Senior Technology Product Manager: Koko Labs at Koko Networks

Your Role

The Senior Technology Product Manager role at KOKO Labs is a career-defining opportunity to drive the creation of transformative new technology-based products and services.  This role reports directly to the Chief Innovation Officer, and requires at least 50% time in-the-field with Labs team members in our target markets. 

What You Will Do

You will develop a deep understanding of consumer problems, issues, needs and wants within KOKO’s Innovation Program areas, through activities such as: 

• Reviewing market research data and academic literature 
• Conducting your own research activities directly with target consumers
• Briefings with Program Managers, Researchers, and subject matter experts 
• Monitoring competitive landscape, technologies & trends 

You will support Innovation Program teams teams with technical solution ideation, concept design, rapid prototyping and iteration, by: 

• Using best-practice design thinking frameworks to deeply understand the problems that you’re tackling, and define / frame those problems for the team
• Collaborating with teams in thinking big, to imagine solutions that solve these problems, considering how to build on KOKO’s existing platforms/architecture
• Scoping these solutions to their smallest coherent state to test key hypotheses with users as early as you can
• Guiding Designers, Engineers and experts in developing early stage functional prototypes to validate key hypotheses
• Deploying prototypes in the field, evaluating their performance through quantitative & qualitative methods, and communicating resultsManaging a prioritised “roadmap” of design and testing activities so we are always focusing on the most impactful work  
• Capturing and sharing new domain knowledge for use in future projects  
• You will help develop and present business cases / recommendations for breakthrough new ideas to the KOKO executive team

What You Will Bring to KOKO

• At least 5 years of experience applying design-thinking methodologies to developing innovative technology-based solutions
• Proven track record of shipping impactful hardware and software products 
• Strong understanding of underlying technologies (e.g. mobile, cloud, data, IoT) and the processes for managing software engineering, hardware design and manufacturing   
• Entrepreneurial history demonstrating personal initiative, risk-appetite & drive Keen desire to work in emerging markets, solve major problems, and serve mass-market consumers  
• Excellent skills in communication, interpersonal relations & persuasion
• Comfort making decisions in ambiguity

What we offer

• Hybrid working model allowing you to split your time between in-person collaboration at our labs and working remotely
• Competitive salary plus a quarterly cash bonus
• Annual compensation reviews we reward great work
• Health insurance for you and your dependents (in Kenya & India)
• 21 days of annual leave plus public holidays plus examination leave
• Ongoing investment in you and your skills, incl. full access to over 5,000 online courses