Product Manager, Kobo
Self Publishing
Offers performance based annual bonuses and stock options
Digital bookseller
Open for applications
Digital bookseller
501-1000 employees
Open for applications
Offers performance based annual bonuses and stock options
501-1000 employees
Company mission
To bring the power of reading to the world.
Role
Who you are
- The ideal candidate has experience working on technical products, with proven ability to build product capabilities
- You are diligent, exhibit exceptional attention to detail, and are a strong communicator
- If you’re driven, analytical, creative, organized, adaptable, performance-focused, and able to deliver high-quality work within a fast-paced environment, we want to hear from you
- 4+ years experience working in a product management role; experience in digital content or eCommerce a plus
- Outstanding verbal and written communication to various audiences within the organization
- Demonstrated ability to convey insights from complex analysis to non-technical business users at varying levels of familiarity
- Technical experience and curiosity, with the ability to demonstrate the importance and impact of technical work to non-technical audiences
- A track record of identifying important user problems, executing on them with high impact to the users and organization
- Strong analytic skills and quantitative skills to deeply understand the space, the product’s performance, identifying opportunities and gaps
- Experience working in an Agile software development environment
- Curious and actively staying ahead of competitive landscapes and industry trends
- Outstanding organizational skills, self-motivated, creative problem solver with high attention to detail
- Dedication to continual self-improvement and learning
- A love of reading, obviously
What the job involves
- Our Business Operations team is searching for an enthusiastic Product Manager, Self Publishing who can help shape the way customers interact with our products and services
- As the Product Manager, you will be a key leader on the team and drive our plans to modernize the systems, processes, and tools powering Kobo’s self publishing business (Kobo Writing Life), our author community, and publishers
- You will be part of a diverse and collaborative environment, working with multiple stakeholders and various teams including R&D, Product, and Content to take new features from idea to reality
- Your day-to-day tasks include research, writing various product documentation, planning initiatives, defining product iterations, being responsible for managing a product backlog & roadmap, reporting and analyzing product performance for continuous improvements
- Own the Self Publishing product management function, working closely with digital catalog teams and other product areas to optimize operations and enable business growth
- You must be proficient with the four core functions of product management:
- Understand the user, our business, and the broader market. This means identifying user problems and determining how they impact business performance
- Identify the right problems to solve based on user and business impact
- Deliver by working with the software development team to prioritize and plan
- Analyze the data to understand product performance and then plan for what’s next
- Define a vision and roadmap for the self publishing platform and communicate it throughout the organization to gain alignment
- Write high-level requirements and work with stakeholders to agree on the scope of an initiative related to your product
- Collaborate with R&D teams: lead workshops, refine requirements, write user stories, validate on completed work, plan releases, manage and prioritize backlogs
- Communicate the status of current initiatives and keep teams informed of progress
- Review research, user feedback channels, and product analytics, seeking problems to solve and opportunities to improve your product
Our take
Long-form content is having a resurgence. That’s great news for the e-reader industry, of which Rakuten’s Kobo battles with Amazon’s Kindle for ownership.
The e-reader giant has changed tack in recent years to pursue growth via integrations and partnerships. A notable example is its native device integration with Pocket, a wishlist app loved by millions of readers.
The company is hoping that these partnerships and product improvements will allow it to finally break the US market where it most struggles for market share with Kindle.
Amazon has consistently shown its willingness to drop prices to protect its position in any market it plays in. That means that Kobo will have to demonstrate true product superiority to make a dent while protecting its margins.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Company benefits
- 4-day summer holiday weekends
- Competitive health benefits
- Commuting allowance
- Salary, bonus & stock options
- Global projects & opportunities
- Dog-friendly
- Happy Hour
- Casual dress
- Maternity/parental leave top-up
- Free eReader
- Fitness allowance & gym discount
- Recognition programs
- Buddy program
- Training & development opportunities
- Healthy snacks
- Open concept
- Kobo Café
- Sports teams
Company HQ
Liberty Village, Toronto, ON
Leadership
Michael Tamblyn
(CEO)Part of the founding team of Kobo, Michael previously held the role of Chief Content Officer. Michael has also been the founding CEO of the supply chain agency, BookNet Canada and co-founded Canada’s first online bookstore, Bookshelf.ca, purchased by Indigo Books & Music in 1998.
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