Find More Than 10K+
United Kingdom Jobs

The Associate Product Manager programme is focused on building Citizens Advice’s next generation of product leaders.

As an Associate Product Manager, you will:

• Lead efforts across engineering, design, user research, operations and beyond to launch impactful digital products that help millions of people
• Grow personally and professionally through hands-on experience, structured learning, mentoring and coaching
• Join a brilliant community of product management professionals, many of whom have led Citizens Advice’s most impactful digital transformation initiatives
• Work towards becoming a fully-fledged Product Manager over time and continuing in a career with product management or a related area

Our Product team has an ambitious product strategy (https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/product-strategy-2021-to-REPLACEMENT_STRING273c110054d6) that supports the organisation’s overall mission. Within this we focus on 4 areas:

• Building outcomes measurement capability
• Enable a seamless client journey
• Tailored, tactical advice services online, without needing an adviser
• Remote advice delivery through phone, chat, video and email platforms

We’ve grown fast, and today, we have 11 multidisciplinary product and platform teams, split across four areas: advice delivery, case management, data and measurement, and remote advice platforms.

We help 40 million people every year, and your work here will make a huge difference to their lives. You’ll be setting the goals, strategy and priorities within cross-functional data teams, and supporting our advice and advocacy work that helps millions of people on a daily basis.

We’re an equal opportunity employer and prize diversity as a strength. Everyone is welcome at Citizens Advice. We offer flexible working, and are open to part-time and job sharing too. In fact, several of our leadership team members work four days a week.

What kind of work will I be doing?
Your work will vary depending on your team placement, and will evolve over time as you build their confidence and experience. Examples of the kinds of work you could expect to be doing include:

• Working in collaboration with engineers, researchers, delivery and designers in a multidisciplinary product team
• Leading a small cross-functional product team, or taking ownership of a specific project or feature within a larger product team
• Running the morning stand-up meetings with the team
• Analysing and understanding user needs and converting them into requirements
• Determining metrics to evaluate the success of your product features and using these to inform improvements
• Developing positive relationships with stakeholders and colleagues across the organisation
• Coordinating and communicating with users and stakeholders

You can read this blogpost from our first ever Associate Product Manager, Sarah Gallacher, to get a flavour of what the programme has to offer: https://wearecitizensadvice.org.uk/moving-from-operations-into-product-29a44e297173

What skills will I develop?

• Strategy and stakeholder management: Using product strategy frameworks, with support from a product coach or line manager. Understanding how your product contributes towards organisational strategy. Finding and meeting new people in the organisation who are relevant to your product and developing collaborative and productive relationships with them. Aligning plans and communicating with senior stakeholders.
• Value and outcomes: Measuring value and using qualitative and quantitative data to inform decisions. Focusing on outcomes, not solutions. Translating the vision into prioritised, deliverable goals. Taking considered, data-driven decisions and having the humility to learn from mistakes. Tracking and monitoring product performance and user outcomes to iterate and improve on features.
• Leadership: Leading your product team towards common objectives, and ensuring they know how their work relates to organisational objectives and user needs. Developing the credibility and influence to bring people with you. With support from your product coach or manager, navigating ambiguity and uncertainty. Creating an inclusive and collaborative culture.
• Product management: Developing an understanding of a range of product principles, techniques, and approaches. Discovering and validating problems presented by user feedback. Continually evolving the product roadmap, working in the open. Coordinating with colleagues to deliver features that improve the user experience.
• User-centred design: Understanding users and what their needs are, based on evidence. Translating user stories and proposing features or changes to meet these needs. Engaging in meaningful interactions with users.
• Agile working: Using agile methodology and applying an agile mindset to your work. Using an iterative method and flexible approach to deliver features.
• Technology and data: Demonstrating an aptitude for technology and data. Developing awareness of the wider digital economy and advances in technology.
• Responsible and ethical approach: Taking a responsible and ethical approach, considering the social impact our services create and minimising potential unintended consequences.
• Lifecycle perspective: Learning the different phases of product delivery and understanding which phase your product is in.

What support will I have?
You will learn and develop your skills via a number of methods during the course of the Associate scheme, such as:

• Learning by doing: leading a small product team, or working on a project/feature within a larger product team
• Mentoring - being coached by a mentor from an experienced member of the product community
• Undertaking external product management training and certification
• Spending time with other members of the Design, Data and Technology team to learn about the roles they do and how these contribute towards our work

We will adapt to you - depending on how you prefer to learn, your line manager and mentor will support you in the way that works best. For example, when you’re discussing how to solve a particular product problem, they might share relevant articles or training videos, or introduce you to a new product management framework or approach.

Please provide details in your cover letter to evidence the following essential criteria:

• Experience of leading a team, preferably using agile methodology
• Experience balancing conflicting priorities
• Experience of researching and launching an element of a service
• User-focused, with an aptitude for using qualitative and quantitative data to track progress against user outcomes
• Passionate about Tech for Good and with a proven desire to work in an equity-driven organisation solving meaningful problems

Citizens Advice offers confidential advice online, over the phone, and in person, for free. Through our national network of charities, we give people the knowledge and the confidence they need to find their way forward – whoever they are, and whatever their problem.

Do you want to work for an organisation that makes a difference, every single day, to people from all walks of life? The people that turn to Citizens Advice need help overcoming an obstacle in their lives – from debt to evictions to trouble at work – and you can be key to them getting the support they need in the quickest, easiest, and most effective way.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is of strategic importance within the organisation and recognised as integral to all we do as a service.

Central to pursuing our EDI mission is building diverse and inclusive teams in which everyone has a sense of belonging. We believe inclusion is a social justice issue - a principle that underpins our all EDI work. To that end, we particularly welcome applications from people we would like to see better represented in our organisation and sector - people of colour, LGBTQ+ people and disabled people. If you are disabled and meet our minimum criteria you will be guaranteed an interview for this role and we will provide reasonable adjustments as needed. We follow the social model of disability.

We’re a flexible employer, so this role may suit anyone who’d prefer a flexible arrangement to help their work/life balance, many of our colleagues spend most of their time working remotely. Whilst we prefer a blended approach between a local office, if one is near you, and home we’re open to being flexible on location, occasionally a role may require you to be based in a certain location if that's the case it will be detailed in the advert or job description. This can be discussed in more detail during your interview.

The National Citizens Advice Operates from offices in England and Wales, with 4 regional offices based in Cardiff, London, Birmingham and Leeds, therefore all successful applicants must be based within England or Wales.

Our commitment to colleague wellbeing is reflected in us being awarded Gold in the Health & Wellbeing category, as well as Overall Winners, at the Employee Experience Awards 2022.

Please be aware that Citizens Advice is not a sponsoring organisation. Therefore the successful applicant must already possess the right to work in the UK or be able to secure the right to work in the UK independently.

In the event of a high number of applications, we reserve the right to close the application early.

This vacancy closes at 23.59 on the closing date.

For more information about the organisation, our values and benefits please see the following link - Information, values and benefits

Need help with your application, see our useful how to guides on the following page - Guidance notes for applicants