Product Manager, Production Intelligence

Summary

Join Formic, a fast-growing company revolutionizing American manufacturing, as a Product Manager - Product Innovation. You will be responsible for identifying, developing, and launching new products and services. This involves extensive customer interaction, data analysis, prototyping, and roadmap development. You will collaborate with various teams to ensure successful product delivery and market fit. The role is highly impactful, shaping Formic's strategic product portfolio and enhancing customer experience. This position requires experience in user feedback collection, technical trials, project management, and agile environments. Formic offers comprehensive benefits, including equity, health insurance, paid parental leave, and a flexible time-off policy.

Requirements

• Have previous experience engaging with and collecting feedback from end users and operators of hardware and/or software products
• Be willing to conduct in-the-field technical trials that are moderately technical
• Have the ability to organize, track, and manage deliverables across multiple concurrent projects
• Have experience with Software Development lifecycle, Scrum process, and project management tools such as Jira
• Have exceptional communication and collaboration skills
• Have motivation and enthusiasm to join a growing, high-impact startup team
• Be able to travel up to 30%
• Have a current, valid driver’s license and access to a car (to support travel to customer sites. Formic covers or reimburses travel expenses in accordance with its travel policy.)
• Be currently located in, or willing to relocate to, the greater Chicago, IL area and able to work at least 3 days/week in our Woodridge, IL facility

Responsibilities

• Assess, trial, validate and productize solutions not yet part of Formic’s existing vertical and product offerings
• Interface with customers to gather feedback and assess unmet customer needs
• Collect, aggregate, and analyze data from across Formic’s customers and internal teams
• Develop context and a vision for products and services Formic can credibly offer to existing and new customers
• Define that vision in the form of requirements, desired outcomes, and a prototyping and test plan that you will execute in a hands-on manner to validate the viability of the proposed solution(s)
• Develop and manage a product roadmap conceived of and built from scratch for Formic’s Product & Software organizations to execute on, as well as execution guidelines for Formic’s deployment and maintenance resources to support on real-world delivery
• Be accountable for the evaluation, development, and delivery of new products and services that expand Formic’s breadth of offering and reach within existing and new customer accounts
• Take the lead in honing the vision and development methodology for the product innovation initiative and evolve that approach into a successful, scalable, and rapid area of the Product organization
• Interface directly with Formic customers, ranging from C-suite executives to floor level operators, to establish context and an understanding of their operations and their business needs
• Derive insights from customer feedback and customer assessments
• Establish a vision for new products Formic can offer and the specific unmet customer needs those products address
• Prototype, test, and validate proposed solutions and products
• Define the product roadmap for new products
• Define, validate, and communicate requirements derived from customer feedback, collaboration with Formic’s Marketing, Sales, Product & Solutions, Deployment, and Production Optimization teams, and your own career experience
• Conduct studies, interviews, and focus groups to hear the voice of the customers on all levels: Operators, Engineers, Managers, Executives
• Collaborate closely with the Software and Product teams to ensure delivery of product roadmap initiatives and milestones
• Demo & introduce platform prototypes and deliverables to key customers for feedback and live testing & validation
• Continuously capture & track customer feedback on the platform and potential enhancements
• Continue to evolve product roadmaps to address newly discovered or previously unattainable unmet customer needs

Preferred Qualifications

• Have experience working in a startup or similar agile environment
• Have experience supporting technology adoption in a production or manufacturing environment

Benefits

• Equity in Formic
• 99% coverage on base Medical, Dental, and Vision insurance plans (75% coverage for dependents) via Blue Cross Blue Shield and Guardian, with buy-up options
• FSA & DCFSA
• Life insurance, Short-Term Disability, and Long-term Disability plans (covered at 100%) via Guardian
• Employee Assistance Program
• Paid parental leave
• Company-sponsored 401k
• Home Office Stipend for remote and hybrid roles
• Monthly Phone/Internet Reimbursement
• Flexible time off policy and 10+ company holidays
• Opportunity to join a talented and diverse team united behind our mission to revolutionize American manufacturing