Chief Operating Officer / Chief Product Officer

General Overview

Are you ready to take on a pivotal role that will shape the future of our company? As the Chief Operating Officer / Chief Product Officer, you will play a critical role in making significant operational and strategic decisions for Space Inch, working side by side with our CEO and CTO.

In this leadership position, you’ll be at the forefront of our product direction and strategy on our clients’ most difficult problems.  You will drive new business opportunities by forging deeper, more meaningful relationships with key client contacts. 

You will elevate the quality of our work by overseeing account management, product consulting, and project management. You’ll ensure our teams deliver exceptional results on every project.

Our Mission, Vision, and Values

At Space Inch, we prioritize alignment between our team and our clients, a commitment that requires a thorough understanding of both our clients and our team's needs.

We also prioritize the delivery of exceptionally high-quality work in everything we do.

We place a strong emphasis on the personal and professional growth and development of our team members. As part of this commitment, every team member has access to an executive coach.

About Working at Space Inch

• Our team is primarily based in Croatia (~50 people), with a fully remote work environment.  We have team members in Brazil, Serbia, and the United States as well.
• Occasional travel may be required, including annual company retreats in Croatia.
• Projects often involve a hybrid of end-to-end development and staff augmentation.
• We strongly advocate for work/life balance among our team members.

Key Responsibilities

Project/Product Management

• Solve the big problems.  Clients often have big problems that require using a combination of strategic, operational, account management, and product management skills.  You will be the solver in chief of these critical issues.
• Help Decide the Tech Future.  Position the technology in support of the strategic roadmap.  Help decide what technologies we focus on and what we learn to be ready for the future.
• Explain How We Think.  Educate our product and technology teams on the analytical tools and strategic frameworks that we use with clients in order to create superior outcomes   
• Ensure Delivery.  Ensure the work we are doing is on time, on budget, within scope, and the lines of communication work in a way that people know what they're supposed to do and don't get confused
• Foresee Problems.  Recognize risk and problems before they arise and make sure we account for them
• Manage Discovery.  
• Our team asks the right questions and feed it back to clients so that we are all on the same page about business goals
• Our team writes specs with the correct details, but also show that we understand their market, their niche, their business problems, and our place in helping them
• Productize Client Ideas.  Our team must:
• Understand the competition
• Understand what is quality in the client’s industry and how we can exceed the industry standard 
• Understand who the end users are, what those users really want and need, what is compelling to them, and what is intuitive to them

People Management

• Manage the Project Managers 
• These people organize everything we need for success on a project
• Manage Designers and QA
• Monitor current UX performance
• Monitor and create best practices and standards for design
• Deploy and evolve the UX offering

Account Management

• Build Deep Client Relationships 
• Closing Deals 
• Assist with a large part of the discovery and solution creation process
• CEO will still handle the initial conversation, keep the key relationships, and own ultimate accountability
• Assist with closing deals once they are moving through the pipeline
• Direction / Narrative / Consensus / Strategy
• Create, advance and sometimes correct the narrative (roadmap) 
• Upsell more work where it is appropriate 
• Understand Client Needs.  Ensure that we understand the clients and that knowledge is diffused within our company

Typical Challenges You Will Be Solving

• Understand the client and their needs in order to build consensus and change 
• Correctly define the problem - do the right discovery to get the right context
• Understand the market and business problems and be able to communicate that back to the clients 
• Ensure our solution is correct and design is superior 
• Ensure that the work we do is on time, on budget and within scope 
• Ensure the lines of communication are working so people know what they need to do 
• Seek and address risk before risks materialize
• Help clients to make decisions 
• Ensure that C-suite presentations are highly effective 

How you will be spending the majority of your time 

Qualities That Are Important For Success In This Role

• Strong Interpersonal Skills: Gains energy from engaging in strategic, multi-faceted conversations with diverse stakeholders, including C-suite and Board members.
• Problem Solving & Ownership: Capable of using inductive reasoning to solve problems, taking ownership wherever challenges arise, and ensuring solutions are implemented effectively.
• Consensus Building & Leadership: Skilled in building consensus, driving commitment to decisions, and wrapping up meetings with clear action plans. Able to lead through influence, acting as a change agent and establishing a strong personal and company brand.
• Project & People Management: Able to manage and monitor multiple projects simultaneously, mentor and coach teams, and define tools and frameworks to drive success.
• Product & Design Thinking: Possesses strong product and design sensibilities, with an entrepreneurial mindset and a deep understanding of business problems, markets, and technology.
• Communication & Emotional Intelligence: Proficient in visual and written communication, with the ability to translate technology into design concepts. Strong listener, emotionally intelligent, and able to communicate effectively with engineers and executives alike.
• Risk Management & Strategic Thinking: Keen understanding of risk, strategic frameworks, and rubrics for solving complex problems. Capable of holding and simplifying complexity, and proposing bold solutions while managing ego.
• Calm Under Pressure & Curiosity: Remains calm under pressure, inquisitive, and avoids unnecessary errors through foresight and planning.
• Networker & Influencer: A natural networker, able to influence team members, clients, and C-suite members, and curious about solving industry problems with innovative solutions.

Where You’ve Likely Developed These Skills

You have likely honed these skills while working in a company where you:

• Worked closely with engineers.
• Created and managed various projects.
• Acted as a bridge between business and technical requirements.
• Carried out these responsibilities in either a formal or ad hoc capacity.
• Participated in the development of new products or services.
• Navigated projects that demanded the integration of 4-5 different perspectives across different organizational levels.
• Collaborated closely with fellow leaders, maintaining a shared sense of accountability.
• Thrived in an environment where you had to solve novel challenges and produce new solutions for problems you had never encountered.
• Bonus: You sometimes understood business needs before the C-Suite in some areas.

This Job Might Not Be For You If You

• Dislike rapid context switching and handling multiple action items.
• Constructive criticism tends to make you uncomfortable or defensive.
• You don't thrive in an environment that encourages healthy conflict as a means of improvement.
• You don't find satisfaction in the process of consensus building.
• You prefer roles with a pre-established and clearly defined roadmap.
• You're uncomfortable with getting deeply involved in the nitty-gritty aspects of the job.
• You have a strong need for direct control over all aspects of your work.
• You do not genuinely love working with clients with all their idiosyncrasies 
• You do not have the courage to propose solutions when stakeholders are disagreeing

 What’s In It For You

• Gain unique insights into the inner workings of diverse companies.
• Grow your skills for dealing with the C-Suite – negotiation, finance, forecasting 
• Deepen your product development skill set 
• Enjoy the freedom to directly impact the culture, product set, delivery systems 
• Work with a strong team of engineers and designers.
• Experience international project engagements.