Principal Product Manager

Red Badger

Founded in 2010 by Stuart, Cain and David, we help large organisations improve their speed to market whilst focusing on delivering value to their users and customers. We work with our clients to understand their problems and validate ideas in order to deliver improved process efficiencies, strategic enhancements and new digital products and services (or make significant improvements to existing ones).

The best bit about Red Badger is, of course, the team. We’ve been around for 10+ years now and we are 120 strong. We are really proud of our people; we support and learn a lot from each other; we work really hard but have fun doing it. We are a diverse group made up of 22 different nationalities, speaking 17 different languages.

Our 3 founders have considerable tech and consultancy experience and still own the company. We’ve been consistently profitable and have grown responsibly from the beginning. We are embarking on the next phase of growth and development.

The Role

We are looking for a Principal Product Manager, with a strong background in digital transformation and product consulting to join one of our cross-functional delivery teams. 

We are excited about the opportunity to mix Red Badger’s entrepreneurial, startup thinking with the resources of global organisations to unlock speed to impact in launching new propositions.

As a Principal Product Manager, you’ll start our projects on the right track, setting a high bar for quality and providing deep discipline expertise to validate desirability, build and launch new digital products and services. You’ll be responsible for leading, influencing and working with cross-functional teams to deliver successful outcomes for our clients. You’ll be a conduit between the Red Badger team and the client, co-creating and driving the product vision, owning the backlog and connecting the business strategy with end-user value.

You’ll provide end-to-end Product leadership, co-creating and validating the product desirability, owning the backlog and connecting the business strategy with end-user value. When part of a starter team you’ll be able to work hands-on, researching, validating, designing, building and launching successful new digital products and services.

The Principal Product Manager will help to support and grow Red Badger’s Product Management capability and team, working with Directors and leadership to shape and lead our strategy. You’ll be willing to share your expertise and experiences both internally and externally, actively participating in product communities and regularly writing and talking on behalf of Red Badger.

The Principal Product Manager works across a range of account sizes but will be equally comfortable providing high value consulting services in a focussed product audit or product strategy engagement, as they are embedding in a client organisation to lead multiple teams or evolve an existing product function.

You must be comfortable with a hybrid working environment. Our default working practice will be UK based remote working, but we continue to see in-person working as an important part of how we work (ie. not optional), and expect Badgers to be available to attend the office and/or client site with suitable notice. As a consultancy, our remote / in person balance will change depending on the nature of the work, and the clients we are working with.

Key Responsibilities

Discipline expertise

• Define and drive our clients’ product strategy and vision.
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams in designing, validating and building cutting-edge products and services.
• Confident to work with senior/executive stakeholders to identify and overcome tricky organisational challenges that are in the way of successful Product Delivery.
• Identify and prioritise user value, carefully balancing business and user needs to create and launch successful products and ongoing iterations.
• Champion the product discipline on complex digital transformation projects.
• Be a passionate advocate for Product Management, User Centred Design methodologies, lean approaches to user testing, research, and data-driven UXD.
• Drive continuous improvement, quality and project delivery, helping businesses make difficult tradeoffs to deliver value to users quickly.

Influence our clients

• Become a trusted advisor to our clients by collaborating with them to solve problems, and create products and services which deliver business and user value.
• Build strong relationships with the leadership teams of industry-leading organisations.
• Rapidly build domain expertise within our clients’ industries, understand their existing market(s) and user segments, and help them identify new ones.
• Communicate with confidence to a broad range of stakeholders and client teams.

Build Red Badger capability

• Proactively understand and share macro and micro-economic trends and how they will shape products of the future.
• Support with building, hiring and inspiring Product Strategists and Managers aligned with Red Badger’s values.
• Line management of senior Product Team members
• Provide leadership and mentorship to a team of Product Strategists and Managers.
• Encourage thought leadership and help develop industry-leading value propositions for Red Badger.

Drive awareness in the industry

• Champion Red Badger’s ways of working: cross-functional teams, agile and lean best practices, building quality in.
• Understand and communicate the complete value chain (Engineering, QA, UXD, Insights and Delivery).
• Be an ambassador for Red Badger, and an advocate for ‘doing the right thing’, ‘doing the thing right’, supporting and enabling others to do so.

Your experience

It’d be great if...

• You are an expert in your discipline, willing to share your knowledge and experience internally and externally to grow others.
• You have a proven track record of identifying user and business needs, and testing product/market fit, incubating new digital products and services and launching them. You’ve done this successfully in complex environments and can clearly articulate the user and business value of the work your teams have delivered.
• You have been involved in large-scale digital product development, ideally with experience working for an agency or consultancy.
• You use data to drive your decisions and help others to do the same.

It’d be amazing if...

• You are able to tailor your message to suit your audience’s needs using your exceptional communication, negotiation and facilitation skills.
• You have a growth mindset; you are always learning, curious to test and unafraid to fail. You continuously improve both what you do and how you do it. You take others on that journey with you.
• You’re proactive and are always looking for ways to make things better.
• You're honest and tell things as they are in an approachable and down-to-earth manner. You have clear points-of-view to give others direction and purpose.
• You want to play a key role in the future success of Red Badger and can demonstrate getting involved in strategic initiatives that contribute to a company’s growth.
• You embody Red Badger’s principles and encourage these traits in others.
• You participate and are interested in professional industry groups and communities, attending or speaking at conferences, and actively engage with others in your discipline.

What We Offer

We make sure our team is well looked after with generous salaries and a great benefits package which includes.

• Annual £2K training budget
• Generous Pension
• Group Life Insurance
• Income Replacement Benefit
• Critical Illness Cover
• Private Medical Insurance
• Your choice of hardware and mobile phone
• Matched (pre-tax) charity PAYE donations
• Cycle to work
• Enhanced parental leave

Values

People people

We respect and care for each other, giving us the space to feel safe and be our true selves

Find a way

We’re comfortable with uncertainty and accountability, whilst achieving great outcomes through shared goals

Always learning

We’re curious. It’s how we learn and grow as individuals, continuously testing and improving what we do, and how we do it

Open & Fair

We build trust by telling things as they are, being open, and seeking to achieve fair and equitable outcomes

Collaborative 

We are united by our desire to get to the best ideas. We are generous with our knowledge, actively listen to each other, and are open minded

Diversity & Inclusion

Red Badger is committed to creating a diverse and inclusive environment, and is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We hire, employ, train, promote and compensate regardless of gender, gender identity, race, disability, sexual orientation, age, creed and colour. We are fully focused on equality, and it is our fundamental belief that the fascinating characteristics that make us all different enable us to continue to do amazing work for our clients