Product Manager Intern (8-Month Term) — LILA Composter

Role Overview

An 8-month product management internship supporting the strategic development, lifecycle management, and continuous improvement of the LILA Composter. This role bridges customer insights, engineering, operations, and business strategy to drive product success and inform future product roadmap decisions.

Core Responsibilities

Product Strategy & Roadmap Development

· Collaborate with leadership to define and refine product vision, strategy, and quarterly objectives

· Contribute to product roadmap planning by synthesizing customer feedback, market research, and technical feasibility assessments

· Conduct competitive analysis to identify LILA's market positioning and differentiation opportunities

· Support business case development for new features, product iterations, or line extensions

· Research and analyze market trends in composting technology, sustainability products, and smart home integration

User Research & Voice of Customer

· Design and conduct user research initiatives including surveys, interviews, and usability studies

· Analyze patterns from HubSpot support tickets, onboarding feedback, and customer follow-up data to identify product improvement opportunities

· Build customer personas and journey maps to better understand user needs and pain points

· Translate qualitative and quantitative customer insights into actionable product requirements

· Partner with Customer Success & Operations team to gather real-time feedback from onboarding sessions and support interactions

Product Requirements & Feature Definition

· Write clear, detailed product requirements documents (PRDs) and user stories for engineering teams

· Define feature specifications, success metrics, and acceptance criteria

· Collaborate with engineering and design teams to evaluate technical trade-offs and solution feasibility

· Prioritize feature requests based on customer impact, business value, technical complexity, and strategic alignment

· Maintain and update product documentation including feature specs, release notes, and PLM schemas

Cross-functional Collaboration & Execution

· Work closely with engineering team on sprint planning, backlog grooming, and release tracking

· Partner with operations lead on fulfillment process improvements, returns analysis, and quality assurance initiatives

· Collaborate with marketing lead to develop product positioning, messaging, and go-to-market strategies

· Coordinate with software team on dashboard features, connectivity improvements, and firmware updates

· Liaise between customer-facing teams and technical teams to ensure alignment on priorities and timelines

Data Analysis & Performance Metrics

· Define and track key product performance indicators (KPIs) such as machine connectivity rates, feature adoption, customer satisfaction scores, and support ticket trends

· Analyze product usage data from remote dashboard logs to identify usage patterns and optimization opportunities

· Prepare data-driven insights and recommendations for product strategy discussions

· Monitor and report on product health metrics including return rates, replacement reasons, and common technical issues

· Build dashboards and reports to visualize product performance trends over time

Product Launch & Go-to-Market Support

· Support end-to-end product launch activities from planning through post-launch analysis

· Coordinate with operations on inventory planning, fulfillment readiness, and logistics for new product releases

· Develop internal enablement materials including training guides, FAQ documents, and troubleshooting resources

· Contribute to customer-facing communications such as educational content, product guides, and composting quizzes

· Define launch success metrics and conduct post-launch reviews to assess performance against goals

Process Improvement & Tools Optimization

· Identify opportunities to streamline product development workflows and documentation processes

· Research, evaluate, and recommend tools to improve product management efficiency (roadmapping software, analytics platforms, customer feedback tools)

· Maintain and optimize internal systems including HubSpot workflows, fulfillment tracking sheets, and PLM documentation

· Propose and pilot new initiatives such as customer advisory boards, beta testing programs, or enhanced onboarding experiences

· Document best practices and create standardized templates for product processes

Stakeholder Communication & Reporting

· Prepare weekly product updates including feature development progress, customer insights summaries, and blockers

· Present findings and recommendations to product leadership and cross-functional stakeholders

· Communicate product decisions and rationale clearly to engineering, operations, marketing, and customer success teams

· Facilitate product review meetings and design critiques

· Manage stakeholder expectations regarding timelines, scope, and trade-off decisions

Required Qualifications

· Currently enrolled in undergraduate or graduate program in Business, Engineering, Computer Science, Industrial Design, or related field

· Strong analytical and problem-solving skills with ability to synthesize complex information

· Excellent written and verbal communication skills

· Experience with data analysis and comfort working with spreadsheets and analytics tools

· Self-directed and proactive with strong organizational and project management abilities

· Passion for sustainability, environmental technology, or consumer hardware products

Preferred Qualifications

· Previous product management, product development, or technical internship experience

· Familiarity with product management frameworks (Agile, Scrum, Lean) and tools (Jira, Confluence, Productboard, Aha!)

· Experience conducting user research or customer interviews

· Understanding of IoT products, smart home technology, or connected devices

· Technical background with ability to understand and communicate with engineering teams

· Experience working in startup or early-stage company environments

What You'll Learn

· Full product lifecycle management from ideation to launch and iteration

· How to translate customer insights into product strategy and feature prioritization

· Collaborating with cross-functional teams in a fast-paced startup environment

· Data-driven decision making and defining product success metrics

· Go-to-market strategy and product positioning

· Balancing user needs, business goals, and technical constraints

· Hardware product management unique challenges and opportunities

Job Types: Full-time, Internship / Co-op
Contract length: 8 months

Pay: $18.00-$20.00 per hour

Benefits:

• Flexible schedule
• On-site parking
• Paid time off
• Work from home

Work Location: In person