Hiring: Product Manager | Berkman Klein Center

Do you have a deep and abiding interest in grappling with the Internet’s toughest social and technical problems? Are you excited by the opportunity to drive ambitious experiments and learn by doing? Do you believe in the power of software to drive positive change?

The Applied Social Media Lab (ASML) is a new initiative of Harvard University’s Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society. Our two-year mission is to build social media solutions that center the public interest. We are assembling a team of industry-trained technologists to work with experts from academia and civil society to build new software, protocols, and designs to foster healthier human connections. Teams of industry-trained engineers, designers, and product managers will work in flexible pods organized around key challenges and opportunities such as Transparency and Governance, Distributed Protocols, Online Discourse, and more.

As a Product Manager at the Lab, you will bring strategic, execution, and technical skills to bear to drive change. You will be responsible for one of the Lab’s thematic pods, working closely with 3-4 engineers and a shared UX team. You will be responsible for outcomes — working across functions and teams to generate new ideas, conduct experiments, and iterate quickly in search of insight and impact. You will represent the Lab as you bring together stakeholders across Harvard, academia, and industry, onboard users, and educate the public when your work is ready to share.

As a Product Manager, you will:

• Own outcomes – as with all PM jobs, you are responsible for results and impact, rather than a set of job functions. 
  Set product strategy and roadmap for your pod by driving brainstorming, experimentation, and prioritization. 
  Execute on multiple projects in your pod by setting success metrics, tracking progress, ensuring excellence, and managing cost and timelines. 
  Represent the ASML with internal and external stakeholders, building strong relationships and influencing the course of technology and policy. 
  Participate in ASML-wide brainstorming and hackathons outside your immediate area of expertise.

Basic Qualifications

Minimum of seven years’ post-secondary education or relevant work experience

Additional Qualifications and Skills

We are looking for people who have:

A depth of experience as a technology product manager (i.e. creating strategic product roadmaps from conception to launch and working with cross-functional teams).  

Effective communication and collaboration skills with a wide range of audiences including technical and layperson, and internal and external constituencies. Ability to work not just with engineering, but across many functions and teams with their own agendas, to bring all voices into the conversation and lead people toward agreement on the path forward. 
Passion for people. A successful product manager at the Lab will care deeply about humans, fairness and equity, and love the humane role of product management in creating compassionate user experiences. 
Openness and flexibility. We don’t know the answers to the questions the Lab is asking. A successful product manager at the Lab will be open to learning from experiments, hearing new ideas no matter where they come from, and changing course quickly. 
Global perspective. Social media is a global phenomenon. A successful product manager at the Lab will ensure we bring many perspectives to our work and find solutions that are appropriate to different cultures, languages, and approaches to governance. 
Mission-driven and resilient. Building a better social media will involve confronting difficult questions and content. We are here because we care about the mission, first and foremost.