Handwriting and English Interventions Product Owner (teachers only)

Location: UK remote (options for hybrid/office work in Sheffield HQ)
Annual Salary: £30,000 per annum
Hours: 37.5 hours per week (Core hours 10:00 am-2:00 pm Monday-Friday)
Contract: Permanent
Line Manager: Claire Swanborough
Recruiter: Hope Parkin
Expected start date: June 2024 (or earlier if possible)
Closing date for applications: 30/04/23

We are looking for a candidate who has a keen interest in all things KS1 and KS2 English and is looking for a new challenge! You will lead and develop our Twinkl Handwriting and English Intervention product lines, and the Twinkl Handwriting app, through the product life cycle, respond directly to customer needs and drive growth in line with business priorities.

Product Owners at Twinkl are responsible for driving forward the vision and aims of established resource collections, products or services, along with creating innovative and exciting materials which are at the forefront of the education market. They work closely with the product development team to create the right resources at the right time to support the needs of educational professionals. The successful candidate will carry out their role whilst communicating extensively with key stakeholders within, and outside, the business to achieve the company's core values and focus.

This exciting and varied role will give you the opportunity to play a key role in the development of the most popular teaching materials in the world and help to meet the needs of thousands of educators and parents.

How you’ll spend your day:

• Ideating, implementing and reviewing the success of strategies to use your product to drive new subscriptions and upgrades
• Reporting on product performance and creating and following a product strategy
• Pushing our various product lines through the product life cycle stages, driving progress every month and communicating with stakeholders
• Communicating with the development team to share product vision and priorities
• Managing and prioritising a production backlog
• Planning and coordinating future releases of resources across KS1 and KS2
• Collaborating with the marketing team to organise campaigns, deliver updates and communicate with customers
• Developing the Twinkl Handwriting App and working with the app team to prioritise these developments
• Understanding the pain points affecting our customers and identifying ways of addressing them
• Collaborating with other Product Owners, customer-facing teams and key areas of the business
• Conducting competitor analysis, market and field research to inform product judgements
• Researching and developing innovative concepts within the market, including opportunities for product line-specific CPD
• Supporting and creating partnership opportunities with external companies
• Maintaining and developing the product landing pages and categories to ensure the best possible user experience

To succeed in the role, you will:

• Have a hard work ethic, be passionate, driven and love what you do
• Be organised, able to work to deadlines, and manage your time effectively
• Have a passion for supporting the development of children’s English skills
• Have an understanding of how targeted English interventions work, and how these are delivered
• Be able to communicate with colleagues and our external partners effectively
• Have analytical and problem-solving skills to make data-driven and business decisions
• Have a knowledge and experience of the National Curriculum for England and an understanding of the target market
• Have experience and/or keen interest in developing a Product Owner mindset
• Have a willingness to learn intermediate spreadsheet skills for efficient workload/project tracking and general insight gathering
• Have the ability to spot trends and opportunities through data visualisations

In this role, you will learn:

• Stakeholder management
• Effective market and competitor research techniques
• Product Owner mindset
• Data analysis
• Development of business propositions
• Innovation techniques and principles
• Agile working methods

Requirements

We're interested in anyone who meets the following:

• Qualifications: Undergraduate or Masters degree in primary education or appropriate equivalent degree
• Experience: Relevant primary teaching background and market awareness
• Minimum of 3 years Primary Teaching with a proven interest in English (Desirable - English subject leader)

Soft Skills:

• Is good fun to be with and has the ability to communicate well with others
• Is honest, trustworthy and reliable
• Produces quality work and is ready to learn new skills
• Thoroughly organised and proactive
• Manages own workload effectively, through task prioritisation

Remote working and hours:

• Although we allow flexible working patterns to fit in around family or other commitments, our full-time team members working 37.5 hours per week are expected to complete most of their work during office hours, Monday to Friday. To be considered for this role, you would need to be available around our core hours (10am-2pm) Monday to Friday. You will need to have good daytime availability for training, meetings, collaboration and ongoing CPD, particularly in your training period/first month.
• Remaining hours outside of the core working times can be agreed upon between you and your line manager to fit around your current commitments and business needs.
• Essential for remote working - You will need access to a fast and reliable internet connection of at least 6mb down and 1mb upload. We recommend you use speedtest.net to check.

How to Apply…

Please apply with an up to date CV and a covering letter outlining how you meet the requirements listed in the job description and how your previous experience is relevant to this role. We specifically want to hear about your Handwriting and English Intervention experience.

Recruitment process:

Step 1: Submit your CV and cover letter

Step 2: Complete a timed online Product Owner task

Step 3: Video interview with Hope and two members of the Product Team

Twinkl are proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer. We celebrate diversity within all of our teams and are committed to continuing to build an inclusive workplace for all. If you require a reasonable adjustment to the application/selection process to enable you to demonstrate your ability to perform the job requirements please include this at the foot of your covering letter. This will help us to understand any modifications we may need to make to support you throughout our selection process.

Disclaimer: Potential Closing of Job Application Before Advertised Deadline

Please be advised that in the event of an exceptionally high volume of applications, the job advertised may become unavailable before the originally stated closing date. While we strive to adhere to the published timeline for accepting applications, circumstances beyond our control, such as overwhelming response rates, may cause an earlier closure of the application process.

We encourage all interested candidates to submit their applications at their earliest convenience to ensure consideration.

Benefits

In return for everything you can bring, we can offer you an exciting role in a fast-growing and dynamic business, with plenty of career opportunities.

Here’s a couple of the things that make Twinkl a great place to be:

• A friendly, welcoming and supportive culture. We believe work should be fun and always put people before process
• Diversity, inclusion and belonging - our Employee Network Program includes working groups for LGBTQ+, People of Colour, Disabilities (visible and invisible), Women in Tech and Working Parents.
• From day 1 - Westfield Health, 29 annual leave days per year plus up to four additional days that may be awarded each year by the company, flexible working policy with opportunities to work from home and Twinkl subscriptions.
• After probation - company sick pay and cycle to work scheme.
• Long term service reward after 2+ years of service - Life insurance, enhanced pension contribution, enhanced maternity pay, enhanced adoption pay and enhanced paternity pay.