Head of Product
The Package:- Highly Competitive + Bonus + Package
Location/Work Pattern:- Primarily Onsite 3/4 days a week – Liverpool
The Role
We have been appointed as the exclusive search partner of a leading Professional Services organisation, to source a Head of Product to join the senior leadership team, owning the firm’s business-critical platforms.
The Head of Product will be accountable for the product vision, strategy and roadmap for the platform, involving the leadership of a product team, backlog ownership and ITIL-aligned change and release discipline, as the systems becomes central to how work is opened, managed, delivered, governed and reported across the business. This opportunity would ideally suit someone that still enjoys getting involved within the hands-on scope of discovery, backlog and delivery, as well as leading by example.
The right person is also accountable for the strategy and roadmap within the product function, as well as managing resources, tools, budgets, frameworks, methodologies, and delivery in alignment with the overall collaborative IT and business strategy. The role holder should demonstrate confidence in designing and executing their strategic roadmap, in addition to cultivating/managing and leading a high-performing team, and in representing the organisation externally in its relationship with the platform vendor.
Role Requirements
- Product Strategy & Roadmap: Own and continuously refine the platform’s product vision, strategy, roadmap and measurable objectives, aligned to the firm’s operational, client and financial goals.
- Backlog Ownership & Prioritisation: Own, maintain and prioritise the product backlog – enhancements, defects, technical debt, integrations, reporting and adoption activity – sequenced by business value, risk and delivery capacity.
- Colleague & User Insight: Build an expert understanding of colleague needs across departments and client segments through interviews, workshops, feedback channels and product analytics.
- Delivery Leadership: Lead discovery, validation, design, testing, deployment and continuous improvement across the product lifecycle, working closely with IT, developers, architects, testers, data and information security colleagues.
- Workflow & Governance: Drive improvement of workflows, matter lifecycle management, permissions, ethical walls, integrations, automation and data quality within the platform.
- Team Management: Lead, inspire, and mentor a high-performing product team. Set clear goals, provide regular feedback, foster professional growth, and create a collaborative and empowered working environment.
- Change & Adoption: Partner with Business Change, Learning & Development and Heads of Department to create adoption plans, training and communications that make change stick.
- Reporting & Analytics: Develop and present regular reports on product performance, usage, adoption, satisfaction and value realisation to senior leadership and stakeholders, using data to inform decision-making and strategic direction.
- Stakeholder Engagement: Collaborate with professionals, IT peers, finance & HR teams, and external vendors to deliver projects and services meeting business and compliance requirements.
- Vendor & Market Relationships: Act as in-house subject matter expert for the platform, maintaining strong relationships with the vendor and tracking product roadmap, capabilities and market direction.
- Governance, Risk & Compliance: Ensure product decisions comply with information security, data protection, confidentiality, SRA and regulatory obligations, including Lexcel and ISO 27001.
- Continuous Improvement: Champion the organisation’s drive for operational excellence, employing quality management methodologies to streamline processes, reduce costs, and enhance product value.
What are we looking for
- Substantial experience in a senior product leadership role, ideally owning a roadmap and backlog for a business-critical enterprise SaaS platform.
- Experience within professional services would be highly advantageous
- Strong understanding of the product lifecycle from discovery through design, delivery, testing, adoption and optimisation.
- Working knowledge of Agile/hybrid delivery methods, including Scrum, Kanban, backlog refinement and release management.
- Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to assess benefits, costs, risks and trade-offs.
- Excellent stakeholder management and influencing skills, able to translate complex technical concepts into plain business language.
- Experience managing complex vendor relationships across a wider supplier ecosystem.
- Collaborative leader with a genuine passion for building and developing a team.
- Understanding of information governance, data protection and regulatory considerations relevant to a professional services environment.
- Product Owner/Agile certification desirable
Please send your CV for consideration in the first instance.