Brooks Sports, Inc.:
Product Line Manager – Blue Line Job in Seattle, VT

Who We Are: Brooks is a team of passionate people united by a desire to do meaningful work, lead healthy lives and make a difference. We share a focused mission: to inspire everyone to run and be active. That’s it. No distractions—it’s all about the run. Through science, creativity, service, authenticity and connection, we obsess over delivering the best running gear on the planet. We do it our way, with our unique spirit, with a goal of being more relevant to runners than any other brand, day after day and mile after mile. We are determined to innovate, challenging ourselves to lead thought at every turn. Inside these walls and on the roads, tracks and trails, we live and breathe Run Happy, celebrating the positive impact running has on our lives and others. We inject it into all we do because it makes everything better, smarter, more fun and more memorable. Our company culture defines us, bonds us together and creates the conditions for success. It is lived daily as a behavioral expression of our collective set of brand values: Connect with People, Innovate for our Customer, Compete as a Team, Build Trust, Have Fun & Bring Passion, and Be Active. If you’re on our team, it means you’re part of creating something extraordinary. You’re part of Brooks. As the Product Line Manager – Blue Line, you will be the consumer expert behind the execution of Blue Line specific projects that span both footwear and concepts, thereby bringing compelling products, stories and personalized running experiences to market. You will be the voice of the consumer within cross-functional teams and work to create strategies, product, technologies, processes and experiences for all who run. You will work with teams to define clear objectives, scope and conduct runner research, and discover unique opportunities to build beautiful and delightful solutions that will shape the future of running. To do this effectively you are a confident and flexible team member within interdisciplinary teams where harmonious collaboration is imperative. Your approach and point of view starts and ends with the runner; your sweet spot is the intersection of feasibility, viability and desirability. You are insights driven and great at crafting and nurturing a cohesive vision, building out business and product concepts, telling inspiring stories, and bringing those stories, products and concepts to market. Your Responsibilities: • Design Thinking: • Develop and hone design thinking skills of empathy, ideation, prototyping, and user-testing. • Work closely with the Run-Sight Lab to conduct empathy research with runners • Identify key insights and unmet needs that drive behaviors • Imagine possibilities to improve the running experience • Utilize this work to inspire the company to bring the best possibilities to life • Leadership: • Lead by example with the end goal top of mind and no fear of failure so that functional team members (internal & external) achieve their personal best and feel motivated and empowered to higher levels of achievement, insuring the highest standards of Fit, Feel, Look and Ride (Technical, Biomechanical, Experiential and Aesthetic). • Brief products, concepts and services - (Why, Who, What, & How to Win) to deliver against strategic initiatives, incorporating consumer insights and market feedback; Biomechanical feedback (From Lab & Academic Experts), Design crafted beauty and Technical Capabilities (from Engineering). • Provide active leadership within Blue Line Triads on settling and executing feasibility, viability and desirability of products, concepts and services. • Actively work within Blue Line Triad, representing consumer readiness and collaborating with the triad to achieve brief goals. • Planning & Strategy: • Participate in global consumer research projects that mine for latent needs. Be actively involved in the project synthesis and expressions. • Define and maintain a project management timeline within Blue Line PLM team for how individual projects feed into each other as well as the overall Blue Line roadmap. • Concept Development: • Write-up one-pagers, mission docs and briefs associated with Blue Line projects • Lead multiple complex and innovative concepts from insights, through prototypes, to validation and into seasonal integrations in collaboration with project and functional teams • Work with In-line Product Line Management to obtain factual consumer, athlete and marketplace cues and product goals (functional, emotional, competitive) to motivate, shape and validate concepts, ideas and theories throughout the creation process. • Give ideas for product design, construction, materials, compounds and components to enhance functionality, aesthetics, fit and profit margin. • Work closely with Run-Sight lab to bring to bear key consumer insights that apply to Blue Line including personalization projects • Works with Wear Testing and Human Performance Lab on the testing and validation of all performance characteristics from early prototypes to final confirmation. • Communication/ Go to Market: • Architect and develop competitive Go to Market plans in conjunction with Senior Manager Blue Line, Merchandising, Sales and Marketing for Blue Line programs • Craft sub-stories for the individual projects worked on so that they feed into the overall story within Blue Line • Responsible for driving the Go to Market of all internal strategic Blue Line cross functional alignment. • Work with In-line Product Line Management on monitoring sell-in, sell-through, market acceptance and post-mortem findings to guide the transition of technology into in-line programs and inform next generation technology development. Qualifications & Requirements • Bachelors’ degree in Innovation, Product Marketing, Design Research, Consulting or equivalent is beneficial but not necessary • 5+ successful years of experience leading the creation of cutting edge, high performance product, innovative technology projects or services. Product Management, Development or Design experience preferred. • Possess an Entrepreneurial spirt by relentlessly striving to make products and services better for runners, and desire to work in a fast pace quickly changing collaborative environment. • Proven ability to lead and influence in a collaborative, cross-functional, matrixed group to meet strategic objectives • Must demonstrate a detailed and extensive expertise and application of business development principles and concepts. • Strong project management skills with proven success of building action plans and leading teams to execute against them across complex projects & multiple functions • Strong verbal and written communication skills, with an advanced ability to communicate new ideas, concepts and functional expertise within project teams and to external stakeholders • Excellent social skills that inspire and build trust resulting in effective working relationships across the company. • Keen attention to detail in planning, organization and execution of tasks (self and through others), while still seeing the big picture and understanding how all of the pieces fit together and affect one another. • Ability to anticipate how a decision made can affect our customers, our partners, our products or other departments’ operations and/or morale; “connecting the dots.” • Demonstrates strong presentation abilities. Able to captivate an audience, simplify complexity, and inspire internal and external audiences to embrace the future. • Demonstration of innovation and initiative – Curious and open minded: always open for a challenge. Ability to challenge the status quo – always looking at improving our products and processes while also displaying a willingness to dive into the details. • Proven ability to lead and influence in collaborative, team oriented and complex global environment. International and domestic travel as required to achieve a high level of product and technology development, including visits to manu