Product Development Manager

HumanCentric is looking for someone who can identify high-potential products through the eyes of a consumer, but ensure that they launch successfully through the eyes of an engineer and product manager. Over the past three years, HumanCentric has taken almost 100 products from concept to launch, and you’ll be launching the next 100 and beyond. This position will be responsible for identifying new product opportunities and for managing the entire product development process.

About HumanCentric

HumanCentric was founded in 2015 and is a profitable, high-growth, eCommerce brand. We offer solutions to help consumers organize their home and office technology to create a well-designed and comfortable space for both work and play. We ship hundreds of orders each day to customers around the world, and are run by a small and driven team who makes it all come together.

About You

To be a great fit for this job, you must have:

• 3 - 5 years related experience. This is required.
• The perfect balance of a strong business mindset (to identify new product opportunities and understand our market), solid engineering knowledge (to work with our engineering and manufacturing teams), and rigorous project management skills (to coordinate the entire product development lifecycle).
• The ability to work both quickly and methodically. You create tremendous amounts of accurate, finished work much faster than other people you work with.
• The desire and independence to work in a lean, small-company environment.
• A positive attitude and the ability to tackle large tasks with ease.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Extremely good organizational skills and careful attention to detail.
• The ability to quickly learn new software programs and use them to enhance your productivity.
• International product sourcing experience (preferred).
• Either a degree in industrial design, mechanical engineering, product management or other related field, or a demonstrated aptitude for these skills through professional experience.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Performing market research to identify new potential products.  This does not mean conducting surveys, focus groups, or demographic trend analysis.  It does mean scouring the market for in-demand products that we could produce better than the competition, or identifying a gap in the market that hasn’t been met.
• Working with engineering, manufacturing, marketing, design, and other teams to bring the new product to market.  This does not mean that you need to do any of these tasks yourself, but it does mean that you need to be knowledgeable enough in each area to communicate effectively with each team.
• Reviewing the performance of existing products and working with various teams to improve sales or product performance.

Had you been with us last month, you would have....

• Studied the market to determine if there are any opportunities to launch additional products within our existing product lines.
• Brainstormed additional product lines that we could launch, compiled a competitive analysis for each opportunity, and vetted potential suppliers for each one.
• Worked with our engineering team and manufacturing partners to finalize more than ten new products currently in development.  This included troubleshooting manufacturability issues, coordinating packaging and instruction manual design, testing manufacturing samples, brainstorming design options, and performing competitor product analysis.
• Worked with our purchasing team to negotiate product pricing and place appropriate orders for new products.
• Traveled to China to troubleshoot manufacturing issues with one of our suppliers.
• Reviewed the output of a comprehensive return rate analysis on our products, then worked with engineering, manufacturing, and fulfillment to put a plan in place to reduce it.
• Collaborated with our customer support team to ensure that customer technical questions are answered correctly.

Benefits Include:

• Comprehensive health and dental plan
• Awesome, flexible paid vacation policy
• Beautiful, newly-renovated office in Skokie
• Work closely with a small, experienced team and gain exposure to all aspects of running a global products company and eCommerce brand