What are the responsibilities and job description for the Product Strategist position at Robo?
About Robo At Robo, our mission is simple: If it rolls, floats or flies, we put IoT on the Move. We are an expert engineering firm specializing in helping manufacturers of specialized vehicles make their products smart. We create the technology that connects all parts of a vehicle, allowing them to communicate with each other and their users. By seamlessly integrating hardware with software, our expert team revolutionizes how owners and operators interact with commercial vehicles.
Position Overview Robo is seeking a Product Strategist to act as the critical bridge between complex stakeholder needs and our "Modular Foundation" engineering solutions. You will navigate the unknowns of bringing new, enterprise-level multiplexed vehicle solutions to market. Drawing on your background in product management, you will extract vital system requirements from individuals unaccustomed to technical documentation, mapping business processes to identify roadblocks before they impact the engineering phases.
Location & Work Environment Because this role requires hands-on access to our lab, vehicle prototypes, and electrical testing equipment, we expect the successful candidate to work primarily on-site (typically 3-4 days per week) in Wixom, Michigan. However, we offer flexibility for remote work when tasks allow, and we do not mandate a strict 5-day office presence.
What You’ll Do
- Stakeholder Empathy & Requirements Extraction: Conduct deep-dive interviews and workshops with clients, fleet managers, owner/operators, and product managers to extract and define comprehensive system requirements for connected multiplex solutions.
- Specialty Equipment Strategy: Champion the integration strategy for auxiliary, behind-the-cab components (e.g., generators, compressors, outriggers, inverters, cameras, lighting), ensuring the physical realities of the equipment translate smoothly into the digital ecosystem.
- Pretotype Development & Socialization: Lead the creation and socialization of "Pretotype" artifacts to efficiently gather inputs from critical stakeholders, capturing key usability considerations and system requirements for new hardware-integrated specialty vehicle initiatives.
- Cross-Functional Translation: Collaborate closely with Electrical, Software, and NetCom Engineers, as well as Experience Designers, to translate business needs and physical component behaviors into actionable technical specifications.
- Roadblock Identification: Utilize your understanding of end-to-end fleet business processes and raw hardware capabilities to anticipate potential project roadblocks, championing the perspective of the end-user throughout the development lifecycle.
- Relationship Stewardship: Serve as the primary point of contact for client stakeholders to ensure our "Modular Foundation" deliverables consistently align with their long-term business goals and operational needs.
- Insight-Driven Consultation: Lead high-level discussions regarding technical roadblocks or physical equipment constraints, framing these as critical insights that refine the scope and success of the future connected vehicle solution.
- Extreme Ownership of Deliverables: Take full accountability for client satisfaction throughout the project lifecycle, ensuring that the "physical realities" of specialty equipment are harmonized with the digital ecosystem to meet the client’s objectives.
What We’re Looking For / Required Qualifications
- Experience: Previous experience as a Product Manager or in a similar strategic product development role, taking new hardware/software products to market (experience in IoT, Telematics, Automotive, or Commercial Fleet technologies is a strong plus).
- Strategic Client Advocacy: Proven experience in a customer-facing strategic role where you were responsible for account health and long-term partnership value.
- Skillset: High comfort level working with ambiguity and unknowns. Strong ability to map business processes and envision the end-to-end user journey.
- Relationship Resilience: Experience acting as the primary point of contact for enterprise-level stakeholders, maintaining trust and "Win/Win" outcomes even when navigating complex project shifts.
- Technical Acumen: Conceptual understanding of vehicle networking, telemetry, and hardware/software ecosystems. You do not need to write the code or wire the harness, but you must understand how the systems communicate.
- Core Values Alignment: Must deeply align with Robo's core values: Extreme Ownership, Indomitable Spirit, Growth Mindset, We Not Me, and Win/Win.