Founding Product Manager (Principal/Director)

As a Founding Product Manager at Sift, you'll guide the vision and strategy for our product, focusing on user needs and aligning product development with the company's long-term goals. You'll collaborate closely with customers, engage with different teams like go-to-market and engineering, and ensure a streamlined product development lifecycle. Additionally, you'll conduct market research to inform product strategy, driving new revenue opportunities and validating product value through metrics.

To be successful as a Founding Product Manager at Sift, candidates should have over seven years of experience in product management, particularly with complex B2B SaaS products. Skills in product prioritization, customer empathy, and cross-functional collaboration are vital. Also, technical fluency in areas like data warehousing and orchestration is preferred, along with a growth mindset and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced startup environment.

The Founding Product Manager at Sift will work on groundbreaking projects involving hardware sensor data, impacting industries such as satellite constellations and autonomous transportation. Your role will require a deep understanding of customer challenges and the opportunity to design products that not only solve these challenges but also contribute to the mission of creating a better future through technology.

At Sift, the Founding Product Manager plays a key role in translating the company's long-term vision into actionable product strategies that align with business objectives. By guiding product development from ideation to launch and establishing strong customer relationships, you'll ensure that our solutions meet market needs while driving growth for the company.

Sift offers a dynamic work environment where collaboration and innovation are at the forefront. As a founding team member, you'll work closely with experienced engineers and experienced operators from notable companies like SpaceX and Google. Our team collaborates in person twice a week to foster a customer-centric culture that values close contact with hardware projects in the Los Angeles area.

When discussing your experience in product management within a startup, emphasize specific examples where you've navigated ambiguity and led projects from inception to completion. Highlight your adaptability and how you prioritize tasks to align with rapidly changing goals in a dynamic environment.

To effectively answer this question, explain your process for prioritizing features using established frameworks. Discuss how you gather feedback from customers and stakeholders, assess market trends, and align features with business objectives to create a balanced product roadmap.

Be prepared to share a specific example of a challenging product decision. Detail the problem, the options you considered, and the rationale behind your decision. Explain the impact it had on the overall product and how you measured its success.

Discuss the importance of customer engagement throughout the product development lifecycle. Highlight methods such as user interviews, surveys, and feedback loops to validate product decisions. Mention how you translate customer insights into actionable product features.

In your response, mention specific tools (like JIRA, Trello, or Airflow) and frameworks (such as Agile or Scrum) that you utilize for effective product management. Share your experiences with these tools, emphasizing how they have enhanced your workflow and collaboration across teams.

When answering, focus on the importance of clear communication and mutual respect between product and engineering teams. Provide examples of how you build relationships, facilitate discussions on technical trade-offs, and ensure alignment on project priorities and timelines.

Explain your strategy for maintaining a balance between immediate deliverables and long-term objectives. Discuss the importance of setting milestones and review sessions, ensuring your team stays aligned with both short-term tactics and overarching company goals.

Detail your experience in analyzing competitors, stressing the methods you use to gather insights about their products, pricing, and market position. Explain how this information has influenced your own product strategies and competitive positioning.

Provide an example where data analytics played a pivotal role in your product decision-making process. Discuss the types of data you analyzed, the insights you gained, and the resulting product initiatives, showcasing how you utilize metrics to drive informed decisions.

Share your passion for product management and emerging technologies. Discuss the role that product managers will play in shaping user experiences and driving innovation, highlighting your eagerness to contribute to this evolution as part of Sift's founding team.