Senior Product Manager

Tokyo
Remote OK - Anywhere in Japan
Full-time
November 14, 2024

The Moneytree Personal team's mission is to deliver impactful tools and features that empower users to take control of their personal finances. As a Senior Product Manager for Moneytree Personal, you will lead the development and evolution of core features that empower users to take control of their financial health. You’ll be responsible for shaping the product vision and roadmap, driving user-centric product development, and delivering features that enhance engagement, usability, and impact. Additionally, you will identify and pursue partnership opportunities to bring relevant, high-value offers and benefits to users, enriching their experience and fostering engagement. This role involves strategic decision-making, user insights, and cross-functional collaboration to create an exceptional experience for our users and to achieve our business goals.

At Moneytree, our mission is to unleash the power of data by providing the tools & capabilities needed, by reducing or removing barriers, and by delivering meaningful value today. Our technology is used by major banks, accounting software companies and fintech companies in Japan. Key clients include Mizuho, SMBC, and Mitsubishi UFJ Nicos.

In this role you will

Define the product strategy and roadmap for key features within the personal finance app, aligning with business objectives and user needs.
Conduct user research and analyze market trends to identify and prioritize product opportunities, ensuring a deep understanding of the user’s financial journey.
Collaborate closely with engineering, design, marketing, and data teams to ensure seamless execution and successful launches.
Develop and maintain product requirements, use cases, and user stories, ensuring alignment with the user experience and technical feasibility.
Lead agile ceremonies, including backlog grooming, sprint planning, and retrospectives, to drive efficient and transparent progress.
Measure and report on product performance metrics, using insights to inform ongoing product improvements and optimizations.
Own the product lifecycle from ideation through development, launch, and iteration, ensuring each release delivers measurable value.
Serve as an advocate for the user, championing a customer-first mindset and building empathy for users’ financial challenges across the team.

In the first days your expected deliverables will include

Gain a comprehensive understanding of the current product, user feedback, and business metrics; identify immediate opportunities for improvement.
Define and present a 6-12 month roadmap for key features, prioritizing user needs and business goals in collaboration with stakeholders.
Conduct initial user research and data analysis to validate hypotheses around user pain points and market needs.
Collaborate with design and engineering to outline initial product specifications and a timeline for at least one major feature.
Establish clear success metrics for product initiatives, setting up a tracking system to measure user engagement and product impact.
Kick off the development of a new feature or improvement by coordinating with engineering, and design teams, managing the project through to early release.
Set up a process for continuous feedback collection and user testing to ensure a steady flow of insights for future iterations.

Qualifications

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Product Management, Marketing, Computer Science, or a related field; an MBA or relevant Master’s degree is a plus.
5+ years of experience in product management, ideally within B2C or fintech environments.
Demonstrated success in defining and launching impactful digital products, with a focus on customer-centric solutions.
Strong analytical skills with experience using data to drive product decisions, backed by familiarity with A/B testing, user research, and data analysis tools.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with experience working in cross-functional teams.
Strong understanding of agile methodologies and experience working closely with engineering and design teams.
Ability to think strategically while balancing short-term goals and long-term vision.
Passion for personal finance and a commitment to helping users improve their financial well-being.
Business level English and Japanese required

Benefits

Working remotely from anywhere in Japan
Flexible working hours
Employee stock option program participation
Referral bonus 250,000 JPY per successful hire
Communication allowance (10,000 JPY/month)
Remote work allowance (3000 JPY/month)
20 annual paid leave
10 annual sick and carer leave
Health and social insurance support
Ability to work from overseas for short periods
Learning support (7500 JPY/quarter)

There are two ways to join Moneytree, apply for the right role, or be the right person and let us find a role for you. We encourage you to get in touch if you are resourceful, have a passion for creation, value integrity and strive to always do your best work.

APPLY NOW ➜Japanese Required ⚠️

Product

About Moneytree

Moneytree is a fin-tech start-up founded by three foreign entrepreneurs in Tokyo. Their Moneytree Link product provides a "utility layer for connecting financial services" that serves banks and other fin-tech companies, but they also have a popular consumer app that helps people manage their finances. They're a truly international company with an English-first environment and a high technical skill level for engineers, so it sounds like a really great place to work!

Salary
Moneytree's salary structure is designed to offer a base salary along with stock options. Stock options are still a relative rarity in Japan, so Moneytree is one of a reasonably small list of Japanese companies offering them.
Japanese Language Policy
Japanese is not required for engineers, but it is desirable.

As a customer-centric company building products for Japanese customers, Japanese fluency is required for product managers and product designers in order to do users research, product discovery etc.
Visa Sponsorship
- With the current pandemic, we are only accepting applicants with valid working visas in Japan.
- We offer support for visa renewal to new hires with valid working visas in Japan.
Paid Leave
Moneytree's paid time off policy is awesome.

They offer 20 paid holidays in addition to 10 sick/care leave days.

The legal minimum number of paid time off days in Japan is 10 for an employee's first year, so this is what you'll get at the majority of companies. The fact that Moneytree doubles this to 20 really makes them stand out from other companies in Tokyo.

And then there's their sick day policy. Since these aren't legally mandated in Japan, most companies don't have them at all. Moneytree really goes above and beyond here with 10.
Benefits
💹 Employee stock option program participation

💻 New tech gear

🏠 Remote work allowance

📕 Book purchases

🏋 Gym benefit

👶 Financial support for childcare costs

👶 Parental Leave

👍 Residential rent tax benefits (i.e. company housing / 'shataku')

🧡 Communication (phone + internet bills) support allowance (10,000 JPY/month)

💛 Referral bounty

🚃 Commuter allowance

🏥 Healthcare insurance

💟 Social security / insurance benefits included
Engineer Interview Process
This may depend somewhat on the position but in general, the steps are as follows:
- CV screening (+ survey to fill out for some positions)
- Casual screening meeting (onsite or remote)
- Pair programming
- Topgrading
- Provisional offer + reference check
Remote Work
Moneytree is a remote-first company, so you can work remotely from anywhere in Japan. Those who wish to work from their Tokyo office are allowed to (as long as there's not a state of emergency in effect), but it's also fine to work 100% remotely. Their hybrid approach ensures that everyone can work in the style that allows them to feel secure and safe.

Even once COVID-19 is no longer a concern, Moneytree intends to continue their full remote policy.

※ You will be required to come to Japan if you are living abroad.
Work style
Work hours: 10:00-19:00, core working hours 10:00-16:00
Diversity
Moneytree has been a globally-minded, diverse company from the start. It was founded by 3 foreigners and over 50% of their total members are from outside of Japan, with over 20 nationalities represented. Women account for around 1/3 of their staff, which is on the higher side for tech start-ups.

They maintain a meritocratic culture and conduct quarterly performance reviews with feedback from managers, plus 360 feedback from 3 key people you work closely with cross-functionally.

This helps them track staff performance in an objective way regardless of ethnicity, disability, gender (including transgender), age, sexual orientation, or beliefs (including lack of religion or beliefs).