Vokal, a leading Digital Experience Agency, is looking for a talented Director of Product to join our growing team. We’re prepared to give you the tools you need to be great at what you do, including six ways (and counting) to brew your coffee—or plenty of tea if you prefer. Your experience as a member of our team matters just as much as the experiences we create for our clients and the users of our products.

The Director of Product is expected to mentor and grow our Product team. This includes defining and providing practice leadership while supporting career development of the team members. The Director of Product will also participate on select engagements as the principal Product Owner.

This is a highly collaborative role, working with clients, designers, developers, business development, and project managers. As a thought leader, the Director of Product will bring fresh ideas, perspectives, and tools to individual projects and Vokal’s methodologies.

This position is based in our home office, located in Chicago’s River North neighborhood.

We also offer a competitive compensation package.

Position Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow the existing Product team focusing on career development and the discipline as a whole, and how it fits both internally within Vokal and externally within the industry
• Provide clear, inspirational goals for the project team to maximize the value of the work that Vokal does for its clients
• Identify the best fit between Vokal’s capabilities and client needs, defining product roadmaps, and delivering those products over multiple releases  
• Support business development and proposal creation efforts by articulating the value provided by a suggested approach or solution
• Lead strategy and product-definition activities through engaging workshops in order to develop a robust definition of the product
• Set standards for product management activities such as business/market research, industry overview, and competitive analysis, ensuring that the discipline employs a data driven approach to strategy and decision making
• Provide leadership and direction for our agile delivery process by setting standards for the various ceremonies like backlog refinement, sprint planning, and stakeholder demos
• Contribute and develop new tools that increase Vokal’s capabilities and capacity to deliver great mobile experiences
• Serve as a point of contact for clients and project stakeholders, ensuring they are aligned on key decisions, and that the implications of these decisions are understood

Desired Experience

• Demonstrated ability to lead, train, and mentor a Product Management/Ownership team
• Experience in strategic planning including market assessments, competitive evaluations, business modeling, and ideation workshops
• Product management experience in a technology-focused market, ideally in software and mobile
• Experience using agile methodologies, best practices, and critical tools
• Demonstrated capabilities in being tech-, business- and UX-savvy
• Experience leading, coaching and mentoring teams that are spread across various disciplines, and working on multifaceted projects for extended times
• Experience in client-service settings

Other Skills

• You are comfortable with, and able to manage constructively: change, ambiguity, debate, conflict, playfulness, experimentation, informed risk taking
• You are an excellent written and verbal communicator
• You are decisive and open to new ideas
• You are a self-starter and entrepreneurial
• You are a quick learner