Head Of Product, Vp

Role

Head of Product, VP

Location

Hybrid onsite at Los Angeles or San Francisco office minimum of 2 days per week. This role is not eligible for full remote work.

Relocation

Non-local candidates must relocate at their own expense prior to the start date.

Travel

If based in San Francisco area, little travel. If based in Los Angeles area, travel to San Francisco office once a month required.

Management

Lead a team of 4. 3 Product Managers and 1 Visual Designer.

Reports to

COO

Employment Type

Full-Time, W2, Direct Hire

Benefits

Medical, Dental, Vision (85% paid by Company), FSA, Life and AD&D, Disability, 401k (no matching), Stock Options, Unlimited PTO.

The Opportunity

As the Head of Product, you'll be at the forefront of our mission to simplify investing, fostering financial literacy among families, and guiding the strategic development and management of our industry-leading investing app and upcoming debit card solution. You'll be responsible for our entire product, aligning our business goals with consumer needs and market demands.

Your role will involve working directly with senior management and the entire product team to bring the company-wide vision to fruition through the product. You’ll have a clear overall understanding of customer pain points and will use data analysis to ensure that the company’s objectives are achieved.

You will strategize, develop, and manage our industry-leading investing app and upcoming debit card solution. Your focus will span the entire product development lifecycle, using Agile/Scrum methodologies and design thinking to drive innovation and improve the product experience. Collaborating with cross-functional teams, you will leverage user insights and market trends to optimize the product and meet business objectives.

We are looking for a leader passionate about customer-centric design, capable of leading high-performing teams in the fintech sector, and adept at guiding our product team. As a strategic visionary, you'll be expected to develop a vision for the product, create a strategy to realize this vision, and inspire marketing plans and promotions based on comprehensive market and consumer analysis. Your leadership will be instrumental in building bridges between stakeholders and delivering the best product to our users.

The Company

We are a user-friendly investment app designed to empower families in building a secure financial future through collaborative, hands-on investing experiences. Our platform simplifies investing in stocks, making it accessible for both parents and children to learn and grow their wealth together. Children can learn by doing, making their own trades with adult approval, fostering financial literacy and independence. With a diverse selection of well-known stocks, we offer investment opportunities to suit your family's interests and goals.

Responsibilities

●Product Strategy & Roadmap: Develop and execute a comprehensive product strategy and roadmap for our stock investing app and upcoming debit card solution, in collaboration with company leadership and key stakeholders. You will leverage design thinking, Agile/Scrum principles, and the double diamond methodology to create a product strategy that aligns with company objectives and priorities. Collaboration with cross-functional teams, including engineering, design, marketing, operations, and customer support, will be key to identify issues/opportunities and execute product initiatives.

●Product Development & Management: Lead the end-to-end product development process, from ideation and research to launch and iteration. Utilize Agile/Scrum methodologies and implement the double diamond design thinking approach to drive innovation, create user-centric solutions, and ensure continuous improvement in product quality and user experience. You will define and track key product metrics, analyze user data, and drive data-informed decision-making to optimize the product experience and performance. You will break down projects and initiatives into appropriate work units and tasks to accurately project milestones, contingencies, and deliverable deadlines, ensuring project goals and deliverables are properly defined to assess stakeholder or customer impact.

●Team Leadership & Collaboration: Build, manage, and mentor a high-performing product team, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, inclusion, and continuous learning. Work closely with leadership, research, engineering, design, operations, marcomm, and other stakeholders to ensure proper prioritization, seamless coordination, timely delivery, and effective communication throughout the product development process.

●Customer Advocacy & Market Insights: Serve as the voice of the customer within the organization, gathering and synthesizing user feedback, market trends, and competitive insights to inform product decisions and enhancements. Continuously monitor the market landscape and identify opportunities to enhance our value proposition, differentiate our offerings, and drive growth.

Qualifications, skills, and experience

●Education

○Bachelor's degree in business, computer science, engineering, or a related field.

○Advanced degree preferred.

●Experience

○8+ years of hands-on (not just theoretical) experience in product management with a focus on digital products, fintech products, or payments products.

○Startup experience.

○Experience with stock trading apps a strong plus.

○Debit card solutions are a strong plus.

○Experience in a leadership role with at least 4 years of leading teams is essential.

○Experience in card issuing in the fintech or payments sector is highly desirable.

●Expertise

○Proven track record of successfully leading the end-to-end product development process, from ideation to launch and iteration.

○Deep expertise in design thinking, the double diamond methodology, Agile/Scrum product development practices, and the use of product roadmap software tools.

●Soft Skills

○Exceptional leadership, communication, and collaboration skills, with experience managing and mentoring high-performing teams.

○Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to make data-driven decisions and prioritize competing priorities effectively.

●Technical Skills

○Uses basic story writing, bug, roadmap management tools.

○Uses basic and expert analytics.

○Constructs prototypes successfully.

○Anticipates delta in effort between options with functional partners.

○Anticipates implementation challenges with a particular proposal.

○Understands underlying technical architecture at a high level and at a detailed level.

○Able to walk through technical logic at a high level and at a detailed level.

○Understands technical stories and technical debt.

○Correctly prioritizes technical stories and appropriately pays off technical debt.

●Customer Focus

○Passion for customer-centric product design, with a deep understanding of user needs and market trends in the financial services space.

●Commitment to Learning

○Continual learning and staying up to date with the latest trends in product development methodologies, fintech, and customer behavior.

○Willingness to adopt new tools and technologies to improve work processes and outcomes.

Miscellaneous

●Personality style must be a HANDS-ON leader. Be able to work as an individual contributor, technical, strategic, and be a leader.

●This is NOT a Theoretical product role. Very technical and hands-on. This person won’t be able to just delegate tasks.

●There is NOT a vaccine mandate in the office.

●Visa sponsorship is a possibility for this role.

Alignment

●Customer centric view vs product centric view

○Develop customer empathy through primary research and cross-functional discovery processes.

○Understand customer emotional response and impact on brand, social sentiment, legal standing, and company survival.

●Collaborative and inclusive approach

○Team & leader approach vs IC approach.

○Engage more with peers and cross functional teams.

○Full consideration of alternative approaches and ideas.

○“Why it might work” vs “Why it won’t work.”

○“The problem is...” vs “Maybe we can…"