About GutCheck 

At GutCheck, we pioneered agile market research to provide our clients with actionable answers and insights, globally, at the speed of their business. We believe in the power of consumer research, and we are dedicated to providing best-in-class solutions. By challenging the status quo to get to something better, we are continually evaluating new, innovative ways to take tried-and-true methods and make them more agile to best support our clients, helping them think smarter and act faster. 

About the role 

Developing and bringing new products to market is hard! Consumers are constantly being inundated with advertisements and information overload about the latest and greatest offerings from tech companies, retailers, CPG companies, etc. How do companies successfully, yet quickly, discover the best strategy to target and attract the “ideal” customer? How do they streamline their product development efforts to meet anticipated consumer needs and accelerate their time to market without sacrificing customer needs? Many companies hire market research firms to conduct beta testing and focus groups to determine the most compelling strategy for targeting, engaging and retaining their customers. Yet many of the “household name” market research firms are behind in the times. They leverage research methodologies that lack audience specificity or ones that achieve audience specificity at the expense of time- and cost-efficiency. These old school market research companies haven’t adapted to changing times and can’t keep up with the pace of product development in the age of the Lean Startup.

Despite many of these big research firms lagging the market, there is still HUGE money being spent within this segment. In 2018, the total market research revenue was $40B. This dynamic represents an unprecedented opportunity: the opportunity to massively disrupt a multi-billion dollar market segment with a modern, agile, and innovative offering that captures the voice of the market in real time, adapts as quickly as the technology markets move, and is priced for flexibility and scalability to meet customer’s needs.

Enter GutCheck…

At GutCheck, we invented agile market research to provide clients access to research expertise, agility, consumers, and the power to progress using actionable answers at the speed of business. Our proven methodologies, both quantitative and qualitative, give clients precision in sampling, targeted recruitment, study design, and analysis. Our proprietary technology framework delivers a living, breathing model for development and exceptional integration of specificity, audience reach, speed, and affordability. We have tested more ideas, concepts, and ads globally in a full-service approach than any other agile research provider. It is our mission to help clients think smarter, act faster, and gain unprecedented understanding – making heroes of our customers.

Additionally, GutCheck is an early mover in creating products that fuse primary research with “big data” to help their clients understand their customers and validate products built for those consumers. The resulting output enables their clients to activate on their product market research - to launch aggressive, highly targeted product roll-outs based on GutCheck’s insights and predictive analytics. GutCheck’s clients are disrupting their traditional product development processes to drive quicker product launches, faster feedback and results, and most importantly, greater ROI. GutCheck is a technology-enabled service that operates with subscription offerings.

Company Highlights:

• Recognized among Top Workplaces by The Denver Post.
• Diverse set of verticals with top tier customers: Google, McDonald’s, Pepsi, Nestle, Facebook, MicroSoft, and more!
• Double-digit million dollar revenue, and experiencing 20% YoY revenue growth.
• Well-funded: $25M raised with plans to be profitable in the near term.
• Strong executive team with veteran industry knowledge.
• Experienced BoD including Dave Toth, the founder of NetRatings.
• First primary market research firm to use the subscription model, allowing for great revenue visibility, high net retention, strong margins and greater agility.
• Massive TAM, with deep and differentiated products.
• Only agile market reach firm to offer qualitative, quantitative, and behavioral analysis to their customers.
• Headquartered in Denver with approximately 100 employees.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITY

The VP of Product will be responsible for leading product management and owning the product roadmap for GutCheck.

The VP of Product will be responsible for bringing energy, passion, commitment, strategic vision, and high-quality management to this fast-paced operation. This will require strong leadership capabilities as well as a roll-up-your sleeves, hands-on mentality. Coupled with a strong technical product management acumen, s/he must be able to simultaneously manage multiple products in a global environment.

Key Objectives and Deliverables:

• Drive multi-year product strategy, roadmap & portfolio investment decisions across product lines.
• Define and lead the product definition phase review process starting from product definition, through engineering validation, design validation and into production.
• Bring discipline and implement process and process improvement to the product organization. Enable the company to scale through increases in product quality, market agility, and speed of product delivery.
• Be able to run your own playbook.
• Ensure the organization has the product capacity to fulfill the broader vision while supporting near-term strategy and business priorities across the entire suite of GutCheck’s products.
• Collaborate effectively across the executive team. Work cross-functionally with research, sales, marketing, and engineering.
• Manage an existing team of 3 product managers and grow the organization as the company continues to ramp.

This role will report directly to Matt Warta, the Chief Executive Officer, and will be a core member of the executive leadership team.

GutCheck is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

PROFILE

• At least 10 years of experience in product management for a data intensive software or services company.
• At least 5 years of experience managing a product management function in a data driven company.
• Established track record of success launching new software/SaaS products from ideation to revenue.
• Passion for building simple, smart, beautiful products and product experiences, with a constant eye toward delighting the end user.
• Experience owning a company’s entire product roadmap. This will include long-term strategic thinking around products and short-term revenue through rapid response to feature requests for customers.
• Experience with all major dimensions of taking a product to market including organizational/operational/delivery readiness.
• Extensive expertise working with an agile software development team.
• Demonstrated ability to work with cross functional teams to take product strategy, from product roadmap to go-to-market and through to execution.
• Strong technical experience and ability to work closely with engineering as well as the ability to interact with non-technical groups, spanning all organizational levels.
• Strong design sensibilities and ability to make sophisticated product decisions in a competitive market.
• Combination of large and small company experience is ideal but the proven ability to operate in an entrepreneurial, rapid growth environment is a must.
• Strong executive presence; highly influential both externally with customers and partners as well as at the senior management level within GutCheck.

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES AND VALUES

• Analytical and data driven personality.
• A pro-active, “scrappy”, hands-on individual able to command respect of the entire organization through leadership, intelligence, creativity, hard work, and presence.
• Entrepreneurial, startup “DNA”; comfortable with risks, gutsy, not timid. Ability to be effective in a dynamic, fast paced environment with few resources and significant ambiguity.
• Team player. Track record of building positive relationships with peers and others within a company.
• Continuous and thoughtful listener & communicator; proven ability to gather and use customer/market input in improving existing programs and launching new initiatives.
• Unquestionable integrity, credibility, and character demonstrated high moral and ethical behavior.
• Attracted by the opportunity to mold and grow a young company within a large, underutilized space.

 GutCheck is proud to be an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to equal opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, genetic information, parental or pregnancy status, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, or Veteran status.