Product Owner (Fixed-Term)

We’ve had a relatively unique journey getting our Loaded platform to where it is today.

Originally we built a 13 site hospitality group across the country, and ran into all sorts of difficulties using existing systems and processes to run these businesses properly.

We first built Loaded to solve our own problems and after the success this created for us we’ve been thrilled to be able to share it with thousands of our customers in New Zealand and see a big difference in the performance of their business and a big boost to the lifestyle they are able to lead.

We now have a strong market leader position in New Zealand and we’re expanding our presence in Australia, which means that we have a growing customer base of bar, restaurant and cafe owners to support.

Our incredible Product Owner, Grace, is heading on parental leave in early 2023 and we’re looking for someone to join us on a fixed-term basis to cover the role for eight months while she takes this time with her family. 

This is a pretty interesting role to say the absolute least, and offers an awesome opportunity for someone to join us in an influential position at a really exciting time. 

There’s really no area of the business that our Product Owner role doesn’t touch, so if you’re keen to help us build and deliver the best possible solution to our customers & potential customers, then read on….

A bit about the work we envisage

A lot of early stage companies will advertise roles using the term ‘varied responsibilities’, and we’re going to do the same here, but really, truly mean it. If you’re looking for a multifaceted Product role with a bit of everything, you’ve really found it with this one. 

You’ll spend time managing the Loaded product workflow, develop and refine the full scope and product definitions for our products to be delivered, and work on our backlog. 

You’ll work with our co-founders on design and wireframing, facilitating the reviews of these with stakeholders, and then manage the handover to the development team. 

You’ll also manage the transition of work from development to QA, and then into Beta and Pilot groups, keeping everyone up to date with how things are going at every step along the way.

Customer research is another important part of this role, so you’ll also spend time understanding the needs and pain points of existing and future customers through methods like customer interviews. The information you collect you’ll use to validate and inform product direction, ensuring that our customers are stoked with the products we deliver. 

You’ll also manage general customer feedback and product requests, balancing these with existing work, and be involved in market and competitor research.

Needless to say you’ll spend a lot of time collaborating with others from all walks of life. You’ll be integrated into a lot of the work our development team are doing, as well as talking to our customer and sales team about the needs of our current and future users on a regular basis, and talk product vision with the co-founders. 

Loaded is early enough in our journey that whoever steps into this role will make a huge impact, but we’ve also been around for long enough that we have some great systems and processes set up in the product and delivery space. We also have an awesome customer base who love us (and who we love right back!). 

This is a pretty exciting time to join us - we’re in expansion mode and we’d love to find someone who has the confidence to roll their sleeves up and make their mark across a broad range of product responsibilities.  

This is an eight month fixed term role, but make no mistake, you’ll be adding a lot of lines to your CV in those eight months, and we’ll support you to do just that! We’d like to think that opportunities may abound at the end of the contract as well.

We don’t like to oversell the perks of the job, as we prefer people who genuinely love the satisfaction of the results hard work brings, but our office in Queenstown has an exceptional view, the coffee is good and heaps of the team are out riding bikes and skis before and after work.

Because this role operates pretty independently and needs to be able to get up and running quickly, we’re looking for someone tech-savvy with product ownership or management experience, including a solid understanding of product management principles and best practice. Ideally, you’ll have previously taken a product from conception to delivery.

You’ll have a customer centric mindset, with the ability to empathise with customers and translate their needs to product requirements. This is where a background in hospitality would be really helpful. 

You’ll need strong problem solving skills & a strategic mindset to analyse problems, make decisions and implement effective solutions.

Strong written and verbal communication is very important, too, as you’ll need to effectively communicate ideas and concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, and guide cross-functional teams towards a common goal.

Some more info about us

We really love working from an office and it’s kind of nice that it’s in a great part of the world in Queenstown, so ideally, you would be working from our lovely office here, but we’re also open to this position being remote in NZ for the right candidate.

You’ll report directly to Rich, Loaded’s CEO, and also take some direction from James, MD over at our friends Cook Brothers Hospitality. 

Culture is of course important to us and we always look for the following in every team member that joins us.

• Proven persistence in overcoming hard stuff
• The curiosity to always be learning and looking around corners
• An open mind to hearing others point of view, while always being prepared to put their view forward.
• Someone the rest of the team feels they can always rely on to follow through.
• Someone the rest of the team will enjoy spending time with.
• Someone who thinks customer first and everything else second.

In your cover letter feel free to be informal and tell us why you would actually like to come and join us. Don’t read any blog articles on what we might be looking for, just tell us what you’re thinking and what you’re all about. The less jargon the better.  It's important to us that new people joining our team are excited about what they can bring to the table that will help Loaded deliver a great product that gets solid results for our customers so talk a little about that too.