Product Strategist TerraMatch Global Restoration Initiative at World Resources Institute (WRI)

About the Program:

• TerraMatch is an online platform and mobile app that resources local community organizations and entrepreneurs who restore degraded land through a trusted system that vets, supports, and monitors their projects at scale. Launched in 2020 by WRI’s Global Restoration Initiative to match restoration champions with funders, TerraMatch now houses two reporting and monitoring frameworks that enable these small-scale project developers to update funders on their progress through a combination of field-collected data and analyses from satellite monitoring methods. In late 2023, TerraMatch will expand its product suite to include a new feature: restoration registries. The registry catalogues the financing and technical assistance (TA) needs of locally led non-profits (NGOs), small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and government agencies which restore land in order to connect them with funding and capacity-building opportunities. It will also log opportunities for investment in restoration – through debt funding, grants, carbon trading, public finance, and other mechanisms – within target landscapes and countries. By presenting the state of restoration through publicly accessible dashboards, the registry will bring a new era of transparency to the restoration sector. And by fulfilling these requests for support through an alliance of technical assistance providers, WRI will demonstrate the bankability and growth of these restoration champions and attract additional financial support for them. Through its Restore Local project, WRI will pilot the registry in three landscapes in 2023: the Lake Kivu & Rusizi River Basin of Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda; the Greater Rift Valley of Kenya, and the Ghana Cocoa Belt. In parallel, this piloting process will set up the ability for these countries to extend the database across their territories and inform future replication of the registry across Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

Job Highlight:

• In this role, you will be responsible for overseeing the user experience research, product strategy, and product development for the Restoration Registries at WRI. You will work with the TerraMatch team to support user research, collaborate with technical teams to define product strategy and roadmaps and ensure the delivery of high-quality products throughout the product lifecycle. You will be supported by the TerraMatch team and the AFR100 team. You will also work closely with the Global Restoration Initiative’s MRV and Project Management teams and WRI’s Data Lab to identify and overcome bottlenecks, especially related to data collection, storage, visualization, and analysis.
• You will report to the Director of AFR100 and the Product Manager for TerraMatch.

What will you do:

Product Strategy (40%):

• Define the product strategy and roadmap for Restoration Registries, in partnership with technical teams
• Work with the Restoration Initiative team to refine their strategy and translate user demands into product features
• Listen to stakeholders to understand needs and use cases and distill opportunities
• Identify unmet market needs and develop a strategy for new tool development to meet those needs
• Conduct market analysis to understand availability of other tools on the market and how WRI’s tools compare
• Coach and mentor Restoration staff on product management tools and approaches

User Experience Research (30%): 

• Oversee and conduct user research, plan functional and usability testing, develop test plans, and conduct testing for TerraMatch, Restoration Registries, and other programs
• Design and implement plans for user research and usability testing and use results to determine product strategy and development roadmap
• Listen to stakeholders to understand needs and use cases and distill opportunities for development of new tools

Product Development (30%): 

• Lead product design and development of the Restoration Registries
• Support the product design and development of TerraMatch Building Programmes with external stakeholders, ensuring internal and external needs are met in line with the project's theory of change
• Actively manage vendors, resource allocation, schedules, and priorities to ensure project commitments are met
• Represent the TerraMatch product team to internal and external stakeholders.

What will you need:

• Education:You have a completed bachelor's degree in a relevant field
• Experience: You will have 7+ years of experience in product management, with a focus on product strategy and development
• Demonstrated experience delivering large scale products through the whole product life cycle
• Experience in project management, with experience managing teams and budgets
• Experience with user experience research, product design and development, and usability testing
• Knowledge of best practices on product development lifecycles
• Experience in stakeholder management
• Experience with vendor sourcing and management
• Experience coaching and mentoring staff on product management tools and approaches
• Languages: You are proficient in written and spoken English
• Requirements:Existing work authorization is required if you would like to be based in Kenya.