Product Manager

At Exelab, we don't sell off-the-shelf products – we build custom, innovative solutions that directly target our clients' unique business objectives. Each client engagement is treated as a mini product development cycle: we start from a specific business problem and craft a tailor-made solution to deliver measurable business impact. The Product Manager will be the linchpin of this process, spanning multiple products/solutions over the year, each developed for different clients. This requires rapid learning, adaptability, and a consistent methodology to deliver results across varied domains.

• Product Strategy & Vision: Work closely with business analysts and clients to understand business challenges and market context. Define a clear product vision and value proposition for each solution, ensuring direct ties to improving the client's KPIs (revenue growth, efficiency gains, conversion rates, retention).
• Roadmap Planning & Prioritization: Translate product vision into concrete roadmap and feature backlog. Prioritize features that maximize business impact while meeting end-user needs, balancing quick wins with long-term capabilities.
• User Experience Ownership: Take full responsibility for UX design of each solution. Maintain final decision authority on all UX choices, ensuring solutions are both functionally robust and intuitive. This extends beyond interface design to encompass the entire user journey and adoption strategy.
• Cross-Functional Leadership: Lead cross-disciplinary teams through design, development, and deployment. During development, work in complete synchronization with developers, maintaining continuous communication throughout the workday. This involves brainstorming in natural language about functional requirements and technical possibilities, leveraging modern AI-assisted development approaches for rapid iteration.
• Product Development & Launch: Oversee the solution's development lifecycle end-to-end, ensuring delivery on time, within scope, and meeting quality standards. Coordinate testing and collaborate with Tech Lead and Project Manager on go-live strategy.
• Metrics Tracking & Iteration: Define KPIs and success metrics upfront. Once launched, continuously measure against targets. Conduct qualitative observation of solution usage in client environments, watching how users interact in their real work context. This dual approach drives ongoing improvements.
• Client Engagement & Adoption: Act as a bridge to the client's organization throughout the project lifecycle. Engage directly with clients to observe solution usage and ensure adoption, including sitting with end-users to understand workflows. Success is measured in actual business impact achieved.

Our ideal candidate is an experienced product leader who seamlessly blends business acumen with product implementation expertise. We're looking for someone who has not only managed products but also built things hands-on.

• Business and Product Management Expertise: Strong foundation in business operations, particularly in areas impacting the customer lifecycle. Experience in commercial roles, marketing, CRM implementation, or as a product implementer/entrepreneur is highly valued. Proven track record of understanding and improving business KPIs. Must quickly grasp client industries and business models. Experience setting and tracking product metrics and making data-driven decisions is critical.
• Hands-On Implementation Experience: We highly value practical experience in building and launching products. This could mean working as a product implementer, leading digital transformation projects, or being an entrepreneur. We're looking for someone who has "been in the trenches" and can point to specific products they've personally driven to market with accountability for business results.
• Learning Agility and Technical Comprehension: While not requiring deep technical background, must demonstrate exceptional ability to quickly understand technical concepts and their business implications. Should be comfortable engaging in natural language discussions about technology choices, understanding enough to guide development without coding. Familiarity with AI capabilities helpful, though curiosity and learning speed matter more.
• Leadership and Communication: Because this role involves constant coordination between clients, developers, and partners, superb communication skills are essential. Must communicate complex ideas simply for clients and explain business requirements clearly to technical teams. Ability to maintain productive relationships with developers during intensive collaboration periods. Italian language proficiency mandatory, with at least B2-level English.
• Results-Oriented Mindset: Bias toward action and measurable outcomes rather than process and documentation. Comfortable with rapid iteration and adapting quickly based on feedback. Success measured in business impact achieved, not features delivered. Experience in fast-paced environments where results matter more than prescribed methodologies.
• Education and Domain Experience: No strict degree requirement, though typically we anticipate candidates with education in business, economics, or related fields. Practical experience and demonstrated results outweigh formal education.

Ideal profile summary: "5+ years in product management or business solution implementation; proven track record of launching products with measurable business impact; strong business acumen with ability to understand technical possibilities; excellent communicator who can work intensively with technical teams; passion for solving real business problems through innovative solutions."