Job Description:
Here at Rakuten Kobo Inc. we offer a casual working start-up environment and a group of friendly and talented individuals. Our employees rank us highly in terms of commitment to work/life balance. We realize that for our people to be innovative, creative and passionate they need to feel valued and supported. We believe in rewarding all our employees with competitive salaries, performance based annual bonuses, stock options and training opportunities.
If you’re looking for a company that inspires passion, personal, and professional growth – join Kobo and come help us on our mission of making reading lives better.
The Role:
Our Product team is searching for an enthusiastic Product Lead for our eReader team, who can help shape the way customers interact with our products and services. As the Product Lead, you will report to the Director of Product, Devices (as an interim, reporting to the VP of Product Management) and work with an amazing team that has consistently delivered the best eReaders in the world, in an extremely competitive space. The ideal candidate has experience working on technical products, particularly in hardware consumer products, with experience in driving growth and retention. You are passionate about doing right by our readers, are diligent, exhibit exceptional attention to detail, and are a strong communicator.
You will be part of a diverse and collaborative team, managing two product managers and all phases of the device product life cycle, from ideation to development, launch and beyond. You will own the eReader portfolio product management function, focusing on both leading the evolution of the device portfolio and team, while working with an engineering team to deliver growth. Your day to day tasks include market research, creating various product documentation, managing a product backlog & roadmap, reporting and analyzing product performance for continuous improvements and working on initiatives to drive growth. If you’re driven, analytical, creative, organized, adaptable, performance-focused, and able to deliver high-quality work within a fast-paced environment, we want to hear from you. This role is in our eReader team.
Key Responsibilities:
- Assume end-to-end responsibility for a consumer hardware product that is used by millions of users worldwide.
- You must be proficient with the four core functions of product management:
- Understand the user, our business and the broader market. This means working with our User Experience, research, industrial design and product marketing teams to become the expert in the market space of eReaders.
- Identify the right user problems to solve based on user and business impact.
- Deliver by working with design, software development teams to prioritize, plan and launch various experiments & solutions to the problem.
- Analyze the data to understand how the product is working and then plan for what’s next
- Define a vision and roadmap for the eReader device portfolio, communicating it throughout the organization to gain alignment and prioritization, engaging various cross-functional groups to keep them involved and aligned through the progress.
- Review research, customer feedback channels, and product analytics, seeking problems to solve for users and opportunities to improve your product.
- Work with a product development team of engineering, design, and cross-functionally with marketing, sales to deliver product growth.
- You will lead a small team of device software product managers focused on delivering an amazing reading experience and a welcoming and personalized book buying experience.
The Skillset:
Required:
- Have delivered a portfolio of consumer electronics devices, with hardware and software experience, ideally with a focus on content and media or in high growth space.
- Experience having led and managed product managers.
- Curious and actively staying ahead of competitive landscapes and industry trends.
- Experience with design and end user experience driving success of consumer devices, and know how to determine the most important user problems to address.
- Strong analytical and quantitative skills to deeply understand the space, the product’s performance, identifying opportunities and gaps.
- A track record of identifying important user problems, executing on them with high impact to the users and organization.
- Articulate, confident, and persuasive communication skills, coupled with the ability to listen and prioritize diverse perspectives.
- Demonstrated ability to convey insights from complex analysis to non-technical business users at varying levels of familiarity.
- Technical experience and curiosity with the ability to demonstrate the importance and impact of technical work to non-technical audiences.
- A love of reading, obviously.
The Perks:
- Flexible hours and hybrid remote working environment
- Subsidized in-office lunches
- Full benefits starting from your first day
- Paid Volunteer days, unlimited sick days, and 3% RRSP matching
- Monthly commuting allowance for those who are hybrid
- Lifestyle spending account
- Talent and development training budget
- Free Kobo device + free weekly e-book or audiobook
- Weekly Kobo Tech University sessions
- Maternity/paternity leave top up
- Dog friendly office
About Rakuten Kobo Inc.
Owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten and headquartered in Toronto, Rakuten Kobo Inc. is one of the most advanced global ecommerce companies, with the world’s most innovative e-reading services offering more than 6 million eBooks and audiobooks to 30 million + customers in 190 countries. Kobo delivers the best digital reading experience through creative innovation, award-winning e-readers, and top-ranking mobile apps. Kobo is a part of the Rakuten group of companies.
Rakuten Kobo Inc. is an equal opportunity employer. Accessibility accommodations for candidates with disabilities participating in the selection process are available on request. Any information received related to accommodation needs of applicants will be addressed confidentially.
Rakuten Kobo would like to thank all applicants for their interest in this role however only qualified candidates will be shortlisted.
Beware of fraudulent job offers claiming to be from Rakuten. Rakuten does not send unsolicited job offers or request money during the recruitment process. Learn more: https://rakutenemploymentalert.com/
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