Product Market Research Lead

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co•Boston, MA

About The Position

At BBH, Partnership is more than a form of ownership—it’s our approach to business and relationships. We know that supporting your professional and personal goals is the best way to help our clients and advance our business. We take that responsibility seriously. With a 200-year legacy and a shared passion for what’s next, this is the right place to build a fulfilling career. Product Market Research Lead Product Transformation Discipline Position Summary Our firm’s evolution mirrors the story of global finance adapting to navigate the challenges of expanding markets. Navigating these challenges requires professionals who combine deep market insight with sound judgment and a passion for helping organizations make better decisions. We seek individuals who are intellectually curious, evidence-driven, and motivated by the opportunity to shape the future direction of our products and services. Brown Brothers Harriman is currently recruiting for a Market Research Lead to join the Product Transformation Discipline within the Investor Services business. This leadership role owns the Product organization's market-back evidence base and turns client, competitor, and ecosystem insight into clear, prioritized opportunities that inform product leadership and product teams on what to build, buy, or partner for. Reporting to the Head of the Product Transformation Discipline, this role will serve as the connection between enterprise strategy and product execution, helping translate strategic priorities into actionable product opportunities while ensuring market realities inform strategic thinking. The Product Transformation Discipline builds the product capabilities (research, design, prototyping, measurement, and the operating model) that product teams draw on across the product lifecycle. It frames new bets and sets the standards the product organization works to; the product teams own roadmap, backlog, and the delivery of live products. This role will build and lead the Product Market Research function, establish research standards across the Product organization, and provide the evidence base that helps determine where the product portfolio should invest, partner, or innovate.

Requirements

Senior leadership experience in research, insights, or product strategy, with the credibility to influence senior stakeholders, Principals, and Partners.
Proven track record of translating client, competitor, and ecosystem insight into decisions that changed what was built or prioritized
Strong ability to synthesize diverse information into clear, evidence-based recommendations and opportunity assessments.
Experience with product discovery, opportunity sizing, and influencing outcomes across complex, matrixed organizations.
Asset servicing or asset management experience strongly preferred.

Responsibilities

Lead and scale Voice of Client: gather and synthesize insight from current clients and prospects into actionable recommendations.
Own win/loss analysis from a product portfolio perspective: identify the factors that drive commercial outcomes and feed findings into roadmap and the commercial case.
Track competitor capabilities and market positioning to identify where products lead or lag and help inform product priorities.
Monitor fintech, data, and partner ecosystems for opportunities to strengthen existing products and identify emerging opportunities.
Bring together strategic planning, client insight and market intelligence to identify and define product opportunities.
Build the evidence base used to support, reshape, or stop potential product investments.
Work hand in hand with product heads to identify key gaps in market and client insights that could drive the development of, and improvements to, product value propositions and roadmaps.
Partner with strategic planning to translate strategic theses into product opportunities and provide market feedback to challenge and refine assumptions.
Partner with the innovation function to identify long-term themes that may impact multi-year product portfolio strategy.
Transition validated opportunities to Rapid Prototyping and Innovation and provide problem definitions to Product Design & CX.
Establish and own the research standard for the Product organization.
Partner with Product Operations to embed research practices across teams conducting ongoing insight and discovery work.
Build and lead the Product Market Research function while increasing the impact and influence of market-backed insight across the organization.