Product Innovation Manager

Product Innovation Manager

THE COMPANY

Wondercide was founded 15 years ago by Stephanie Boone when her dog Luna became ill from what her vet suspected was conventional flea and tick treatments and monthly pest control services.  Stephanie knew there had to be a better way and set out on a mission to invent a plant powered alternative. Today, Wondercide offers a comprehensive line of plant powered pest control solutions for your pets, yard, home, and family with 50,000 5-star reviews on Amazon.  

Wondercide, based in Austin, TX, is a privately held, high growth, and digitally native consumer packaged goods company that has an omni-channel presence and is expanding into specialty brick & mortar and beyond.  The company is a vertically integrated organization where sales, marketing, creative content, customer service, innovation, procurement, mixing, production, fulfillment, and more are all done in-house.  This allows the team to control their own destiny from a multi-year roadmap down to quality of execution via operational excellence.

We are a close-knit, highly collaborative team of ‘doers’ who operate in an entrepreneurial and KPI driven environment.  Grit, Action, Curiosity, Ownership, and Insight are the five operating values we embody in our day-to-day work.

At Wondercide, we’re driven by a Fierce Love® for families. We wake up every day inspired by our mission to protect families of every kind, everywhere from pests with safe, effective pest control solutions. We work with Mother Nature to deliver plant-powered products that promote well-being. We do this so families can live long, happy, and healthy lives together. We believe in doing whatever it takes to protect those we love…and that when you know better, you should do better.  Our promise to customers: they’ll never have to go it alone. We’re in this together and we’ll be there to support each step of the way.

THE POSITION

The Product Innovation Manager will report to Wondercide’s Chief Growth Officer and play a critical role in delivering on our growth ambition and mission.  This customer-focused, data-driven role is pivotal in expanding our portfolio of natural pest control and pet wellness products. The Product Innovation Manager will spearhead the development of new products  ensuring alignment with market trends and consumer needs to strengthen the brand positioning while driving profitable growth. This individual will act as the principal project lead for new product ideas, coordinating closely with Sales & Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, Operations, and external partners to drive the product innovation pipeline from concept through launch commercialization.

Key Responsibilities:

• • Market Analysis & Opportunity Identification
    • Conduct extensive market research to identify new business opportunities and emerging category trends
    • Analyze competitor products to understand positioning, pricing, and unique selling propositions.
    • Perform gap analysis to uncover white space in the category and opportunities in the existing Wondercide product portfolio.
    • Evaluate new formulations and technologies from partners for fit with the Wondercide brand and commercial potential.

• Consumer Research

• • • Analyze and monitor available secondary research for consumer insights to inform new product innovation.
    • Initiate consumer research to understand target market needs and drivers of purchase along with necessary learning plan to optimize new product concept, packaging, claims, etc
    • Utilize insights to optimize product claims, features and benefits.

• Product Design & Regulatory compliance

• Design compelling product concepts based on market research, gap analysis, and strategic fit with the brand.  

• • • Identify primary claims and product design criteria to win vs competitive items, surprise and delight the consumer and strengthen the brand equity
    • Develop size of prize for the opportunity space and the new item(s) to drive year 1-2 launch planning
    • Consult with regulatory teams to ensure product formulations and claims comply with relevant legislation and regulatory standards.

• Develop creative briefs for packaging, product listings content, and launch communications to ensure launch execution is aligned to priority benefits and RTBs.

• Project Management and Cross-Functional Collaboration

• • Lead product development projects through the stage-and-gate process, developing and owning the project timeline, facilitating cross-functional stakeholders input and progress to maintain project momentum and ensuring input and alignment as necessary
  • Assess feasibility of manufacturing through both internal operations partners and/or external 3PM partners.
  • Assess viability of the innovation through analysis of COGS, pricing, sizing, etc to ensure the new item economics are accretive to the portfolio
  • Act as the key link between internal teams (Sales & Marketing, Regulatory Affairs, Production) and external partners. 
  • Ensure effective communication and collaboration to optimize product development processes.

Requirements

• Proven experience developing and launching new B2C products
• 5 years of experience in CPG marketing, insights and new product development
• Familiarity with assembling and analyzing market data
• Excellent analytical and problem solving skills and experience with data-driven decision making
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a passion for driving growth and innovation
• Strong project management skills and the ability to manage multiple initiatives in a fast-paced environment

Preferred additional skills include (helpful but not required):

• Familiarity leveraging the Desirability, Feasibility, Viability (DFV) framework to design new product innovation
• Experience and familiarity with analyzing Nielsen data
• Project management using Wrike or similar software

This position is based in Round Rock, TX at the new Wondercide headquarters with a hybrid option available for consideration. 

Here at Wondercide, we celebrate, support, and thrive on diversity and inclusion. We’re a proud Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. If you’re interested in joining the Wondercide Pack, apply today!