Director of Product Innovation
Southwestern CompaniesABOUT US:
For over 150 years, Southwestern Advantage has existed to help young people develop the skills and character they need to achieve their goals in life. The company offers a sales & leadership program that gives university students a way to afford their degrees, gain entrepreneurial skills, and experience personal growth. Each summer, a sales force of over 1,500 independent student reps market educational resources to families across the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The Southwestern Advantage Internship is the official internship of the Southwestern Family of Companies.
JOB SUMMARY:
The Director of Product Innovation is accountable to help guide the future of the Southwestern Advantage product portfolio. This position identifies opportunities and strategies to serve families through innovative and relevant product offerings through thoughtful client and market research. The Director of Product Innovation connects field insight to portfolio solutions and offers the executive team data-based guidance on design, sourcing, new product launches, systemization, and services that include AI and digital-based solutions beyond the traditional and historical print catalog offerings. This position reports to the Vice President of Communications & Government Relations for Southwestern Advantage and works in close partnership with the executive team leadership to provide excellent customer service to team members, sales leadership, student representatives, and customers while demonstrating the company values and supporting the mission.
JOB DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
- Own a continuous research program with families: in-home observation, post-purchase interviews, structured surveys, and critically research with prospects who declined to buy
- Maintain a documented set of assumptions about what families want, and design cheap tests to disprove them before significant capital is committed
- Personally spend time in the field during selling season. Ride-alongs and in-home observation are a requirement of this position
- Build and own an independent channel for dealer and sales-organization feedback
- Provide thorough, proven analytics for informed decisions and vision setting including close rates by product, refund reasons, product-level objection tracking, and post-season dealer confidence surveys
- Lead concept through launch for new offerings, including digital, subscription, AI-enabled, and service-based products outside our historical print catalog
- Design products against the constraints of our channel: a product must be understandable to a parent in a single in-home presentation, and valuable enough that the family still uses it six months later.
- Define pricing, packaging, and bundle architecture in partnership with Sales, Marketing, and Finance
- Champion and oversee product requirements, learning design standards, brand guidelines, and launch readiness criteria
- Identify, evaluate, and negotiate content licensing, technology licensing, white-label, and reseller relationships with publishers, platforms, and technology providers
- Structure agreements that protect the channel — including field exclusivity, pricing latitude, customer data ownership, AI and derivative-works rights, and wind-down provisions that guarantee delivery to families who have already paid
- Make and defend build-versus-license-versus-partner decisions with clear reasoning about cost, speed, and defensibility
- Maintain a validated three-to-five-year roadmap, for the full portfolio and detail product diagnose-design-launch-evaluate timeline within the roadmap, that states its assumptions rather than assuming its conclusions
- Lead an annual portfolio review with key stakeholders, to the President and product and organization leaders, including formal recommendations to sunset, restructure, or reprice underperforming offerings
- Own the new product development budget and report on return against it
- Ensure all products and product claims comply with applicable requirements, including student data privacy (COPPA, FERPA and applicable state law), accessibility standards, and truth-in-advertising substantiation for any educational efficacy claim
- Adherence to data and factual product representations regarding claims of learning outcomes. Popular but unsupported educational frameworks will not be used as the basis for product design or marketing copy
- Collaborate via regular monthly meetings with all departments including marketing, finance, product, IT, operations, sales and administration
- Partner with the Director of Product Quality and Enhancement on handoff of validated new products into ongoing catalog stewardship
- Perform other duties as assigned
REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:
- Bachelor’s degree in business, Product Management, Marketing, Education, Learning Sciences, or a related field
- 5 years of experience in product management, product development, innovation, commercialization, education products, consumer products, or related business leadership role
- Advanced computer skills and ability to effectively operate computer equipment, software systems, and databases
- Proven success bringing new products, services, or solutions from concept to market
- Expertise in customer discovery and market validation
- Strong business and commercial acumen
- Understanding of learning methodologies and educational product development
- Experience developing and managing strategic partnerships, including negotiating vendor, licensing, distribution, or platform agreements and assessing associated business risks and opportunities.
- Demonstrated success leading cross-functional initiatives in complex, matrixed organizations, influencing stakeholders, building alignment, and driving results without direct authority.
- Strong strategic thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills, with the ability to evaluate opportunities, manage competing priorities, and execute against long-term business objectives.
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to effectively influence executives, partners, and cross-functional teams
- Ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously while accomplishing daily tasks
- Attention to detail and critical thinker with exceptional problem-solving skills
- High standards for integrity, honesty, professionalism, and work ethic
- Commitment to service excellence
- Ability to work independently while demonstrating excellent organization and follow through
- Demonstrate flexible and efficient time management and ability to prioritize workload
- Ability and willingness to move with purpose and a strong sense of urgency
- Self-motivated, positive, and enthusiastic
- Self-starter with a strong desire to exceed expectations and capable of supporting a team
- Maintain confidentiality discretion
- Ability to effectively work in collaboration with others to achieve business objectives
- Willing to grow and be challenged
- Attend training as requested
#Hybrid