Lead Product Manager

Remote OK - Worldwide
Full-time
June 22, 2023

Are you looking

To make meaningful changes at the fastest-growing tech company in Japan?
For a fair, highly flexible, inclusive working environment where anyone, regardless of their background, can make an impact?
To build the next bold idea in customer acquisition and revenue growth through conversational commerce technology
For a place where things are not just fast - but they happen now?

We Are Zeals - “Designing conversations. Driving conversions.”

Zeals is not another chatbot. Our automated chat solution and conversational technology change how consumers purchase or act online. Zeals converts customers who appear "unengaged" to become "valuable" through designed chat on Messaging Apps. Using AI-powered, human-designed conversation flows across chat platforms, Zeals enables brands to build personalized, automated conversations with their consumers and develop a deeper understanding of their preferences while creating a delightful, seamless shopping experience. Our last 3 years have been phenomenal. We have captured the heart of many businesses in Japan, with over 480 enterprises relying on our chat commerce offering to boost their mobile business.

The goal is simple: to “revolutionize hospitality on the Internet” by unlocking digital customer service experiences that were limited to physical stores previously.

Just Getting Started…

We have recently secured a Series E funding totaling $33.8M led by JIC Venture Growth Investments and Salesforce Ventures. We are ready to start our mission and expand our business beyond the Japanese market - LINK.

We’re looking for a small group of elite teams to build the foundation of our global expansion.

Your Typical Day with Us

Your mission as PdM is to build high-quality products that add value and high-performing teams that achieve team milestones. As a Senior PdM, you will play a critical role in achieving this mission by managing the Agile Release Train, which consists of multiple scrums and a value stream. Your day-to-day responsibilities will include:

Working in an agile environment alongside the engineering team to drive and execute project plans
Developing and communicating a clear strategy and tactics, multi-team roadmap, and milestones that align with the company's overall business objectives
Conducting market research, competitive analysis, and customer insights to identify opportunities for product innovation and improvement
Defining, prioritizing, and articulating detailed product requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria for both functional and non-functional aspects of the product
Collaborating with engineering, design, marketing, sales, and support teams to ensure successful product development, launch, and ongoing enhancement
Managing and prioritizing the product backlog, balancing short-term deliverables with long-term strategic initiatives
Establishing and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) and success metrics to measure product performance and inform decision-making
Acting as the primary product evangelist, working closely with internal and external stakeholders to communicate product value and gather feedback for continuous improvement
Mentoring and guiding junior or mid-level product managers and other team members, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and excellence
Setting goals and evaluating the performance of junior or mid-level product managers

What You’ll Need

Business-level English proficiency
5+ years of experience in product management, preferably within the technology industry or a related field
Demonstrated success in leading the development and launch of innovative, customer-centric products
Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to synthesize complex data and translate it into actionable insights
Exceptional communication and presentation skills, with the ability to articulate complex concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences
Hands-on experience with scaling Agile methodologies (SAFe, LeSS, etc.), Agile methodologies (Scrum, Kanban, etc.), and tools (JIRA, Confluence, etc.)
Proven ability to build and maintain strong relationships with cross-functional teams and stakeholders
A customer-first mindset, with a passion for creating delightful user experiences and a track record of advocating for the customer throughout the product development process
Demonstrated success in managing and nurturing junior or mid-level product managers to progress multiple teams
Leadership and decision-making skills for making strategy and milestones with VPoP, PdM, and Scrum Team
Ability to execute the plan with various teams, including developers, quality assurance, marketing, and sales

What Makes You Stand Out

Japanese language proficiency at a business or native level
Understanding of cultural differences
Experience in starting a business based on the philosophies of lean startup and agile mindset
Bachelor's degree in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field; an advanced degree (MBA or similar) is a plus
Knowledge and experience in chatbots, AI, marketing, and SaaS products
Proven experience in implementing and using the Scaled Agile Framework or a similar one in a large organization or on large-scale projects

Don’t just take our word for it

Zeals has received the LinkedIn Top Startups award twice in a row. We believe this is a testament to our growth and our ability to attract great talents–who could potentially be your colleague!

Ready to roll up our sleeves

We obsess over bringing hospitality to everyone–be it our customers or you! You’re an individual with unique needs. So, While we can’t attract you with ping-pong tables or all-you-can-drink espresso bars, we promise you a once-in-a-lifetime experience and co-workers that you can brag about to your friends, family, or anyone you meet the next time you go out for a party! . As an employer we are ready to roll-up our sleeves and change the status quo if it means to make your experience better!

Salary Range : Up to 12M (performance review every 6 months)
Performance review: twice a year
Holidays: 10 days paid holidays during the first year, weekends off, national holidays, summer and winter break.
Visa support: We sponsor visas for the right candidates. You can expect full visa support from our professional HR team.
Flexible working: Highly flexible, remote-first international organization

For Japanese residence: Work from anywhere, interim work from overseas, full flex time

Housing allowance (within 1.5KM away from office)
Club activity allowance
Shuffle Lunch allowance (Cross department lunch)
Zeals Bar (bi-weekly free flow beer party)

APPLY NOW ➜

About Zeals

株式会社Zealsは、業界トップクラスの“チャットコマース”事業を主力に、“接客DX”事業にも注力し、「おもてなし」という日本文化の強みをデジタル化する挑戦を通じてクライアントの事業変革に貢献しています。

チャットコマース事業

チャットコマース『Zeals（ジールス）』とは、「ネットにおもてなし革命を！」をコンセプトにした、ユーザーがAIと会話しながら商品を購入したり予約したりできるサービスです。

ユーザーはLINEやFacebookなどのチャットアプリを通じ、従来は実店舗に限られていた接客体験を、Webやアプリケーション上で体験できます。チャットボットによる“ヒアリングファースト”な接客体験により、通常のLPと比較して約5倍の購買率向上を実現。旅行、化粧品、サロン、金融業界などに幅広く導入頂き、約400社のお客さまの売上増をお手伝いしています。

日本では「チャットボットはカスタマーサポートを自動化するのに使うもの」という認識が一般的ですが、海外ではチャットボットをコマース・マーケティングに活用する事例が多く生まれてます。

中国で人気のwechat上には800万体のチャットボットがマーケティングに活用されており、アメリカでもConversational Commerceと呼ばれるチャットボットを活用してマーケティングを行うサービスが増えています。チャットコマースはまさにこの"会話を通じて商品を買っていただく"ことに特化したチャットコマースを提供する業界初のサービスです。

接客DX事業

チャットボットをコアとして、ビデオツール等お客さまの課題に応じた手法を組み合わせ、実店舗での接客をデジタル空間で実現する一気通貫したサービスです。AIと人のハイブリッドにより最適化された接客体験をユーザーへ提供することで深いインサイトやニーズ、悩みに応えます。

今後は、チャットコマース事業と接客DX事業を主軸に様々な業界でのオンライン接客を広げ、海外展開や音声への拡張を目指します。また、現在の主軸事業の他にも、ビジョンに沿った新規プロダクトの開発やコアテクノロジーの開発を進め、日本が誇るおもてなし文化に新たな人と人とのつながりを創造します。

ここに注目！

Zealsは、テクノロジーを通じて新たな人と人のつながりを創造し、世界に通用する革命を起こすことを目指しています。この大きな志を達成するために働く人への投資を惜しみません。徹底した自社開発を行っており「テクノロジーに対する理解と投資」重視しています。2021年4月には総額18億円の資金調達を完了し、今後は更に積極的にテクノロジー、そして人に投資をしていく方針です。来年には、現在の2倍のエンジニアを採用する予定です。

企業カルチャーの特徴としては、Zealsは典型的な日本の会社ではありません。日本の伝統的な階層形システムや生産性より労働時間を重視するような働き方は全くありません。例えば、ZealsのCTOは20歳で就任しています。年齢ではなく、能力とやる気のある人に積極的にチャンスを与える文化があります。また、18ヵ国以上のバックグラウンドを持つグローバルメンバーなど、多様なメンバーが揃うフラットな環境です。フレックス制度、リモートワーク制度などが充実しており、柔軟な働き方も可能です。積極的に新しい技術を取り入れる社風があり、新しいテクノロジーが大好きなメンバーが集まっています。

グローバルかつ、エンジニアドリブンな企業であるZealsのカルチャーに共感いただける方にぜひジョインいただきたいと思っています！

Zeals' policies during COVID-19 are as follows:

Overseas candidates are welcome to apply — and can even continue working from abroad!
There are currently no meetings that require your physical presence (especially during COVID-19)
For anyone who does relocate to Japan during COVID-19, Zeals will cover any costs for quarantining, testing etc.

Japanese Language Policy
At Zeals, the developers use primarily English (dev-related discussions happen in English on Github or Slack). There might be occasional discussions in Japanese, but most Slack messages are in English (or both languages).

As for meetings, all dev-related ones take place in English. In the past they used Japanese at times, but now they have a clear policy to use English since they have several members who don’t speak Japanese.

Given the above, Japanese skills are not required for engineers. But one unique aspect of the culture at Zeals is that many Japanese members are working on their English while many non-Japanese members also work to improve their Japanese skills.

Since before Zeals was focused on global expansion, around 40% of their members were non-Japanese but most spoke Japanese fluently. In order to build a truly global team, these multilingual members will typically help out when communication is needed between people who don’t speak a common language. In this fashion, Zeals has slowly been turning English into their official language for engineers.

Even now Zeals has many multilingual members that proactively support the rest of the team to ensure smooth communications.

Even outside of the development team, important company-wide announcements are made in both English and Japanese. For example hiring announcements, new product launches etc. they’re announced in both Japanese and English.

Also, they provide simultaneous interpretation for presentations at their monthly all-hands meetings, among other tactics to ensure that everyone gets the information they need.
Paid Leave
- All Japanese public holidays off
- 10 days of PTO (awarded 3 months after joining)
- Summer holiday, Year-end holiday, Childcare leave, Congratulations/Bereavement leave
Benefits
Here are some examples of the benefits which full-time employees can receive.

💻 Preferred laptop provided

👩‍🏫 Language Learning Support (Language courses)

🇯🇵 Translation support (EN<>JP)

👶 Shorter work hours for employees taking care of children

👶 Parental Leave

👕 Flexible dress code

🏠 Rent allowance

💜 Social security / insurance benefits included

🏥 Healthcare insurance, Periodic health checks

💚 Pension insurance

🚃 Commuter allowance
Remote Work
Zeals allows their members to work remotely from anywhere in the world.
- Once COVID-19 is no longer a concern, those that are able to can join their monthly all-hands meetings in person. But people are also free to join via video chat.
- In case of working remotely from outside of Japan, you’ll work as a contract employee (due to limitations around local Japan taxes etc). Upon moving to Japan, you’ll switch to being a full-time employee.
Work style
Zeals is flexible when it comes to working hours. They work on a flex time system with core time of 1:00PM to 3:00PM.
Values

FROM ZEAL

< Passion > Good things come from giving it your all

BET ON PARADOX

< Unorthodox > Never settle for the established norm

UNITED WILL

< Team > Teamwork is the heart of achievement

Office

The Zeals office is situated a 4-minute walk from Gotanda station in Tokyo. They have a free address system where people can work wherever they’d like, as well as meeting rooms. They provide everyone with their preferred hardware and have Ergohuman chairs. Everyone is free to choose the work style that works best for them, either full-remote or using the office.