Director, Product Management (Us) - Incubation Venture Design Lead (Store No.8)

In addition to base salary, Walmart total compensation may also include bonus incentives, stock options, and more.

Position Summary...

What you'll do...

About Us

Store N°8 is Walmart's incubation arm. We're developing leapfrog capabilities that will transform the future of retail and healthcare. We incubate and partner with entrepreneurs, early stage start-ups, VCs and academics to innovate across a wide variety of areas including mixed reality, health analytics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and more. We're creating a portfolio of companies acting as a force to drive commerce & health forward.

About The Role

As the Venture Design Lead for Store No.8's incubation team, you will work with a blended team of strategists, operators, technologists, and entrepreneurs to design and launch early-stage incubation concepts. Often these concepts will have already been through a rigorous initial phase of problem discovery and opportunity analysis. Your role will further validate the solution, define the optimal business and operating models that maximize desirability, viability and feasibility of the new venture and stand-up the new venture. You may also be required to partner closely with the Incubation team on early-stage concept discovery and definition.

You will lead a blended team of relevant operators from Walmart, incubation strategists from Store No.8, and external experts through a human-centered, discovery-driven process, to design the detailed value levers, stage-gates, talent, technology, and other functional pillars of the venture. You will also validate any build-buy/partner analyses to catalyze execution and build the initial operating team. Upon completion of the Venture Design phase, each concept will be ready to move into the Store No.8 portfolio as a development phase start-up company.

What You'll do

Design New Ventures

• Perform detailed build/buy/partner analysis for key capability pillars (including tech/product/talent) and propose a recommended approach
• Take specific opportunities through to the Venture Design phase
• Work closely with the Store No.8 core incubation team on market landscapes, strategy, and concept definitions for unexplored and newly proposed opportunities
• Test initial business model assumptions & hypotheses defined during the early concepting phase, using a human-centered design approach and refine concept design including key features, demand and cost levers, using various triangulation techniques
• Clearly present key points and findings to senior leadership
• Translate all initial hypotheses and pod findings into an actionable and fully vetted business plan, financial model and operating model ready for funding including any strategic ownership choices, operating environment and channel design, headcount model and capital expenditures
• Define operating environments, channels and customer segments for initial launch
• Define success metrics and stage-gates at various stages of the venture's incubation maturity
• Structure, lead and program manage business design sprints with clearly defined OKRs and success metrics, working with the newly created pod to:

Create & Manage "Venture Design Pods"

• Store No.8's Incubation strategists & ecosystem manager that initially identified and defined the opportunity and execution path
• Reps from Store No.8's core team, to enable smooth knowledge transfer as the venture transitions to the development stage
• Use a collaborative approach to rapidly identify, assemble, and lead a "pod" to take defined concepts to next level of pre-launch detail (which would differ in composition and timing depending on every specific venture being designed). Typical stakeholders include:
• Define success metrics for the pod and manage to collective and individual KPIs and timelines
• External talent with domain depth or strategic support, EIRs and industry experts
• Manage the vendor, procurement, and onboarding process for any temporary resources
• Internal Walmart subject area experts (e.g., supply chain, merchandising, store ops.)
• Functional leads to stand-up POCs and MVPs as relevant

Build Talent Model/Team Pipeline

• Identify key roles (including the General Manager), and work with Store No.8 Leadership and Talent Acquisition teams to craft job descriptions and interview path, identify ideal candidate profiles and winning choice criteria, and kickstart the recruiting process
• Cultivate external and internal pools (companies, startups, contractors, subject matter experts, internal Walmart teams, industry groups etc.) of relevant/adjacent talent, in close conjunction with Talent Acquisition and Store No.8 Leadership
• Use Build/Buy/Partner analysis results for talent model to inform recruitment timing and approach
• Validate in the market, early assumptions made around the Talent/Resource model including size, caliber, cost, and profiles of any specialized talent required for the initial venture team
• Participate in the selection process as appropriate

Launch Ventures

• Onboard the permanent leadership (GM, CTO, etc.) to ensure a smooth transfer of the strategy, roadmap, and operating plan
• Work closely with Store No.8 core team to identify and plan all functional support and transition the operating plan to the development phase
• Capture specific lessons from the venture design phase for the Store No.8 playbook
• Coordinate/build relationships across relevant Walmart business units to get stakeholder buy-in for the newly designed venture business plan
• Pivot to launching the next venture and repeat

What You'll Need

• Experience working with senior leaders in large organizations and demonstrated ability to influence and present with confidence, often relying on past relevant experience to quickly bring best practices & establish credibility
• Passion and understanding for entrepreneurship and innovation, and a desire to help startups succeed through both creative and technically minded support (combine design thinking/strategy and analysis/metrics)
• MBA and technical or operational experience are a strong plus
• Hands-on experience developing research plans for hypothesis-based strategy development and market assessments - including executing primary research, managing innovation funnels, capability due diligence, synthesizing findings to develop strategy deliverables and financial modeling
• Deeply curious, hunger to go deep and excited to learn something new in diverse domains
• The desire to be both creative and technically minded (combine design thinking/strategy and analysis/metrics)
• Demonstrated track record building and leading effective cross-functional teams - you will have comfort rapidly assembling, leading, and motivating pods and teams with a diverse mix of styles, perspectives, and experience.
• Demonstrated financial and business acumen across many of the following areas, along with depth in one or two: Product Development, Product Management, Start-ups, Operations, Finance, and Design
• Strong project management skills including comfort with ambiguity in fast-paced settings. You can make critical decisions with limited information and thrive operating effectively, even when the way forward is unclear
• Experience owning a P&L or defined outcomes and driving to results using experimentation, collaborative learning, and your seasoned business judgement
• Prior start-up Founder/GM experience strong plus
• 8-10 years' experience in growth strategy consulting, venture design/design thinking, investment banking, early-stage startups, or PE/venture capital roles with a focus on tech-based product development
• Ability to self-manage and 'manage up', operating independently and relying on support and oversight as needed
• Excellence in complex business model development, scenario planning, forecasting, and in-market experimentation/piloting
• Ability to travel 20%

At Walmart, we offer competitive pay as well as performance-based incentive awards and other great benefits for a happier mind, body, and wallet. Health benefits include medical, vision and dental coverage. Financial benefits include 401(k), stock purchase and company-paid life insurance. Paid time off benefits include PTO (including sick leave), parental leave, family care leave, bereavement, jury duty, and voting. Other benefits include short-term and long-term disability, company discounts, Military Leave Pay, adoption and surrogacy expense reimbursement, and more.

You will also receive PTO and/or PPTO that can be used for vacation, sick leave, holidays, or other purposes. The amount you receive depends on your job classification and length of employment. It will meet or exceed the requirements of paid sick leave laws, where applicable. For information about PTO, see https://one.walmart.com/notices .

Live Better U is a Walmart-paid education benefit program for full-time and part-time associates in Walmart and Sam's Club facilities. Programs range from high school completion to bachelor's degrees, including English Language Learning and short-form certificates. Tuition, books, and fees are completely paid for by Walmart.

Eligibility requirements apply to some benefits and may depend on your job classification and length of employment. Benefits are subject to change and may be subject to a specific plan or program terms. For information about benefits and eligibility, see One.Walmart at https://bit.ly/3iOOb1J .

The annual salary range for this position is $192,000.00-$288,000.00

Additional Compensation Includes Annual Or Quarterly Performance Incentives.

Additional compensation for certain positions may also include:

• Regional Pay Zone (RPZ) (based on location)
• Stock equity incentives

Minimum Qualifications...

Outlined below are the required minimum qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no minimum qualifications.

Option 1: Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering, or related area and 11 years' experience in product management. Option 2: 13 years' experience in product management or related area.

Preferred Qualifications...

Outlined below are the optional preferred qualifications for this position. If none are listed, there are no preferred qualifications.

Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business Administration, or related area and 10 years' experience as a product manager, ideally working on consumer-facing, large-scale, highly complex B2B/C products, Supervisory experience

Masters: Business Administration, Masters: Computer Engineering, Masters: Computer Science

Primary Location...

250 Hudson St, NEW YORK, NY 10013-1006, United States of America