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Product Owner

Uganda

Who We Are! 

🌍 Africa has the world’s youngest and fastest-growing population. By 2035, the continent is poised to contribute more young people to the global workforce each year than the rest of the world combined. 

At Educate! we're obsessed with impact. We leverage iterative learning to build highly scalable youth employment solutions aimed at unlocking the potential of the world’s youngest continent. 

Educate! prepares youth in Africa to learn, earn and thrive in today’s economy by: 

  1. Introducing an employment-focused school subject into secondary and 
  2. Delivering livelihood boot camps for out-of-school youth, with a focus on marginalized rural girls and young women.

To date, more than 500,000 youth have been meaningfully impacted across Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and Tanzania, and along the way, Educate! has become the largest youth employment and skills provider in East Africa.

Educate! is a team of over 300 largely African staff and 300 volunteer youth mentors. We prioritize building an engaging, fulfilling and growth oriented work environment. 50% of our top 30 leaders have been with us for over 5 years, 10+ alumni have started their own organizations, and 6 current or former team members were Acumen Fund East Africa fellows. 

We have been backed by top foundations such as Imaginable Futures, Livelihood Impact Fund,  Jack Dorsey’s #startsmall, CIFF and Echidna Giving. Educate! won a 2018 Klaus J. Jacobs Prize and a 2015 WISE Award, and has been highlighted by the World Bank’s S4YE's Impact Portfolio, an Al Jazeera documentary, BBC, The Brookings Institution as one of 14 case studies on scaling education, and the Gates Foundation as a Goalkeepers Accelerator. In 2022, we received a catalytic investment from philanthropist Mackenzie Scott to scale our systems change work.

Educate!'s long-term vision is to design solutions that measurably impact millions of youth across Africa each year.

Performance Objectives 

Requirements gathering: Translating Product strategy into product development specifics 

  • Gather all information from cross-functional teams to translate strategy into clear product specifics.
  • Assist business stakeholders to define and refine their requests
  • Collaborate with a variety of stakeholders to define the relevant personas, user journeys, and functional requirements.
  • Drive decision-making with internal partners
  • Translate requirements into product designs
  • Develop and own a product strategy that is clearly articulated, easily understood, and delivers meaningful value to our customers and business over time
  • Identify areas for modification in existing programs and subsequently develop these modifications

User-focused/Customer-centered product design 

We need our Product Owner to build processes and practices to continuously gather and address usability issues with our technology products.

  • Lead ideation for the needs identified- creating designs based on requirements and strategy
  • Construct systems and processes to gather data on how users actually experience it on a day to day basis
  • Own process of integrating  customer feedback into products

Market Research and User Testing

  • Research and analyze the users, and the roadmap for the product
  • Plan, prepare and conduct research on potential solutions
  • Collect quantitative product data and metrics through market research
  • Testing and evaluating new designs/products
  • Research and analyse the way our data can be used and then drive improvements in user experience

Project Management

  • Build and execute an actionable roadmap that empowers developers to realize the product strategy
  • Providing vision and direction to the development team and stakeholders to achieve the product vision
  • Collaborate closely with Design, Programs, and M&E teams to drive the execution of the product development team
  • Plan and prioritize product feature backlog and development for the product
  • Lead the planning product release plans and set the expectation for delivery of new  functionalities
  • Developer management: oversee development of product features either through external consultants or development
  • Keep abreast with Agile/Scrum best practices and new trends
  • Develop quality assurance procedures

Qualifications 

  • Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Technology is nice to have or any other Technology related course, and a minimum of 3 years of work experience.
  • Possess a broad understanding of the tech product development process; and have created product roadmaps, user journey maps and has experience with backlog grooming and prioritization.
  • Experienced with using qualitative and quantitative data (especially from A/B tests) to make product decisions.
  • Experience working with a startup is a plus.
  • Experience working with program delivery and data collection platforms such as USSD, SMS, WhatsApp through Telerivet, Echomobile, Textit, etc
  • Basic knowledge of MySql & Postgres databases, JIRA or any other project management tool and Figma.
  • Fits our Five Cultural Tenets (see What is Educate! About? below); Learn more by looking at Educate!’s culture deck here

Terms 

  • We are open to this position being based in one of our offices in East Africa, preferably Kampala.
  • Benefits & perks include a generous vacation policy, health insurance, and breakfast in the office!

What We Offer đź’Ľ

  • A vibrant, mission-driven environment with a supportive and fun team.
  • Flexibility— Hybrid work environment to empower you in your mode of work. 
  • Competitive salary based on experience.
  • Healthcare coverage for you and your dependents, work laptop, Internet & call stipend
  • Learning & growth opportunities
  • This is a Fixed term  contract with a possibility of extension based on performance

Application Process: Rolling basis, interviews happening soon!

Our Culture & Tenets(Values) 🌱

We’re ambitious. Are you? Educate! is growing fast, so new opportunities are opening up and expanding all the time. We’re inspired by people with drive, and we love to help them reach their full potential. We expect everyone at Educate! to contribute above and beyond their job description, grow their skills, and advance their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey of their careers, and we are committed to supporting our staff members on that journey. 

  1. We put Youth First, Impact-Obsessed - We are purpose-driven, focused on impact, and prioritize what truly matters. We listen to youth, design our efforts around their needs, and ensure every dollar creates transformative experiences they value.
  2. We Exceed Expectations - We take pride in going above and beyond to achieve the best results—proactively identifying problems and seeking solutions without waiting or stopping at what's requested.
  3. We Are Always Learning - We are committed to seeking and applying new knowledge and ideas. We stay open-minded and continuously try new things, experiment, grow, and improve. We invest in learning for ourselves and our teams.
  4. We are One Team, Many Views - We value all individuals, believe diverse ideas and open dialogue drive excellence, foster a supportive and respectful environment where everyone can freely express themselves. We work as one team and prioritize the organization's mission over personal or team interests.
  5. We have the Startup Mindset - We innovate relentlessly to grow our impact, we never think “we have arrived” or “we’re done.”We constantly challenge the status quo, embrace change, and move quickly toward our vision. Unafraid of failure, we question anything that hinders progress.

Every person at Educate! — from interns to the executive director — is evaluated by how they live up to these five cultural tenets. They are at the core of how we achieve our mission and why we work as well as we do.  Educate is committed to providing an inclusive and welcoming environment for all who interact in our community. In creating this environment, we encourage people from a variety of cultures, backgrounds and life experiences to join our diverse team. 

We’re committed to ensuring all candidates are screened for child and youth safety. As part of the process, you’ll need to provide a Certificate of Good Conduct. Educate! reserves the right to withdraw employment offers if any risks to youth are identified.

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