Product and Delivery Manager, Centre for Collective Intelligence

We are hiring a Product and Delivery Manager, Centre for Collective Intelligence

About Nesta

We are Nesta, the UK's innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society's biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.

For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early-stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.

Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better. Find out more at .

About the team

You'll join the Centre for Collective Intelligence, which is currently incubated within Nesta and planning to transition into an independent organisation over the next few years. We design digital tools and pioneer new ways to engage the public at scale to address society’s most pressing challenges, and help public and voluntary sector institutions build trust and collaboration with citizens.

Zeitgeist, our flagship digital deliberation product, is at the heart of this work: a tool that helps us run large-scale, high-quality public and stakeholder deliberation online.

The role

We're looking for a Product and Delivery Manager to take ownership of Zeitgeist and to lead the delivery of new digital products and tools that put participation and deliberation at the heart of public decision-making.

You'll split your time across three connected areas of work:

• Zeitgeist product management (c. 40%) - owning the roadmap and backlog for our flagship deliberation product, leading the multidisciplinary product team (two developers plus freelancers as needed), and balancing new feature development and maintenance against commercial project priorities. You’ll also ensure the timely build of client projects that use Zeitgeist.
• Delivery of new digital products and project (c. 40%) - managing user-research, prototyping, build, testing, delivery and scaling of new digital products and projects that rely on these new tools for public engagement and participation.
• Business development (c. 20%) - supporting business and client development, with lead responsibility for securing philanthropic or grant funding to resource the development of Zeitgeist and new digital tools that enable us to deliver our vision.

You'll be responsible for

• owning and prioritising the Zeitgeist product backlog, and setting a roadmap that balances new feature development, maintenance and technical health against commercial and client priorities
• leading and coordinating a multidisciplinary product team, including two developers and freelancers as needed, running the agile rhythms and rituals that keep the team focused and delivering
• managing the delivery of client projects built on Zeitgeist, ensuring they're delivered on time, on budget and to a high standard
• managing the end-to-end lifecycle - prototyping, build, testing, delivery and rollout/scaling - of new digital products and projects with digital at their core, including tools for public participation in decision-making and policy
• translating user and stakeholder needs into a realistic roadmap, quarterly priorities and fortnightly sprints that match team capacity
• applying agile product management practices throughout, and supporting the product team to maintain strong agile ways of working
• contributing to product and project strategy, helping shape direction and vision
• carrying out user-research and user-testing
• serving as the team's data protection and security lead, ensuring our products and ways of working meet data protection and information security standard
• reporting on product and project progress, risks, budget and priorities to clients, Directors and other internal stakeholders
• quality-assuring team outputs and managing sign-off with Directors and clients
• supporting business development activity, with a particular focus on identifying and securing philanthropic or grant funding to develop Zeitgeist and new digital tools, as well as broader proposal writing, networking and pitching
• building relationships with clients, colleagues, funders and delivery partners, plus building a network of freelance associates to support the impact and sustainability of the product and the wider portfolio
• other tasks as required by the Director

The person

Essential

• Agile product management: hands-on experience using agile product management approaches to plan, prioritise and deliver against the product roadmap.
• Product ownership: a track record of owning a digital product end-to-end, including backlog, roadmap, feature development and ongoing maintenance, as well as balancing user, technical and commercial priorities.
• Strategic product scaling: Experience leading digital products and services through the transition to scaled, sustained impact, with a focus on de-risking growth and navigating the complexities of scaling.
• Iterative development and testing: Experience using lean-agile principles and using live data and ongoing discovery to focus product iterations toward increasing the impact and scale of existing solutions.
• User focus: You have experience supporting multidisciplinary teams to develop digital products and services that meet the needs of users and stakeholders, as well as having the desired business and/or social impact; including helping them to uncover and understand user and stakeholder needs through user research and testing.
• Iterative development and testing: Experience using lean-agile principles and using live data and ongoing discovery to focus product iterations toward increasing the impact and scale of existing solutions.
• Digital protection and security: a good understanding of data protection requirements and best practice in security standards, including incident reporting and risk mitigation.
• Delivery management: experience managing the delivery of digital projects and products, from prototyping through build, testing and rollout, keeping delivery on time and on budget.
• Team leadership and management: experience leading and coordinating multidisciplinary teams, including developers and freelancers, and running effective agile rhythms and rituals.
• Stakeholder and client management: confident building relationships with clients, partners and senior stakeholders, and comfortable balancing client and commercial demands with product strategy.
• Commercial and funding awareness: experience or strong interest in business development, and product strategy, including identifying and pursuing funding opportunities - ideally including philanthropic or grant funding.
• Start-up mentality: able to work in a fast-paced environment, manage multiple priorities at once, and proactively spot and fix problems before they escalate, plus an all-hands-on-deck mentality - helping out beyond your role silo.

Desirable

• experience of leading user-research and testing
• hands-on comfort with prototyping using code or no-code/low-code tools
• experience securing philanthropic, grant or other funding for product or programme development
• familiarity with design disciplines such as UX or service design
• experience developing digital products and services for social impact or mission-driven outcomes

What we offer

Salary circa £58,500 plus array of benefits, including up to 12% employer pension contributions, Private Medical Insurance , dental insurance, the ability to buy and sell annual leave, and more

Location: Blackfriars, London (minimum 2 days a week) and remote

Term: 12 month fixed term, with possibility to extend

Hours: Full time (37.5 hours a week) - flexible working considered

Reports to: Director of the Centre for Collective Intelligence