Job Description
This is a remote position. The role: Product Developer
You will be primarily responsible for developing and validating product ideas in the neurodivergent kids’ space, together with the Senior Brand Manager and the occupational therapist advisor, and manage the whole end-to-end process. Once the ideas are validated, you’ll source suitable suppliers and validate the samples by collecting occupational therapist’s or target users’ feedback. Before going to mass production, you’ll take the lead working with cross-functional teams to ensure product package, MOQ, production lead time, product compliance and quality are done and confirmed. To maximize launch output, you will also work closely with the marketing team to ensure the USP and user benefit communications are well delivered to our target audience.
Responsibilities
You will be involved in the entire product development process, working across multiple functions to transform the initial concept into a viable commercial product.
Collaborate with Brand Managers and the occupational therapist to evaluate the product development needs for the brands based on brand strategy and guideline and discuss potential product ideas to build a pipeline of new products.
Conduct market research to identify and evaluate new product ideas with customer-centric approaches to validate the ideas.
Collaborate closely with occupational therapists to translate sensory goals into physical product parameters.
Develop product objectives and specifications with consideration for efficacy, user experience, feasibility and cost after idea validation.
Create and maintain factory-ready tech packs (spec sheets, drawings, materials, tolerances, testing standards, packaging specs) and ensure suppliers execute exactly to specification through sampling and production.
Research, identify, and evaluate suppliers, communicate requirements such as specifications, costs, MOQ, lead time, order and evaluate samples with target users or the occupational therapist’s feedback, and select the ideal supplier for each project. Frequent travels to visit suppliers to share strategy, build long-term partnerships, and explore new product ideas are required.
Coordinate with other team members or external resources if needed, such as compliance and quality assurance to communicate requirements to suppliers regarding compliance, quality, specification standards to make sure final sample design and quality is as expected.
Work with marketing team or external agencies to ensure marketing related deliverables are done according to timeline and brand guideline, as well as operation team to ensure order placement, correct costs and MOQ. This also includes but not limited to the co-op with the occupational therapist to ensure seamless user experience from the package and instruction manuals
Manage the work plan for projects, coordinate and communicate with stakeholders to ensure projects are on track, completed and launched on time.
Review performance of product launches based on pre-defined success metrics, follow up on improvements and share learnings for future product development.
Requirements 4-6+ years experience in a product development role, with full end-to-end approach from ideation generation, validation, to sourcing, sample validation, quality inspection and mass production.
At least 1-2 years experience in project management
Preferably experienced in sensory toy or mum & baby care products.
Highly organised and attention to details, as you will be managing multiple projects at once with concomitant timeline & deadlines
Self-directed /pro-active & motivated to be able to make decisions and push projects forward each day, without always having clear directives from supervisors.
Good understanding of the Western consumer, as we sell mainly in US & Europe, and you will need to make product decisions accordingly.
Great communication skills and ability to work with various project stakeholders.
Experience dealing with suppliers in and out of China or other Asian-based supplier such as Vietnam.
