Senior Product Management Consultant (f/m/x)

at  Product People

Product People provides Interim Product Management services for parental leaves or slow hiring. We do the unglamorous hands-on work of a Product Manager/Owner or Product Leader on an interim/fractional basis at ~100 different companies per year. We serve clients only via our in-house Product Managers who onboard fast, align teams, and deliver outcomes. Clients include Zalando, DeepL, Ecosia and the World Health Organization (WHO).

• Help Product People a category-defining company in the consulting space. When people think of electric cars, they think of Tesla. For music, it’s Spotify. When thinking about Product Management, they should think of Product People. You’ll own or contribute to initiatives to lead us there: playbooks, product management knowledge sharing, networking, process automation, etc.
• Serve as an Interim Senior Product Manager. We serve post-product market-fit digital-first companies ranging from series B to publicly listed. Some are category leaders and/or leverage the latest tech trends. You’ll be driving complex cross-functional initiatives in B2C or B2B products. It can be anything from setting and reaching quarterly OKRs at a scale-up to Continuous Discovery/Jobs To Be Done (JTBD) or A/B tests elsewhere. Or unblocking stuck initiatives.
• Solve for the clients and our company. Prioritize, zoom in and out. Make an incredible impact, bring clarity in chaos, and orchestrate flawless execution. Manage discovery and delivery for three parallel streams (internally and externally). You are good at unglamorous hands-on work and strategy. You understand how deep or wide you need to go when that’s the case and when it’s not.
• Effectively manage various groups consisting of strong personalities. Adapt to their communication preferences. Integrate quickly and feel part of any team in days, not weeks. People love working with you and would work with you again despite you saying “no” to them a lot. Always come off as friendly, helpful, and accommodating, even when pushing back on irrational demands.
• Communicate a compelling narrative about the product. And each existing or potential feature/capability you manage: “What job/problem does it solve?”, “For whom?”, “How big is the problem/market?”, “What is success?” and why solving this matters in the first place. Understand, share, and shape strategic or business context with the client’s CPO/VP/Director/Head of Product.
• Coach the next generation of PMs. Train, mentor, and delegate relentlessly to help our (Associate) Product Managers strengthen their skills. Manage 1-6 people depending on tenure, performance reviews, and career ambitions. Collaborate with 2-3 colleagues daily. Break down complex initiatives into manageable, quantifiable work for the team. We use the teaching hospital method (watch, do it yourself under supervision, teach others to do it).
• Rinse and repeat. Go on a new mission with a new client or in a new team, new domain, new product, or initiative every 3-6 months. Continue sharpening your edge and actively helping Product People’s internal initiatives.