Technical Product Manager

Overview

Written Word Media is seeking a full-time Product Manager to manage our existing set of products for Authors. This role is ideal for someone who cares deeply about the details and loves shipping high-impact product updates. We don’t expect you to write code, but this is a technical position.

As a product manager, you’ll be the engine that keeps our product management projects running smoothly and our team humming. Reporting to the COO, you’ll coordinate technical initiatives across engineering, operations, marketing, and customer support teams. You’ll write product requirements, remove blockers for team members, and keep our Jira sprints on track, all while ensuring that our custom systems and our Word Press sites are always running smoothly.

Experience is important, but we prioritize courage, communication, intelligence, and attention to detail. At Written Word Media, we champion all authors, with a focus on independent writers who succeed without traditional publishers. Our customers are the rebel alliance of the publishing industry, and we are inviting you to join the rebellion.

• Ship Products
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  Drive execution by working with engineering, QA, and design to ship products on time, and measure product effectiveness. Run daily standups, manage workflow, and collaborate with the team.
• Communicate Clearly
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  Communicate the company's priorities crisply and candidly. Uncover issues, remove roadblocks, and speak up when a priority has changed, a project is blocked, or there is a personnel issue.
• Manage Sprints
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  Run our bi-weekly Jira sprint process: facilitate planning, standups, and retrospectives. Track progress, surface blockers, and keep everyone accountable for deliverables. We prioritize effectiveness over dogmatic adherence to Agile.
• Collaborate across teams
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  Partner with operations, engineering, marketing, and customer support to define project requirements and priorities. Translate operational issues into precise, actionable requirements for the engineering team.
• Triage Bugs
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  Troubleshoot and resolve customer-reported issues and internal team issues. Coordinate with internal teams to resolve customer-facing problems.
• Word Press Management
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  Update content, manage plugins, and troubleshoot fundamental site issues. Support Marketing as they iterate on landing pages and other marketing initiatives.

• Care Deeply about Authors
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• You love that creative people write books, and you want to support them. You care about doing a good job for our customers, are committed to helping them succeed, and stay deeply engaged in the details to help us honor that commitment.
• Be Courageous
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• Whether the issue is technical, operational, or interpersonal, you have the courage and confidence to voice it and have the important conversations that need to be had. You’d rather have it all out in the open so the team can move forward.
• Be Vigorously Engaged
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• You are dialed in. You come prepared with questions, context, and thoughtful opinions. When someone asks a question, you’re ready. You know those jobs where you are half-listening to a meeting, and half doing something else? This is not one of those.
• Deeply technical
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• You understand how systems fit together and are curious about how they work. Knowledge of SQL, Word Press, Node.js, or HTML/CSS is not required, but having some of these is a strong plus. You have 4-5 years of experience in a related digital field (D2C or publishing experience is helpful but not required).
• Handle multiple projects simultaneously
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• You will be part of a small team that delivers a lot. You will demonstrate strong project management skills, capable of handling multiple projects simultaneously and ensuring timely delivery. Sometimes you will lead, sometimes you will follow, and you need to be comfortable with both. You will be disciplined in prioritizing the most critical work.
• Commit to continuous improvement
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• “How can we get better?” “How can we do this faster next time?” “How do we prevent mistakes the next time?” “Can we be more prepared?” “Can we prioritize better?” These questions energize you, they don’t tire you out.

• You are an…