Product Strategist - Innovation

Northwestern Mutual • New York, NY

1d • $136,800 - $205,200 • Hybrid

About The Position

Variable is an innovation team within a Fortune 100 company. Our mission is to experiment with new technologies and ideas to understand the future. We are committed to encouraging a diverse, equitable, and inclusive environment where innovation thrives. We drive impact at scale. The Innovation Strategist is an entrepreneurial who leads work at the intersection of strategy and execution. Build the tools and experiences that empower our company, advisors, and help our clients thrive. Work with a talented team of engineers, designers, data scientists and financial experts to define product vision, strategy and deliver experiences to enable clients to achieve financial security.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree
• 5+ Years of prior experience with at least 4 working in a Product Management Role or innovation consulting, with agile team experience
• Knowledge Preferred: formal business analyst, engineering or testing experience, knowledge of the financial services industry, comfortable working in ambiguity, pressure-testing assumptions, and validating the right solution before committing to build
• Strong executive communication and storytelling skills, with experience developing materials for and presenting to senior leadership
• Working knowledge of AI and its practical enterprise applications, with an understanding of how capabilities are evolving and where the technology is heading
• Must have demonstrated cross functional work in previous experience along with strong communication skills, time management, project management skills, business acumen and high self-awareness/EQ
• Demonstrated previous research experience, influence skills, initial leadership exposure, ability to translate product requirements into technical requirements, and work in ambiguity and solutioning
• Solves complex problems; take a new perspective on existing solutions; exercise judgment based on the analysis of multiple sources of information
• Cross Functional Partnering & Planning - Facilitates collaboration, communication, coordination, and planning with individuals and teams from different functions within the organization, and who have different areas of expertise, to achieve common goals
• Strategic Thinking - Uses critical thinking and knowledge of business demand to plan, design, prioritize and execute high impact initiatives and programs
• Attention to Detail - Focuses on specific details to spot and correct errors in advance of them being found and surpass quality expectations. Performs work with thorough proofreading for presentation, content, accuracy, and overall quality
• Adaptive Communication - Formulates strategies to be used to convey complex information about services, products, systems, or processes to targeted audiences; communicates and liaises between technical and non-technical audiences
• Analytical Thinking - Organizes and compares various aspects of a situation to comprehend and identify key or underlying complex issues through the use of quantitative data and analysis; leverages strong business acumen, problem solving, and interpersonal skills to think critically about situations from multiple perspectives and consistently seeks ways to improve processes
• Customer Centricity - Applies a customer first mindset to design and continuously improve solutions, systems, processes, and services that support enterprise strategy, impact critical business outcomes, and drive organizational success

Responsibilities

• Set Product Vision: Collaboratively define and communicate a clear vision for innovation experiments and new solutions, grounded in business strategy, customer insight, and emerging technology opportunity
• Develop Roadmap: Lead the development and socialization of a program roadmap that reflects stakeholder priorities, strategic bets, and a realistic path to value
• Define and Track KPIs: Establish measures of success for innovation experiments and use outcome data to validate strategic direction and inform go or no-go decisions
• Validate the Right Solution: Drive the discovery and definition phase of innovation programs, using research, stakeholder input, and experimentation to validate that proposed solutions address the right problems before committing to build
• Gather and Synthesize Requirements: Lead cross-functional work to identify, pressure-test, and prioritize requirements, translating ambiguous opportunity spaces into well-scoped program definitions
• Stakeholdering: Build and manage relationships with executive partners, business leaders, and technology stakeholders, proactively bringing strategic recommendations and leading conversations that shape program direction
• Executive Communication: Develop and deliver executive-ready briefings, narratives, and decision-support materials that make complex innovation work accessible and actionable for senior audiences
• User Insights: Anchor program decisions in qualitative and quantitative research, customer insight, and experimentation results, and synthesize findings into a clear strategic point of view and working with design partners to ensure concepts are grounded in this insight.
• Facilitate Ceremonies: Facilitate daily scrums, sprint planning sessions, sprint reviews, and retrospectives, continuously improving how the team operates
• Emerging Technology: Evaluate AI and other emerging technologies for strategic fit and enterprise applicability, leveraging a working knowledge of how these capabilities are evolving

Benefits

• We believe in fairness and transparency. It’s why we share the salary range for most of our roles. However, final salaries are based on a number of factors, including the skills and experience of the candidate; the current market; location of the candidate; and other factors uncovered in the hiring process. The standard pay structure is listed but if you’re living in California, New York City or other eligible location, geographic specific pay structures, compensation and benefits could be applicable, click here to learn more.
• Grow your career with a best-in-class company that puts our clients' interests at the center of all we do.
• Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.
• At Northwestern Mutual, we believe relationships are built on trust. That our lives and our work matter. These beliefs launched our company over 160 years ago. Today, they're just a few of the reasons why people choose to build careers at Northwestern Mutual.
• What started in Milwaukee, WI has grown into 7,000+ home office professionals split across 3 campuses: New York City, Franklin and downtown Milwaukee (HQ) - each one bringing with it its own unique talent and culture.
• In a company with such a long and storied history, this may be the most exciting and important time to be a part of Northwestern Mutual as we are growing our digital and tech capabilities and are always on the lookout for bright, tech-savvy candidates.
• Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contribute creative ideas, seek challenges, assume leadership and continue to focus on meeting and exceeding business and personal objectives.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level