skills
Ability to think in new novel ways
Driven to make things better and more simple
Desirable skills and experience:

Knowledge of legacy systems transformation programmes
Awareness and understanding of global change programmes and transformation projects undertaken by other companies
Experience of presenting and or communicating at board and ExCo level
Strong negotiation skills
A pre-existing strong external network of peers