TechSoup Global: Product Manager, Community-Driven Innovation (Regular, Full-time, Exempt)

TechSoup Global (TSG) serves two communities that are constantly striving to serve and connect in meaningful ways.  Social-benefit organizations (also known as Nonprofits or Non-Governmental Organizations), and the people and organizations interested in contributing resources (Tools; $; Expertise) to help accelerate their mission-based work.  Contributors to TSG?s network include technology corporations like Microsoft, Adobe, Cisco, SAP, Flip and more than 35 others who make their technology available for nonprofits via our product donations program.  Philanthropic foundations like the Mott Foundation and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund who fund capacity-building and innovation projects at TSG.  And a growing cadre of skilled volunteers who bring their expertise in technology and business to help make the +50k social-benefit organizations we serve every year more effective.  TSG?s programs span across 32 countries and 6 continents.

The Community-Driven Innovation (CDI) Product Manager will build upon the interactions happening across the NetSquared (http:///www.netsquared.org) platform and community as well as develop new CDI programs.  This role oversees product development, program design and day-to-day operations for the CDI program with a focus on developing modular features, products and services that surface resource needs across the social-benefit sector so that the people (the technology companies; funders; volunteers, etc.) interested in contributing to these organizations can appropriately contribute their time, technology and funds.

 

The ideal candidate for this position has the leadership ability and technical prowess to drive product planning and development in collaboration with users, engineering teams, senior management at TSG, and key partners in the field. 

* You advocate for your users when making product-level decisions.

* You build first-rate social products on the web that are incredibly intuitive. 

* You believe in the power of open platforms and are interested in playing a pivotal role in transforming the way nonprofits operate in the 21st century by building upon your success with products that leverage open standards and API's. 

* You understand the dynamics at play on the social web, and can point to the synchronous and asynchronous tools you?ve built that facilitate communication between individuals, groups, and the world, and any combination of each.

* This is a new role at TSG, so the first project will be to gain a general understanding of TSG's strategic position, and work with the CDI Senior Director and other senior leadership at TSG to develop and deliver on a product roadmap which maintains, shapes, and improves that position

* Develop and integrate a usability study methodology and research and market analysis into existing products and programming

* Define and implement product strategies which will bring increased user-participation, media development, collaboration and community capabilities to our existing programs

* Write specifications, prioritize features, build consensus and coordinate product schedules with engineers

* Provide roadmap direction and analysis with new, justifiable ideas to continuously enhance existing functionality and introduce new features and functionality

* Facilitate communication throughout the development process between a variety of internal teams including CDI, TSG Engineering, Senior Program leadership, Office of the CEO and others

* Perform on-going competitive analysis, feature definition and prioritization, and other analytical tasks

* Responsible for day to day management of a combination of employees and contractors

* Responsible for working closely with external partners as appropriate

* Responsible for other assigned tasks as needed

* At least five years of experience developing consumer products, technologies and/or platforms for leading internet company or nonprofit organization

* A doer.  You have translated vision into real-world products and services from ideation to launch

* Experience with agile product development methods and a deep understanding of user-driven media products

* Experience developing API-driven applications

* Experience with developing product roadmaps, product plans, detailed specifications into software architecture, project plans, status reports, and budgets

Management:

* Strong sense of accountability and ownership for end-to-end implementation of product lifecycles

* Strong written and oral communication skills

* Comfortable interacting with diverse technical and non-technical groups, spanning all organizational levels

* Committed to developing collaborative work dynamic across all-levels of TSG staff and TSG?s diverse Partner Network

* Experience in designing and managing dynamic projects that compete for resources and priorities

* Proven experience leading cross-functional teams (e.g., development, creative, production, and editorial resources)

* Exceptional organizational and analytical skills

* Exceptional technical abilities and ability to work with in-house technical team, as well as contractors in a distributed environment

* Proven quantitative, analytical, and technical skills

* You can point to the products and/or services you?ve helped develop and launch on the web

* Background in engineering or computer science strongly preferred

* Fascinated by the endless possibilities that the web creates for people and communities

Please send a cover letter along with your resume to pppm@techsoupglobal.org describing what inspires you about bringing your expertise to TechSoup Global, and why you think you are a perfect fit.

If you already volunteer or contribute to any community-focused projects, write a blog, or are passionate about any particular social issue, we would love to hear about it.

About TechSoup Global:

The Community-Driven Innovation program builds upon the learning, assets and relationships developed over the last five years at NetSquared.org, and the last 23 years of TechSoup Global?s history. 

TechSoup Global is working towards the day when every nonprofit and social benefit organization on the planet has the technology resources and knowledge it needs to operate at its full potential.

TechSoup Global, a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, was founded in 1987 on the belief that technology is a powerful enabler for social change. Since that day, we?ve assembled a worldwide network of individuals and organizations that share this conviction.  This network?one that you likely belong to?includes foundations and corporations, governments and NGOs, social entrepreneurs and volunteers. Together, these unlikely allies have developed sustainable, community-driven technology solutions to meet today?s most urgent social challenges.

A guiding principle in our work is that NGOs are agents of change, not beneficiaries of aid. Our efforts are focused on creating sustainable communities, in which all participants are contributors, not on the redistribution of resources from the haves to the have-nots.  We believe that all participants have resources that, brought to bear on a problem, can result in real solutions. This currency of contribution underwrites all of our work.

Last year was a time of great expansion and learning for our organization. In late 2008, we made a commitment at the Clinton Global Initiative to branch out to underserved areas of Africa, Asia, Central and Eastern Europe and Latin America. Since then, the TechSoup Global Network has expanded with an office in Warsaw, Poland, and a network of 29 partners serving 32 countries, including Brazil and Japan.

We?ve also broadened our reach through NetSquared, an ambitious global experiment that empowers individuals at the local level to build and share innovative solutions to social problems. Today, the NetSquared community has tremendous reach, with more than 20,000 members and local events in 71 cities around the world.  In 2009, the NetSquared Challenge brought innovators from all over the globe to the Cisco campus in California to award seed funding and resources to projects like FrontlineSMS, The Extraordinaries, and VozMob: Mobile Voices. Partners such as UC Berkeley Human Rights Center and USAID see these challenges as a powerful model for surfacing innovation.  We?ve also expanded the breadth of our programs. In November 2008, the Council on Foundations selected TechSoup Global to design and host an equivalency determination information repository, now known as NGOsource.  TSG was selected in part because of its extensive international network and proven ability to offer eligibility verification services. In partnership with the Council, we are currently developing this new web-based service.

And TechSoup.org continues to grow, now reaching more than 375,000 unique visitors every month.  The site, which combines product philanthropy with practical educational content and a vibrant community, is undergoing a complete technology overhaul.

TechSoup Global offers a competitive non-profit compensation package, which includes full benefits.