Product Lead, Sharpist
AI-Powered Learning & CultureOS
Salary not provided
Figma
Senior and Expert level
Berlin
Coaching platform for leadership development
Be an early applicant
Coaching platform for leadership development
101-200 employees
B2BEnterpriseHRTrainingLearning
Be an early applicant
Salary not provided
Figma
Senior and Expert level
Berlin
101-200 employees
B2BEnterpriseHRTrainingLearning
Company mission
To drive the growth of organisations and their people through 1:1 digital coaching and personalized learning journeys.
Role
Who you are
- Hands-on builder mindset – comfortable using tools like Claude, Cursor, Figma, v0 to prototype ideas quickly
- 5+ years in Product Management in agile, fast-moving environments
- Track record of solving activation and retention challenges – you've diagnosed why users don't come back and fixed it
- Deep experience with AI/ML products – you understand prompts, RAG architectures, personalization, and the unique UX challenges of conversational AI
- Experience scaling small teams – you know how to hire well and maintain culture while growing
- Strategic Clarity: You can take ambiguous problems and create clear direction
- Ownership: You drive your domain independently, proactively challenging assumptions with data-driven cases
- Resourceful: You know how to do a lot with a little – and when to push for more resources
- MVP Champion: You distill products to their essence, ship fast, iterate based on learning
- Collaborative Sparring Partner: You generate ideas, welcome debate, and believe great solutions emerge from collaboration
- Speed with Precision: In the AI world, every day counts. You move fast without breaking things
- Accountability: You keep your word. You're meticulous, organized, and 100% reliable
- Proactivity: You identify problems early, propose solutions, and jump on what matters
- Delivery: You're a builder who ships – motivated by visible results
- Care: You strive for excellence because the mission of empowering self-aware careers genuinely matters to you
- Strong command of English (German is a plus for DACH market – many of our clients are German-speaking manufacturers)
- Passion for Learning & Development – genuine interest in coaching, adult learning, and human growth
- Based in Berlin or willing to relocate – hybrid model with significant in-office collaboration expected, as well as travelling the DACH region to meet and build with clients
What the job involves
- We have strong product-market fit:
- World-class client logos (IKEA, BMW, Airbus, Adidas, SoundCloud, HomeToGo, Breitling)
- Clear market differentiation
- Clients switching to us from competitors because of our unique credit-based model
- But the proof is in the pudding. We have two core challenges this role exists to solve:
- Long-term retention of our core product – Pilots don't reliably convert to enterprise-wide rollout. We need to understand why and fix it
- Short-term activation and retention of our AI product – Our AI Coach is live with first customers and achieving strong ratings from those who use it. But the main challenge is adoption: getting people to the first session, then keeping them coming back
- We don't want incremental thinking. If you believe we should sunset products, build something entirely new, or pivot direction – we want to hear it
- The Team & Investment:
- Where we are today: Our Product & Engineering team is intentionally lean: 3 engineers, 1 data engineer, and 1 designer. Small, focused, and fast-moving. Our core product is nearing breakeven – we're a financially disciplined company, not a cash-burning startup
- Where we're going: Our existing shareholders are making a dedicated investment specifically to fuel Sharpist's AI transformation. This funding will allow us to double the P&E team over the coming year
- What this means for you:
- You'll have meaningful influence in hiring and shaping the team you'll lead
- You'll work with a small, high-trust group where decisions happen fast
- You'll have the resources to execute on AI – this isn't a side project, it's our strategic bet
- You'll need to be comfortable building with constraints while scaling thoughtfully
- The Role:
- As Product Lead, you will own the full product experience across Sharpist's platform – with a strategic focus on our AI product expansion and the evolution toward CultureOS: a complete system connecting Memory Bank, Hybrid Journeys, and an Insights Dashboard for real-time workforce intelligence
- You'll report directly to the CEO and work at the intersection of Product, Engineering, Design, and commercial teams. This is a leadership role for someone who can think in 3-year horizons while shipping weekly – and who can grow a team while delivering results
- Product Strategy & Vision
- Define and own the 1-3 year product strategy for the evolution from AI Coach to CultureOS
- Shape how our three strategic pillars come together:
- Memory Bank: AI coaching sessions that continuously learn about each learner – their goals, context, growth, and aha moments over time
- Hybrid Journeys: Combined human coaching & AI coaching with seamless handoffs – 75% AI for always-on support, 25% human for empathy, accountability & breakthroughs
- Insights Dashboard: Conversational interface for HR to understand trends affecting retention, succession, and transformation
- Advise C-level on product-market fit, pricing models, and competitive positioning
- Identify when to pursue incremental improvements vs. step-change big bets
- Crack the Adoption Challenge
- This is your core mission. From our experience:
- Two-stage problem: Getting users to onboarding is one challenge; getting them to start their first session is another. Some client cohorts achieve near-100% conversion of attendees to active users; others struggle significantly. Understand why and fix it
- Retention vs. excitement: AI solutions are great at generating initial excitement but struggle with long-term retention. Users need reasons to come back – we're investing in solving this and need you to lead the way
- Coach adoption matters too: Coaches must opt in to transcription features alongside learners. Some are enthusiastic ("I use AI for every session"); others are skeptical ("I'm afraid about confidentiality"). You'll need to address both sides
- AI Product Differentiation
- Maintain and extend our differentiation from general-purpose AI: Sharpist responds with coaching questions (52 words) where ChatGPT gives generic advice (372 words). We're a coaching conversation, not a textbook
- Drive the Gold Standard Quality architecture: ICF Competencies Agent (auditing against 8 core coaching competencies), Coach Challenge Level Agent (balancing gentle vs. provocative), Validation Techniques Agent (preventing "over-validation" that feels robotic), and 12+ additional quality agents
- Shape the integration between human coaching transcripts and AI follow-up sessions – unlocking the power of looking back across multiple transcripts to surface blind spots and patterns
- Define success metrics that go beyond sessions held – goal completion, behavior change, business outcomes like retention and absenteeism
- Conversational Dashboard for HR
- Build the vision for HR to chat with aggregated coaching insights – surfacing skill development correlation, program engagement, and coaching access risk
- Enable HR to ask questions like: "What are the top recommendations to achieve our program outcomes?" or "Which departments have the highest coaching engagement?"
- Always on aggregated data, never individual transcripts – end-to-end encryption and privacy are non-negotiable
- Build & Lead the Team
- Shape the hiring plan as we double the P&E team – you'll have significant input on who we bring in
- Work closely with Engineering, Design, and Data to ensure we're building the right capabilities
- Foster a culture of ownership, speed, and client obsession
- Balance building for today with investing in the foundations for tomorrow
- Discovery & User Understanding
- Together with our Design Lead, run user research across all user groups – from enterprise HR to shop floor workers at companies like PALFINGER
- Build deep understanding of why users adopt (or don't) – the emotional journey matters as much as the functional one
- Run experiments, concept tests, and A/B tests to validate product hypotheses
- Synthesize qualitative and quantitative insights into clear product direction
- Execution & Delivery
- Break down strategy into feature epics, user stories, and prioritized backlogs
- Maintain healthy roadmaps across mobile, web, and AI surfaces
- Work closely with the Design Lead to ensure exceptional UX
- Get your hands dirty: prototype with Figma, Lovable, v0, or whatever tools you're comfortable with
- Success Milestones:
- Within 1 Month:
- Deep immersion in Sharpist's product ecosystem, AI Coach architecture, and user research
- Shadow customer conversations, coach town halls, and learner interviews
- Assess current product strategy and form your hypothesis on the core retention and activation challenges
- Build strong working relationships with the existing P&E team
- Within 1 Quarter:
- Own and communicate a clear AI product strategy with defined success metrics
- Ship at least several meaningful improvements to AI Coach activation or retention
- Present your perspective on which products to double down on, sunset, or pivot
- Contribute to hiring plan and help bring in key new team members
- Within 1 Year:
- Demonstrate measurable improvement in AI Coach adoption and retention
- Drive meaningful improvement in pilot-to-enterprise conversion
- Launch at least one major capability that differentiates Sharpist from AI-only competitors and general-purpose tools
- Successfully scale the P&E team while maintaining velocity and culture
- Establish the foundation for CultureOS with integrated Memory Bank, Hybrid Journeys, and Insights Dashboard
- Closing Remarks – Why This Role Is Different:
- This isn't jumping on a hype wagon. The vision of AI-enabled coaching has been in Sharpist's DNA since the first financing round, 7 years ago. The technology has finally caught up to the vision
- You're joining at an inflection point:
- Small team, big mandate – enough people to move fast, with investment to scale
- Real product in market – not a PowerPoint vision, but live customers giving real feedback
- Clear strategic commitment – dedicated funding for AI transformation from existing shareholders
- Room to shape everything – from product strategy to team composition
- The Product Lead we're looking for understands:
- The hybrid philosophy is non-negotiable: "Technology and humans shaking hands" – not replacing each other. Human coaching for empathy and accountability; AI for always-on support and follow-through
- Adoption is the battle: AI solutions are great in excitement, but not in retention. Solving this is your core challenge
- Privacy is sacred: End-to-end encryption, bi-directional consent, no model training on user data
- We're democratizing coaching: Shop floor workers, construction sites, new joiners – not just executives. The vision is a world where every employee has access to a coach, anywhere, anytime
- Ready to build the always-on career companion for every employee, everywhere?
Application process
- CV Review by our People Lead
- Screening Call (30 min) with People Lead
- Clarifying Questions Call (15 min) to ask questions about the case
- Submit Strategy Document - Max 5 pages answering: Which mission? What in 12 months? Why? How? What impact?
- Strategy Discussion (45 min) discussing your document, probing reasoning, exploring scenarios
- Build Something (15 min) : Pick one idea from your strategy. Show a quick prototype, wireframe, or demo
- Cultural Fit - Conversation with 2 team members
- Reference calls (Optional)
Our take
Sharpist is looking to capitalise on the $300-billion worth corporate learning and development market with a curated marketplace of 1:1 coaching experts available to employees. Enterprises who purchase the service from Sharpist are attracted by the startup’s attention to customer experience, with a learner engagement of more than 90%.
The digital coaching provider counts some of Germany’s biggest businesses as its clients (BASF, Allianz, Porsche). It is now using its 2022 funding to expand its services to new markets, including the UK and Ireland.
While the organisation has had great success in its home markets, it will be interesting to see whether it can replicate its impressive growth amongst employers with noticeably different workplace cultures and L&D practices.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
63% employee growth in 12 months
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
Feb 2022
$23m
SERIES A
Feb 2020
$5m
SEED
Total funding: $29.2m
Company benefits
- Have your own certified coach with unlimited sessions
- Flexible working hours
- Hybrid working model
- Employee library
- Company pension scheme
- Free mate, beers & muesli
Company HQ
Neukölln, Berlin, Germany
Leadership
Dominik Lahman
(Co-Founder)A Computer Scientist and Mathematician, Dominik founded and was director of bitkraut, a Berlin-based IT startup. They also worked as a Research project Leader at Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems.
Fabian Niedballa
(Co-Founder & Board Member)Previously scaled operations in high-growth environments including as Head of Supply Operations at German startup, GetYourGuide. Also previously worked as a strategy consultant at L.E.K.
Hendrik Schriefer
(Co-Founder & CEO)Built and led various teams in human resources, from headhunting to leading the HR department of their previous company, Motius. Also worked as a Global Venture Development Manager at Rocket Internet.
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