Location: 

We’re based in the heart of Woolwich, which is a great place to both live and work. Woolwich benefits from excellent transport links; buses, tubes, trains (just 21 minutes from central London and 10 minutes from The O2) and ferries, and soon to be Crossrail expansion. During the current COVID-19 response you will be working mainly at home; when the pandemic has abated, you’ll have a mixture of home and office-based working.  

Who are we looking for?   

Our new Digital and Customer Service team is expanding and we are on the lookout for an impact-driven, kind and curious person who has already started their career in product management and project leadership. You will be one of five other Product Managers.  

It’s an exciting time to join our team, as we’ve recently published our first ever digital strategy and want you to be a part of making our strategy a reality. You will help us on our mission to make the Royal Borough of Greenwich a truly digital council and borough over the next four years and beyond.   

As a Product Manager, you’ll be welcomed into a thriving, exciting in-house product team, alongside other user researchers, service designers, content designers, product designers and business analysts.

It’s essential you’re open-minded, great at working in a team, have experience of product management, or worked in an adjacent discipline (such as service design, user research, interaction design or business analysis) where you contributed heavily to a product or service’s direction and strategy.

Most importantly, you’ll want to bring your experience to our amazing mission and are up for the challenge of making public service and government better. We are a new team, so there’s plenty of scope for having your say!  

What your role will involve:  

You’ll be part of our brand-new in-house product function as part of the Digital and Customer service team. You’ll report to the Lead/ Senior Product Manager.   

As a Product Manager, you’ll lead multidisciplinary teams to deliver early value and take new resident and staff services from discovery to live, as well as iterating existing ones.   

You’ll be working in close partnership with our existing teams in the council, who want to improve their services. You’ll be a great active listener, understanding their problems and balancing between user need, business need and technical constraints, to build products and services the whole council can be proud of.

You’ll be the voice of the user – whether it’s residents or staff - inside your team and with the stakeholders you work with, using data and research to guide your decisions and making sure everything you build meets user needs. You’ll lead all stages of the product lifecycle, from first vision and strategy to road mapping and then into delivery. We are looking for people who are curious about technology, but who don’t see building something ‘shiny and new’ as an end in itself. Rather, you will care deeply about the problems that face our residents and staff, and leverage technology and product design to improve outcomes for them.

You’ll join one of our skilled, multidisciplinary product teams. The teams are empowered, with the autonomy to take decisions at as close a level to our users as possible. We’re looking for people who care not only about iterating and improving our services; you should also be passionate about experimentation and continuous improvement to your team’s working practices, and those of the wider directorate.

What your day-to-day responsibilities will look like  

• Lead multidisciplinary product teams to discover, prototype, build and run digital products and services to meet user need. Create a product vision in collaboration with other teams and users; define the product strategy and tet it, adapting the direction based on what you learn. build and execute a backlog; iterate services based on data; run services economically with the user in mind; ensure services are accessible, inclusive and simple to use.
• Engage with teams across the organisation to understand priorities, align plans, and communicate with senior stakeholders. Work with non-technical stakeholders to translate their domain expertise into actionable product goals and deliverables.
• Measure value and use qualitative and quantitative data to inform decisions, focusing on outcomes, not solutions. Translate the vision into prioritised, deliverable goals. Take considered, data-driven decisions and have the humility to learn from mistakes. Run experiments. Monitoring product performance and user outcomes to iterate and improve on features.
• Use a range of product principles, techniques, and approaches. Discover, define, and validate problems presented by user insight, stakeholder priorities, organisational strategy, and technical needs. Coordinate across complex dependencies (for example with other channels, products, and services) to deliver features that improve the overall user experience.
• Identify users and what their needs are, based on evidence. Translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. Engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. Act as an advocate for users, when engaging colleagues across the organisation.
• Use agile methodologies and apply an agile mindset to all aspects of your work. Create a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative method and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery. Help the product team to iteratively improve their ways of working overtime.
• Demonstrate an understanding of technology and data, including the range of available technology choices. Make informed decisions based on evidenced user need and value for money. Have awareness of the wider digital economy and advances in technology.
• Understand the different phases of product delivery and contribute to, place or run these. Maintain a product or process through the delivery phases, into live, and then into retirement. Shape and lead a team through the different phases of the product delivery lifecycle, creating the conditions for their success.
• Work closely with other operational delivery teams such as information governance, procurement and commercial, projects and planning, finance, learning, and operations. Understand incident management and service support so that products are built effectively. Overcome operational constraints to deliver a successful product or service.
• Ensure the products you create are secure by design, applying controls that are proportionate to the risks, whilst maintaining usability. Undertake all duties with due regard to the provisions of health and safety regulations and legislation, Data Protection/GDPR, the Council’s Equal Opportunities and Customer Care policies.
• Carry out all duties with due regard to the provisions of health and safety regulations and legislation, Data protection legislation, the Council’s equal opportunities and customer care policies, and any local agreements.
• Perform all duties in line with Council’s staff values showing commitment to improving residents’ lives and opportunities, demonstrating respect and fairness, taking ownership, working towards doing things better and working together across the council.

Why join Royal Greenwich:  

Royal Greenwich is proud to be a borough synonymous with first class modern services. A world class heritage site, our communities are vibrant and diverse, and we pride ourselves on being a well-managed, well-run authority.   

We are going through a digital transition and are on the hunt to recruit like-minded team members to be a part of the challenge. We pride ourselves on our values, so you’ll be in an environment that promotes knowledge and skill sharing, so you’ll be working closely with other areas of the business.   

Our vision is for a happier, healthier and more joined-up borough using modern technology and data. This was already an urgent need, but the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated both the urgency and the will to change.     

Our Royal Greenwich values underpin the work we do:   

• Improving residents lives and opportunities  
• Demonstrating respect and fairness  
• Taking ownership  
• Doing things better  
• Working together across the Council.    

We offer great benefits:  

In return for your hard work, we offer a range of benefits:   

• Annual Season Ticket Loan  
• Childcare Voucher Scheme  
• Learning and development opportunities to maximise your potential, including excellent apprenticeship opportunities at all levels   
• Reduced rate Gym Membership  
• Eyecare Vouchers  
• Cycle to Work scheme  
• Long Service Awards  
• Generous Annual Leave entitlement and  
• Excellent Pension Scheme  
• Greenwich Card which entitles you to discounts at local businesses  
• Employee Assistance Scheme including external counselling service  
• A range of flexible working arrangements    
• Staff networks    

Making an application  

If this sounds like it would suit you, or our mission is something you’d love to be a part of then get in touch!   

To apply, please follow the “Apply for this job” link OR visit www.royalgreenwich.gov.uk and apply online.

Royal Borough of Greenwich values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this. We want to hire the best people, regardless of their background. We encourage applications from all sections of the community.  

What the hiring process will look like for you  

Step 1 – Application: Complete the application form and we aim to get back to you within 1 week post the application closing date.  

Step 2 – Invitation for interview: If you’re among the top-scoring applicants, you’ll be invited to a panel interview and prepare a 10 mins case study of a challenge you’re proud of and how this shows your skill for this role.    

Step 3 – Panel Interview: This will usually be a 60-minute video call with the hiring manager and other team members you would work with closely in the role. There will be two parts to it. The first 20 minutes will focus on the technical capabilities needed for this role through the case study you prepared. This will be followed by behaviour-based questions that address the essential criteria in the job specification. We will be asking questions like “ Tell us a situation when …”  

If you are interested in applying for any of these roles, we would love to hear from you. 

To apply, please click the Apply button below and complete an application form - you will be prompted to upload a CV and covering letter.  Please ensure that these clearly show how you meet the criteria set out in the Person Specification document.

If shortlisted, the selection process will require you to further detail and demonstrate how you meet the key requirements for this role listed in the person specification.  

For an informal discussion about this opportunity, please contact Lingjing Yin;    Lingjing.Yin@royalgreenwich.gov.uk     .  

If you require any assistance in viewing or accessing this opportunity, please contact recruitment@royalgreenwich.gov.uk or call 020-8921-8977

Diversity Statement: Royal Borough of Greenwich values the diversity of its community and aims to have a workforce that reflects this. We therefore encourage applications from all sections of the community.

Advert Close: All vacancies close at midnight unless otherwise stated

Interview Arrangements: During this time, our priority for all of our recruitment activity is to make sure our applicants, hiring departments and new starters are informed, safe and supported. Careful and thorough consideration will be given to interview arrangements and for any essential in-person recruitment, we will ensure this is held in a suitable, secure setting with additional arrangements to ensure any current safety requirements are fully adhered to.

Salary: Salaries advertised are for a standard working week of 35 hours unless otherwise stated. Please use this 'Salary Calculator to help you calculate a pro rata salary.