Senior Product Development Manager - Physical Products

Lovevery is a fast-growing digitally native brand co-founded by successful serial entrepreneurs and based in Boise, Idaho. Our customers are parents, and our mission is to help them feel confident they are giving their children meaningful development experiences in the critical early years of life. Taking a science-based approach, Lovevery products have won awards from Red Dot, Parents’ Choice, and NAPPA. Lovevery was named one of Fast Company’s 10 most innovative education companies in 2024.

About The Role

As a Sr. Product Development Manager, you will lead a team of innovators, researchers, designers, and engineers to design and develop innovative child learning tools that serve early childhood development- from concept to reality. Partnering closely with our innovation and marketing teams, you will shape product definitions and provide strong leadership to cross-functional teams throughout the product development lifecycle, ensuring quality, safety, cost, and time-to-market expectations are met.

This role is required to be onsite in Boise, Idaho.

Attributes Required for Success in the Role

• Project Management — Work ethic, responsiveness, and results orientation matter in every role at Lovevery. It is critical to have strong project planning and management experience and skills, and a structured approach to big decisions such as product launch dates, new supplier selection, and manufacturing tradeoffs. 
• Communication and Collaboration — Exceptional communication and collaboration is crucial for success in this connective role that interfaces with the entire company. You are skilled at structured and complete verbal and written communication, and you are comfortable articulating what needs to be done when things are ambiguous.
• Incredible Attention to Detail — You have strong organizational skills and a keen attention to detail. You catch the mistakes that others miss.
• Humble Hustle — You are a go-getter who makes things happen, and have an idea/methodology behind each action. You’re humble and know that you don’t know everything, but you are willing to learn.
• Passionate About Developing New Products - You have a passion for developing products and bringing innovative ideas to life. You have a natural ability to identify potential improvements to both quality of products and efficiency of resources used.

Responsibilities 

• You understand, and are deeply connected to, the vision of new product ideas. You drive the project team with high expectations of a brand alignment, while ensuring that products meet budget, time, and safety requirements.
• You create and own the end-to-end product development schedule for complex projects by leading schedule build meetings with stakeholders. You will understand innovative product ideas and their scope, turning them into an actionable chain of tasks and deliverables to build the Critical Chain base project schedule. 
• You lead a cross-functional project team as a project hub, involving Innovation, Design, Engineering, Manufacturing, Quality Safety and Compliance, Operations, Creative and Marketing to take products from concept to reality. 
• You prioritize deliverables for product development in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with multiple stakeholders. You possess the essential ability to adapt and make adjustments throughout the project, and to find ways to incorporate changes to make the best product.
• You understand dependencies, identify risks, and anticipate potential issues that could impact the project schedule. You work to proactively resolve problems in order to stay on track.
• You manage product details and recognize the opportunity for negotiation and trade-offs. 
• You work closely with upper management to make sure that the scope and direction of each project is aligned to create products that meet Lovevery’s value and high standards.
• You address issues with creative and critical problem-solving through actionable suggestions. This role requires both flexible and strategic thinking. 
• You support supply chain development and track product costs to ensure that the COGS are meeting the target. You constantly balance the COGS to maximize the value of the product offering. 
• You will manage Product Development Associate(s) assigned to your projects for creating proper documentations, planning photoshoots, and creation of printed materials and operational deliverables.
• You collaborate with the Lovevery sourcing team based in Hong Kong and our Asia based supply chain. Occasionally, you will travel to our manufacturing partners (as often as 2-3 times a year).
• You continuously review and analyze customer feedback to gain insight into recent product launches and support the Innovation team with product improvement strategies.
• You have an in-depth knowledge of the existing products. You apply the knowledge while leading new product development for brand and design consistency.
• You are passionate about the parent and baby sector, staying up-to-date on trends and proactively bringing new learnings and ideas to your day-to-day work.

Qualifications and Attributes

• 7+ years of proven experience in leading the development of new and innovative products from concept to production, demonstrating advanced critical thinking and problem solving skills to navigate complex challenges independently
• 5 years experience in Critical Chain Project Management methodology, effectively managing complex physical product projects to successful outcomes
• Proven track record of independent project management leadership, delivering high-impact results by driving initiatives from inception through execution with minimal supervision
• Demonstrated ability to create and own the end-to-end product development schedule for complex projects by leading schedule build meetings with stakeholders and ensuring alignment across teams. 
• Adept at transforming innovative product ideas and scopes into an actionable chain of tasks and deliverables to establish a Critical Chain base project schedule. 
• Advanced knowledge of MS Project and PWA
• Familiarity with Design Thinking
• Intermediate to advanced Excel or Google Sheet skills
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional team discussions

The Benefits/Perks You’ll Enjoy

• Competitive salary, benefits and stock option package
• 3 weeks PTO in year 1 +14 paid holidays
• Generous parental leave
• The equipment you need to get the job done
• Free/discounted Lovevery products

Acknowledgements

Lovevery is proud to be an equal opportunity employer that values diversity in all forms. All employment decisions at Lovevery are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, HIV status, marital status, or any other status protected by the laws or regulations in the locations where we operate.

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each responsibility listed above satisfactorily. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential responsibilities.

Lovevery has reviewed this job description to ensure that essential responsibilities and duties have been included. It is intended to provide general guidelines for job expectations and the employee's ability to perform the position described, but it is not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of all functions, responsibilities, skills, and abilities. Additional functions and requirements may be assigned by Lovevery and the applicable supervisors as they deem appropriate. This document does not represent a contract of employment, and Lovevery reserves the right to change this job position description and/or assign tasks for the employee to perform, as Lovevery may deem appropriate.