Product Development Manager (Physical Products)

Lovevery is a fast-growing brand co-founded by successful serial entrepreneurs. 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. TIME Magazine named The Play Kits subscription offering as one of the Best Inventions of 2018. 

The Role

Lovevery is looking for an experienced Project Manager to join the Product Development team. This person will lead large scale and/or complex product development from concept to reality through the management of a fast paced, cross-functional product development cycle that includes Innovation, Design, Research, Engineering, Content Creation and Manufacturing. 

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. You have a passion for developing new products and a natural ability to identify potential improvements to both quality of products and efficiency of resources used.
• Communication and Collaboration — We aim to hire good communicators in every role, but it is an especially critical quality for the person managing the development of our products to be exceptional in this regard. This is a connective role with important interfaces across the entire company. You are skilled at structured and complete communication, both in verbal and written, 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. You’re aware you don’t know everything, are willing to learn new things and have an idea/methodology to go about getting things done.

Responsibilities

• Understand and be deeply connected to the vision of the new product ideas and drive the product team with the high expectations of a brand alignment while ensuring the products are meeting budget, time, and safety requirements.
• Create and own the end-to-end product development schedule for complex projects. You will understand the innovative product ideas and their scope, turning them into a series of actionable chain of tasks to build the Critical Chain base project schedule. 
• Lead a multi cross-functional project team as a project hub, involving Innovation, Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, Operation, and Marketing to take products from concept to reality. 
• Prioritize deliverables of product development in a fast-paced environment with multiple stakeholders. Ability to make adjustments along the way is a must.
• Understand dependencies, identify risks, and anticipate potential issues that could impact schedule, and work to proactively resolve problems in order to stay on track.
• Manage trade-offs for the details of each product. Ability to identify areas and opportunities for negotiation.
• Work closely with upper management to make sure that the scope and direction of each project is aligned to create products that meet Lovevery’s value and high standards.
• Creatively and critically solve problems as the issues come up and make suggestions. Flexible thinking and critical thinking are very important in this role. 
• Track product costs to ensure the COGS are meeting the target and constantly balance the COGS to maximize the perceived value of the product offering. Good Excel skill for managing numbers is a must. 
• Lead Product Development Associate(s) assigned to your projects for creating proper documentations, planning photoshoots and creation of printed materials, and operational deliverables.
• Work with the overseas sourcing team and factories; travel to Asia as needed depending on the projects you lead. (It can be 2-3 times a year.)
• Review customer feedback to gain insight into recent product launches and support the Innovation team with product improvement strategies.
• Be knowledgeable about all of the existing products and apply the knowledge while leading a new product development for consistency.
• Remain up-to-date on trends in the parent and baby space, and proactively bring those learnings and ideas to your day-to-day work. (Preferred)

Qualifications and attributes

• 3 to 5+ years of experience with project management or product development and manufacturing processes, preferably worked in physical product development
• Strength in project management and detail orientation is essential; knowledge of project management software such as MS Project and other enterprise project management tools
• Experience managing overseas projects preferred
• Ability to manage multiple ongoing tasks at one time through excellent organizational skills and attention to detail
• Intermediate level in Excel for handing numbers
• Ability to work and remain adaptable in a fluid, fast-paced environment
• Creative and resourceful
• Understanding of manufacturing timelines and knowledgeable in manufacturing techniques and processes
• Deep empathy and intuition for parents, caregivers, and young children
• Overall aesthetic sensibility with the ability to visualize, conceptualize and imagine beautiful product experiences our customers will love
• Familiarity with Windows Operating system is preferred
• BS in New Product Development or related field of study

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.