Manager, Product Development (Physical Products)
Lovevery is a fast-growing digitally native brand co-founded by successful serial entrepreneurs and based in Boise, Idaho. Our customers are parents, and our mission is to help them feel confident they are giving their children meaningful development experiences in the critical early years of life. Taking a science-based approach, Lovevery products have won awards from Red Dot, Parents’ Choice, and NAPPA. Lovevery was named one of Fast Company’s 10 most innovative education companies in 2022.
About The Role
As a Product Development Manager, you will lead the team of innovators, researchers, designers, and engineers to design and develop innovative child learning tools that serve early childhood development from concept to reality. You will partner with our innovation and marketing teams closely, to shape product definitions and provide strong leadership to cross-functional teams throughout the product development lifecycle by ensuring quality, safety, cost, and time-to-market expectations are met. This role is required onsite in Boise, Idaho.
Attributes Required for Success in the Role
- Project Management — Work ethic, responsiveness, and results orientation matter in every role at Lovevery. It is critical to have strong project planning and management skills, and a structured approach to big decisions such as product launch dates, new supplier selection, and manufacturing tradeoffs.
- Communication and Collaboration — Exceptional communication and collaboration is crucial for success in this connective role that interfaces with the entire company. You are skilled at structured and complete verbal and written communication, and you are comfortable articulating what needs to be done when things are ambiguous.
- Incredible Attention to Detail — You have strong organizational skills and a keen attention to detail. You catch the mistakes that others miss.
- Humble Hustle — You are a go-getter who makes things happen, and have an idea/methodology behind each action. You’re humble and know that you don’t know everything, but you are willing to learn.
- Passionate About Developing New Products - You have a passion for developing products and bringing innovative ideas to life. You have a natural ability to identify potential improvements to both quality of products and efficiency of resources used.
Responsibilities
- You understand, and are deeply connected to, the vision of new product ideas. You drive the project team with high expectations of a brand alignment, while ensuring that products meet budget, time, and safety requirements.
- You create and own the end-to-end product development schedule for complex projects by leading schedule build meetings with stakeholders. You understand innovative product ideas and their scope, turning them into an actionable chain of tasks and deliverables to build the Critical Chain base project schedule.
- You lead a cross-functional project team as a project hub, involving Innovation, Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality Safety and Compliance, Operations, Creative and Marketing to take products from concept to reality.
- You prioritize deliverables for product development in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with multiple stakeholders. You possess the essential ability to adapt and make adjustments throughout the project, and to find ways to incorporate changes to make the best product.
- You understand dependencies, identify risks, and anticipate potential issues that could impact the project schedule. You work to proactively resolve problems in order to stay on track.
- You manage product details and recognize the opportunity for negotiation and trade-offs.
- You address issues with creative and critical problem-solving through actionable suggestions. This role requires both flexible and strategic thinking.
- You support supply chain development and track product costs to ensure that the COGS are meeting the target. You constantly balance the COGS to maximize the value of the product offering.
- You might work with Product Development Associate(s) assigned to your projects for creating proper documentations, planning photoshoots, and creation of printed materials and operational deliverables.
- You collaborate with the Lovevery sourcing team based in Hong Kong and our Asia based supply chain. Occasionally, you will travel to our manufacturing partners (as often as 2-3 times a year.)
- You are aware of customer feedback to gain insight into recent product launches and support the Innovation team with product improvement strategies.
- You have an in-depth knowledge of the existing products. You apply the knowledge while leading new product development for brand and design consistency.
- You are passionate about the parent and baby sector, staying up-to-date on trends and proactively bringing new learnings and ideas to your day-to-day work.
Qualifications and Attributes
- 3+ years of proven experience in developing new and innovative physical products from concept to production
- Experience with MS Project and PWA
- Experience in Critical Chain Project Management methodology
- Familiarity with Design Thinking is a plus
- Intermediate to advanced Excel or Google Sheet skills
- Proven ability to lead cross-functional team discussions
The Benefits/Perks You’ll Enjoy
- Competitive salary, benefits and stock option package
- 3 weeks PTO in year 1 +14 paid holidays
- Generous parental leave
- Any equipment you need to get the job done
- Free/discounted Lovevery products
Lovevery is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that values diversity in all forms. All employment decisions at Lovevery are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, marital status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.