At Onward Robotics, we are a bold, gritty, and purposeful team with an ambitious mission to revolutionize fulfillment. Our team is driven by a client-first mentality: we aim to solve hard problems and fuel our clients' growth with innovation. We are seeking talented individuals who will have a huge impact on both our business and our team. Join us on our mission as we move fast, think big, and have fun!
About Us
Onward Robotics delivers innovative automation technology that coordinates humans and robots as a cohesive system to revolutionize fulfillment. Our Meet Me solution combines proprietary software with person-to-goods mobile robots to increase efficiency in warehousing, distribution, and e-commerce operations. Onward Robotics provides the boost in productivity, flexibility, and speed that companies need to remain competitive and grow. Learn more at onwardrobotics.com.
Job Summary
The Technical Product Manager is responsible for creating and managing product definitions for complex robot-centric automation solutions that match customer needs and balance Onward Robotics business requirements.
The Product Manager plays a key role in driving new product initiatives from initial concept through to delivery, ensuring alignment with customer needs and market trends.
Duties and Responsibilities:
Product Strategy and Vision:
Develop and communicate a clear product vision and strategy that aligns with company goals and market demands.
Contribute to creation of sales and marketing materials, training materials and assist development of pricing models as needed.
Conduct market research and competitive analysis to identify opportunities and threats.
Product Development:
Lead the product lifecycle from ideation to launch and enablement.
Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure successful product development and launch.
Customer Focus:
Engage with customers to understand their needs and pain points, translating these insights into product requirements.
Ensure the voice of the customer is central to the product development process. Represent the customer to the development team to ensure that product requirements and acceptance criteria are understood, prioritized, and built accordingly
Data-Driven Decision Making:
Utilize data analytics to inform product decisions, track performance metrics, and measure product success.
Continuously gather and analyze data to refine product features and improve user experience.
Communication and Collaboration:
Act as a liaison between various departments, ensuring clear and consistent communication throughout the product life cycle.
Persuade and influence stakeholders at all levels to gain support for product initiatives.
Communicate product vision across the organization and to potential customers including priority of feature creation and insight into why certain features should be added or removed.
Industry Trends:
Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and the competitive landscape to ensure products remain relevant and competitive.
Understand, research, and follow technical trends in the industry for potential use or investment and assess potential value or threat from emerging products or companies.
Project Management:
Manage product development timelines, budgets, and resources, ensuring projects are delivered on time and within scope.
Typical Day:
Start the day by reviewing competitor and industry news, sharing any noteworthy developments or forward-thinking recommendations with other team members, e.g. Sales and Product Marketing
Attend daily standup with the Robot Software Engineering team so that you can provide them with insights or help make faster decisions
Update the product backlog to keep the team focused on our quarterly goals, in preparation for refinement
Meet with customers or prospects to discuss their needs and pain points; then, schedule a meeting with several cross-team engineers to share customer feedback and translate that information into product requirements
A quick break for lunch, and then meet with the Solutions team to discuss requirements around new product ideas and the supporting data insights; this includes persuading and influencing stakeholders on the direction of the product
Schedule a trip to a customer site so that you can review their operation and evaluate their site; you'll do everything from picking a few orders to holding a virtual meeting with Engineering as you walk the floor and look for any navigation or perception concerns
Attend an impromptu, urgent meeting with the hardware and manufacturing teams to discuss a sensor
Conclude the day by creating a sales enablement presentation on new functionality
Core Competencies:
Leadership: Ability to inspire and lead cross-functional teams.
Analytical Thinking: Strong analytical skills to make data-driven decisions.
Customer Focus: Demonstrated commitment to understanding and meeting customer needs.
Communication: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to persuade and influence stakeholders.
Adaptability: Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, high-growth environment and adapt to changing priorities.
Strategic Thinking: Strong ability to think strategically and execute tactically.
Scrum Mastery: Proficient in Scrum methodologies and able to lead agile teams effectively
Required Skills:
Proven track record in product management within a fast-paced, high-growth environment
Experience in warehousing, logistics, e-commerce, order fulfillment, or supply chain operations; preferably in the robotics sector
Minimum Experience Requirements:
5+ years of experience in Product Management of complex products involving both software and hardware components from feature definition to project deployment
Preferred Experience Requirements:
Experience in robotics, warehousing, logistics, e-commerce, order fulfillment, or supply chain operations.
Demonstrated ability to work autonomously and with a high level of personal accountability in the face of ambiguity and in fast-paced, pressured situations
Proven track record of driving new product initiatives from concept to delivery.
Experience with Scrum methodologies.
Strong working knowledge and experience with Agile methodologies is preferred
Strong working knowledge and experience with Jira and the definition and creation of Jira workflows is preferred
Working knowledge of data analytics and dashboard tools and the ability to query data to analyze performance indicators is a plus
Minimum Education Requirements:
Bachelor's Degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or Computer Engineering