Head of Product

Living Goods is an organization that leverages digital technology to support community health workers, aiming to improve health outcomes in underserved communities.

The Head of Product at Living Goods is responsible for owning the product strategy and roadmap for all digital products, reporting to the Chief Technology and Product Officer. This role is crucial for establishing product management as a core discipline within the organization and for effectively applying AI in technology products. The Head of Product will also collaborate closely with the Innovations Team to identify opportunities, co-develop solutions, and align innovation initiatives with the overall product strategy. The position requires a hands-on approach, including direct involvement in product work, field visits with community health workers, and evidence-based decision-making. The role line manages the Product team, directs the applied AI capability, and is accountable for product management practice, discovery, evidence, and product analytics, while ensuring alignment with the technology direction set by the Chief Technology and Product Officer.

1. Define and own the product strategy, aligning it with program and innovation goals, including the role of AI.
2. Manage a unified roadmap across all software build lines, incorporating AI features and prioritizing their sequence.
3. Establish and monitor objectives and key results for the product function and individual products.
4. Lead discovery efforts with community health workers, supervisors, program staff, and government partners, using evidence to inform decisions, including recommendations to discontinue projects.
5. Design solutions that account for real-world constraints like intermittent connectivity, low-end devices, variable literacy, and sustainable recurring costs for government ministries.
6. Lead the transformation towards an AI-native engineering organization, setting the strategy and roadmap for AI maturity.
7. Maintain a hands-on approach, pairing with engineers and setting standards for AI-assisted development.
8. Transform functions like QA and product design into "factory" capabilities, building agents and systems for scalable testing and design.
9. Guide engineers through fundamental shifts in their work, addressing concerns and fostering enthusiasm for the transition.
10. Deliver on program and product commitments with a lean, high-leverage team, maintaining quality with agentic toolchains.
11. Define and promote best practices for product management within Living Goods, emphasizing problem statements, outcome measures, written decisions, and honest post-release reviews.
12. Establish the operational rhythm for the product function, covering intake, refinement, release planning, and outcome review.
13. Shift the organizational focus from "what to build" to "what problem are we solving and how will we know it worked."
14. Promote experimentation and hypothesis-based learning, designing cost-effective tests and valuing disproved hypotheses as positive outcomes.
15. Advocate for product management across various teams and create a safe environment for stopping initiatives based on evidence.
16. Line manage, coach, and develop the product management team, providing clear expectations and specific feedback.
17. Create a structured development path for the team, covering user research, written communication, stakeholder management, and commercial judgment.
18. Support colleagues transitioning into product roles with proper onboarding and transition plans.
19. Recruit consistently against clear standards and build succession plans to ensure functional independence.
20. Provide accurate technical content for donor proposals and reports.

1. At least 10 years of experience in product management, including 3+ years leading, coaching, and developing product managers.
2. Proven experience establishing a product management function where none existed, including successfully advocating for its adoption.
3. Experience shipping AI features into production, demonstrating expertise in evaluation, quality control, and human oversight beyond proof-of-concept work.
4. Strong judgment in selecting models and providers based on capability, latency, offline behavior, data residency, cost, and exit options.
5. Ownership of multiple products at various lifecycle stages, with evidence of data-driven decisions to stop or change direction.
6. Strong discovery practice with users in settings characterized by low connectivity, low literacy, or resource constraints.
7. Excellent written communication skills, essential for effectively advocating for product management to skeptical audiences.
8. (Desirable) Experience in digital health, community health systems, or international development.
9. (Desirable) Experience building for or transitioning to government systems.
10. (Desirable) Experience with open-source health platforms such as CHT, OpenSRP, or CommCare.