Senior Vice President, Chief Product Officer

If you are a seasoned product development pro with a flare for managing product lifecycles and building engaging digital experiences for GenZ, read on. You may have just found your next move.

American Student Assistance (ASA.org), a non-profit organization changing the way kids learn about careers and plan for their futures, has an immediate opening on the product development team. SVP/Chief Product Officer will report to the President and CEO of ASA. The Senior Vice President/Chief Product Officer and will play a pivotal role in shaping ASA's roadmap for our free suite of digital-first, self-directing career readiness experiences (Future Network, Futurescape, Next Voice). You will also lead ASA's program/product vision, design, and execution of new programs & product solutions including a multi-pronged approach to support Gen Z learners in making navigation decisions for postsecondary education.

This role is ideal for an innovative and strategic leader who is energized by the Gen Z career readiness and postsecondary education navigation landscape and has experience in the secondary/postsecondary education arena. Part strategic thinker and part orchestrator with the proven ability to execute with fidelity, the successful candidate will be an expert in end-to-end product management lifecycle including product development, go to market and audience acquisition strategies, product maintenance/management, and digital marketing. Overall, you will be establishing the product strategy and roadmap to develop plans for new products, features, or updates to existing products, coordinating with other members of senior management to ensure that the company's products are aligned with its business goals, evaluating the performance of existing products to identify areas for improvement or removal, o

Responsibilities:

● Manage a suite of free award-winning, self-directed career readiness education digital experiences for middle and high school-aged learners. These include Future Network, Futurescape, and Next Voice. Responsibilities include:

● Developing a go-forward maintenance plan including decision to continue to outsource support or bring in-house, contract and vendor management, plan for continual content and UX experience refresh

● Continuous iteration of current suite of products to increase reach, engagement through data analysis and customer awareness. Managing ongoing marketing campaigns and digital advertising (audience acquisition) to ensure ASA meets it's direct to learn impact goals

● Managing product development/marketing related budgets

● Supervising product development, product marketing, and product maintenance teams

● Serving as an ASA spokesperson at industry events and for media interviews

● Build, manage and inspire a world-class team of product development and product marketing resources and lead R&D/reach a MVP, steer the development of a high-profile tech solution to engage Gen Z at scale, and spearhead the go-to-market, audience acquisition and product launch strategies. You will also play a role in supporting advocacy, thought leadership, and networking & convenings.

Lead Product Vision & Strategy:

● Use design thinking methodologies to support development of innovative solutions that address challenges and opportunities present in the Gen Z market.

● Work closely with internal and external partners to define and prioritize product features based on user feedback and business objectives.

● Build and monitor key performance indicators and analytics to measure the success of the prototype and identify areas for further optimization.

● Inform comprehensive market research efforts to identify landscape, user needs, preferences, and market trends with the Gen Z demographic.

Lead Platform Product Development:

● Research: Help consolidate inputs to understand learner and employer motivations, competitive landscape, incentives, and demand.

● Design, Prototyping, Testing: Co-lead an effort to develop a live wireframe prototype ensuring features and benefits align with learner and employer preferences.

Create detailed specifications, define features, and outline the product's purpose. Test functionality, aesthetics, and usability. Iteratively refine the design based on feedback and requirements.

Test product prototypes. Evaluate performance, durability, safety, and user experience. Address any issues or improvements identified during testing.

● Development: Lead the development of a build/buy/partner strategy determining optimal mix.

Analyze the competitive landscape and make recommendations; lead conversations with partners. Manage an RFP process for a product development house and subsequent contracting process to engage vendors. Supervise the product development stages including user experience (UX) design, user interface (UI) design, and technical architecture planning. Collaborate closely with the development team, addressing any roadblocks and ensuring timely progress.

Lead the Go-to-Market, Audience Acquisition and co-lead the Marketing Communications Strategy:

● Create marketing strategies and develop promotional materials to build awareness. Create a visual identity and a messaging platform for all new products. Build a web presence.

● Co-create a communication plan for internal stakeholders as well as a public product launch. Plan should include a go-to-market strategy (public relations, social media, digital advertising, etc.) and an audience acquisition strategy to drive unique users to the platform.

● Provide national thought leadership on issues related to domains of expertise, including through speaking engagements at high-profile events, op-eds, publications, and social media; represent ASA on the national stage.

A Successful Candidate:

● Is an innovative, subject matter expert in the career exploration, career experimental and career navigation landscape with experiences in K-20 education and have demonstrated experiences in product management, product marketing/audience acquisition, vendor/partner relationship development & management, and project management.

● Is experienced in launching mobile products and in live operations; possesses a strong product background including proficiency in product mobile development management principles, methodologies, and best practices. You possess a deep understanding of product development processes, including ideation, prototyping, testing, and refinement. You bring experience defining roadmaps, prioritizing features, managing product lifecycles, particularly introduction and growth stage product.

● Has strong empathy and understanding of the customer and decision makers and strives to create products that are of service to the customer and their needs.

● Has a strong proficiency in conducting market research, which includes leveraging competitive analysis, and customer interviews to gather insights and inform product decisions.

● Demonstrates proven ability to leverage digital marketing and communications to create awareness and drive audience acquisition.

● Is well versed in making data-driven decisions and in leveraging KPIs and metrics to measure product success and drive business growth, particularly of new product models.

Skills:

● Superior communication skills are mandatory. Must be able to communicate both verbally and in writing with all levels of management including senior leaders.

Outstanding presentation and negotiation skills: superior success influencing up, down and across an organization; influencing without authority. Superior writing skills; including synthesizing multiple business priorities into coherent, relevant and impactful communications/presentations. Must be able to distill large amounts of information into easily digestible pieces for consumption and have a keen ability to adapt messages for audience relevance.

● Strong business acumen, strategic thinking and decision-making skills: Must possess the ability to quickly understand the company's diverse landscape of people, systems, and processes.

Must have demonstrated business savvy , business sense and business understanding with a keenness and quickness in understanding and dealing with a business situation (risks and opportunities) in a manner that is likely to lead to a good outcome. Must be self-sufficient and possess the ability to select between two or more alternatives to reach the best outcome in the shortest time. Must be able to evaluate risks and opportunities and make the best decisions to achieve the company's goals.

Must demonstrate a strong ability to analyze problems, showing logical reasoning skills, and an ability to communicate solutions. Also, must display a high level of emotional intelligence.

● Proven track record with successful product innovation and iteration; leveraging data collection, data analysis of large data-sets to drive insights and decision making. Fluency in the usage of data analysis tools.

● Strong interpersonal skills: Ability to quickly establish a good rapport with all contacts.

Ability to motivate others in order to accomplish objectives and build consensus. Must be able to work with all levels of the organization as well as with content contributors and organizational partners. Must be able to fluently and confidently converse with all levels of the business. Having great facilitation skills and experience leading teams is a must.

● Excellent organizational ability: Must be detail-oriented, process-driven, able to prioritize own work, set and meet deadlines, and manage multiple projects simultaneously.

Must have the ability to handle a high volume of work in a short period of time and be able to organize and assimilate information across multiple business units in a succinct manner. Ability to effectively prioritize and execute tasks in a high-pressure environment is crucial. History of successfully developing/delivering programs that support company vision and build thought leadership brand awareness/sentiment.

Outstanding track record of managing large scale projects as evidenced by working with large cross-functional groups/managing multiple vendors and completing projects on time/on budget. Must be able to create and present project briefs, proposals & playbooks and develop detailed project plans for execution.