Director of Product Management

Join an award-winning legal tech company that’s transforming how law firms work by boosting their organization, productivity, and profitability with software they actually love. Smokeball is a global, community-driven company united by a love for the law and a mission to help small and midsize firms thrive. We’re passionate about what we do and our clients know it! If you’re looking for a company that truly cares about its clients and its people, you’re in the right place.

The Role

We are seeking a Director of Product Management to lead strategic product discovery, market insight, and go-to-market execution for the US legal market. This is a hands-on, customer-facing role focused on uncovering opportunities that unblock sales, reduce churn, address customer support and adoption challenges and drives strategic advantage in the US legal software market.

You will act as the voice of the US customer, deeply embedded with Sales, Customer Success, Support, and Marketing teams to identify friction points and translate them into clear, prioritized product initiatives that align with business goals and objectives. 

While software development is led by a global engineering team based in Australia, you will own what gets built for your market and why, shaping the roadmap in close partnership with global Product and Engineering leadership teams.

This role does not manage an engineering team. Instead, it is accountable for defining product direction, influencing priorities, and ensuring that product releases are clearly communicated, understood, and successfully adopted across the US market. 

Location: Chicago, IL - This is a hybrid role, 2 days per week in office

Leadership & Team Management 

• Lead, coach, and develop a small team of Product Managers focused on the US legal market. 
• Set clear expectations, priorities, and standards for product discovery, roadmap definition, and cross-functional engagement. 
• Operate as player–coach: hands-on market research, customer insight, prioritization, and execution. 
• Foster a strong product culture grounded in customer empathy, commercial impact, and accountability.

Customer, Market, and Commercial Ownership 

• Serve as the primary voice of the customer for the US legal market, ensuring customer needs, workflows, and pain points are deeply understood and consistently represented. 

• Identify trends, competitive gaps, and emerging opportunities within the US legal technology landscape 

• Be commercially embedded with the business, including participation in sales, renewal, and client escalation calls to help win deals and retain customers. 

• Act as the first line of product leadership for US product escalations, working directly with Support and Client Success on customer-facing issues. 

Roadmap and Delivery 

• Own US product roadmap product roadmap in alignment with global strategy, with a clear focus on unblocking sales opportunities, addressing retention and churn risks, reducing support friction, and improving adoption and client value 
• Partner with Global Product and Engineering leadership to influence prioritization and sequencing, balancing US market needs with broader business strategy
• Translate customer and market insights into clear problem statements and success metrics for the delivery teams. 
• Own product release communication internally and for the US client-base, ensuring launches are clear, compelling, and customer-focused. 
• Define and track success metrics for roadmap initiatives, including sales impact, retention, adoption, and support outcomes. Use data and feedback to continuously refine priorities and improve product-market fit in the US. 

• 8 years of product management experience, including 2+ years leadership experience in B2B SaaS. 
• Proficient with product tools and methodologies (e.g., Agile, Design Thinking) 
• Strong experience in legal technology or selling into professional services (law firms, accounting firms, etc.) preferred 
• Proven track record of working closely with Sales and Customer Success to drive commercial outcomes through product. 
• Experience operating in a distributed, global product development model. 
• Influencer with Excellent communication and presentation skills 
• Comfortable with a high-paced, evolving environment 

$150,000 - 175,000 base salary

Your Leader

Adele Hoyle: Hi I'm Adele, Chief Product Officer at Smokeball based out of Australia. I oversee our global Product, Design, QA and Engineering teams in partnership with the CTO. I have been working legal tech for over 20 years in England, Australia and the US and have a deep passion for building solutions our clients love. I’ve been with Smokeball since 2017, and it’s been an amazing journey working with a talented team to build products that genuinely help law firms do their best work every day. When I am not at Smokeball, you will find me with a cup of English tea, devouring English chocolate, or spending time with my family at the beach/sports field! 

Team member

Reena Jailwala: Hi, I’m Reena! I’m a Product Strategy Manager for Boost at Smokeball, where I focus on defining and shaping the product strategy for our web-based offering for solo and small law firms. My role centers on being the voice of the customer: deeply understanding the market, identifying where Boost fits, and helping the team achieve strong product-market fit. I spend much of my time synthesizing user feedback, uncovering points of friction, tracking product and industry trends, and translating those insights into clear, actionable direction so we can build a product that truly embeds itself into small firms’ daily workflows and drives meaningful adoption. I love working at Smokeball because I’m surrounded by people who genuinely care - about our users, our product, and each other. That shared sense of purpose and collaboration makes it incredibly rewarding to work on solutions that help legal professionals run healthier, more successful practices. Outside of work, I’m passionate about all things dance; whether it’s Indian fusion, hip hop, or salsa, if there’s a class, I’m there. I also lived in China for several years and have a deep love for Sichuan cuisine, so you can often find me on the hunt for the best spicy, numbing dishes the city has to offer.

• Great Culture: We’ve been named a 'Best Place to Work' five years in a row. For us, caring is not optional and we have an ongoing commitment to building a workplace where our people feel valued and collaboration flourishes.
• Work-Life Balance: 20 vacation days, 7 sick days, 3 reboot days, 11 paid holidays, birthday off, volunteer time, and more! 
• Career Growth: Smokeball believes in investing in our own people and promoting from within. Our own President started at Smokeball as an Account Manager!
• Benefits: Excellent medical, dental, and vision coverage. 401(k) match, monthly wellness stipend, generous parental leave.
• The Office: The kitchen is stocked with breakfast items, snacks, and beverages, and we have plenty of games to help you relax (ping-pong, billiards, pinball). We also offer weekly catered lunch and free monthly massages provided by a licensed massage therapist! 

Why do we do what we do? Where did the name ‘Smokeball’ come from? What are our values? Learn more here!

Smokeball values diversity & inclusion and is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity employer. Smokeball considers all individuals seeking employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, ancestry, physical or mental disability, veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other legally protected characteristic.

If you’re excited about this role, we encourage you to apply even if your experience doesn’t check every box.