Role title:

Product Manager

Team/Directorate:

Judicial Digital Services

Overview of the Judicial Office

The Judicial Office (JO) reports to, and is accountable, to the Lady Chief Justice (LCJ). It was established in 2006 to provide support to the LCJ and to the wider judiciary in upholding the rule of law and in delivering justice impartially, speedily and efficiently, following the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

In addition, we support, and are accountable to, the Senior President of Tribunals, whose responsibilities extend to Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The JO is an interesting and unique place to work. Everything we do is in support of upholding the independence and impartiality of the judiciary. We work closely with HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and others across Government as well as with the legal professions.

We are an Arm’s Length Body sponsored by the Ministry of Justice. This creates an interesting and complex environment in which to work where we agree our priorities with the senior judiciary and receive our funding to deliver them from the Ministry of Justice. The Judicial Office has been through a period of significant growth resulting from an expansion of our remit and responsibilities.

See JO staff talk about working here: https://design102.wistia.com/medias/uhgtmbtnlv

Overview of the team

The Judicial Digital Services (JDS) function is a small, friendly, and welcoming team within the Judicial Office. There are currently 12 team members. The JDS team lead the development and delivery of products for judiciary and other audiences such as members of the public and legal professionals. The team also collaborate with HMCTS/MOJ on a number of products where integration and development are required to meet business goals.

Hybrid Working Requirement

This is standardised wording and cannot be amended.

This position is eligible for hybrid working (current minimum requirement for time spent at base location is 60%, which is subject to business requirements).

Summary of the role

The Product Manager will lead on the product development and ongoing lifecycle of a range of the Judicial Office’s digital products. They will collaborate with the multi-displinary team JDS Team, users and stakeholders Judicial throughout the different stages of delivery and development, providing the post-holder the opportunity to obtain a broad range of product management experience from discovery to live service and the ongoing iterations. They will work closely with delivery managers and architects/associates to prioritise the backlog of the various products.

This is a fast-paced, complex delivery environment with a wide-range of stakeholders including business partners, commercial functions, service owners, delivery partners and industry suppliers.

Purpose of the role:

To plan, build and iterate digital services dependent on the business and user need. The primary responsibility will be to assist in the planning and development of judiciary services throughout the various stages of their lifecycle, these include judiciary.uk, Judicial eLinks, Judicial HR, the Judicial Intranet and Judicial College Learning.

In addition, the post holder will have the opportunity to become involved in:

• ensuring existing products are meeting user needs and identifying user stories for new requirements using continuous improvement tools and techniques;

• project management, particularly stakeholder engagement and communications;

There will be opportunities to attend training courses, join government communities and engage with other product managers across other departments.

Responsibilities,

Activities & Duties:

Key responsibility:

• Work with product managers, delivery manager, product owners, stakeholders, users, suppliers, various teams and the Head of Judicial Digital Services to plan and support the development and ongoing improvements of products across the Judicial Office.

Additional responsibilities:

• Work with product owners, delivery managers and suppliers and the Head of Digital Services on the delivery and continuous improvement of digital products and services, ensuring their ongoing success.

• Assist with the creation of clear, concise user stories with acceptance criteria and definitions of success.

• Maintain knowledge of the changing digital and technology landscape and the opportunities they provide to improve the delivery of services for the UK judiciary.

• Potentially line manage and lead an Associate Product Manager

Essential Knowledge, Experience and Skills

The successful post-holder will:

• Have strong verbal, written and visual communication skills, that you are able to tailor to the needs of the audience.

• Be able to evaluate and solve problems creatively and think laterally.

• Gather evidence and data, present them succinctly and use them to inform decisions appropriately.

• Have experience or knowledge of the process of designing and digitising services in a user-centric and evidence-led way.

• Have a desire and ability to learn quickly and collaborate with others.

• Be able to empathise with the needs of users, colleagues and stakeholders, and to balance and prioritise competing needs effectively when required.

• Have an appreciation of good design and experience of building intuitive user interfaces.

• Have good organisational and analytical skills.

Essential:

• Strong understanding of, and preferably proven experience in, managing product lifecycles.

• Proven experience of working better together in multi-disciplinary teams, with evidence of strong communication skills including influencing and negotiating.

• Develop excellent working relationships with team members and stakeholders, taking the time to understand their needs and concerns, and collaborating with them to deliver outcomes that provide outstanding user experiences while supporting the overall vision for the product through discovery, alpha, beta and live states.

• Strong problem solving, analytical and people management skills.

• Experience of the opportunities offered by digital services and technology.

• Have excellent communication skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with a large body of stakeholders inside and outside government.

• Practitioner level awareness of agile methodology and how this relates to the delivery and development of a product based on user needs.

• Experience of prioritising spending based on Return on Investment (ROI); the ability to use this information and data to build business cases for development.

• Using data to make product decisions.

• Developing, managing and configuration of digital products or services.

• Experience of managing a group of wide-ranging stakeholders, ideally with conflicting needs and interests.

• Able to demonstrate an understanding of the different disciplines involved in the delivery of a digital product or service, including development, user experience, content design, performance analysis and user research.

• Experience in project management, preferably in an agile environment.

• Previous experience of juggling multiple tasks and multiple projects at the same time.

• A creative thinker, with the ability to analyse and balance user needs with business requirements and technical constraints.

• Good understanding of technology development practices, and the ability to translate technical language and concepts to non-technical stakeholders, and vice versa.

Desirable Knowledge, Experience and Skills

• Knowledge of or experience working with Content Management Systems and/or, Learning Management Systems.

• Experience of integrating data throughout a number of systems using API technology to improve access, content and user experience.

• Practitioner level knowledge of the GDS Service Standards and how to apply them to building a service.

• Experience of prioritisation of a backlog within budgetary constraints and working with suppliers to ensure payments are made in accordance with delivery.

• Experience of coaching / mentoring Associate Product Managers or team members in a digital environment.

Behaviours (for Recruitment/Success Profiles):

• Changing and Improving

• Communicating and Influencing

• Managing a Quality Service

• Working Together

Technical skills:

We'll also assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Product Manager

For further information see the Digital, Data & Technology Profession skills:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/product-manager-skills-they-need/product-manager-skills-they-need

Assessment process at application

Candidates must submit:

• a current and relevant CV;

• a Cover letter (word limit of 750 words) setting out why you are interested in the role and how you meet the essential skills and experience required.

Assessment process at interview

Interviews will test the Civil Service Behaviours as laid out in the job description, Civil Service Strengths, and the Technical skills demonstrated in your application form.

For Strengths, we are looking for your initial reaction to the question asked, so this is not something you can prepare in advance. Answers to these are usually around  2-3 minutes. We will not be able to rephrase the question, but we can repeat if needed.

For Behaviours, we are looking for detailed examples of when you have demonstrated the Behaviour being assessed. It is best to use one example per question, and what we’re looking for is:

• What was the situation?

• What did you do and why?

• How did you do it?

• What was the outcome?

Answers to these are usually around 5-8 minutes. We may ask further prompt questions, and we can repeat or rephrase the question if needed.

Candidates are also asked to deliver a 10 minute presentation based around a scenario which will be given to successful sift candidates ahead of interview.

Note: due to the volume of applications we receive we are unable to provide feedback after the CV review (sift) stage.

Security clearance required:

CTC

Please note:

Central Government policy dictates that applicants for National Security Clearance must be a resident in the UK for these minimum periods:

• CTC - 3 years

• SC - 5 years

• DV - 10 years