India is among the top ten priority markets for General Mills, and hosts our Global Shared Services Centre. This is the Global Shared Services arm of General Mills Inc., which supports its operations worldwide. With over 1,300 employees in Mumbai, the center has capabilities in the areas of Supply Chain, Finance, HR, Digital and Technology, Sales Capabilities, Consumer Insights, ITQ (R&D & Quality), and Enterprise Business Services. Learning and capacity-building is a key ingredient of our success.
Position Title
- Manager – Product Design
- Name of Function – ITQ GEMs
- Number of Openings 1
- Job Band Sr. professional
- Pay Grade PG 60
Education Degree Required and Preferred majors
M.S. degree or PhD in Sensory Science, Food Science, Psychology, Statistics, or related field + 5-10 years experience in sensory or consumer research working with project and/or business teams.
Position Description
The Product Design Leader is at the forefront of creating exciting new General Mills products that delight consumers. The Product Design Leader coaches and inspires business teams to use Consumer First Design (CFD) best practices to build robust pipelines of sustainable innovation solutions that deliver on deep consumer needs. The goal is development of transformational innovation and core growth pipelines using these processes founded in the tenets of Lean Start-Up, Design Thinking and Creative Problem Solving.
The Product Design Leader will design, develop, and execute experiments to help teams identify and deeply understand consumer problems, support teams through in market experimentation, and guide teams through iterative launch learning behaviors. The Product Design Leader will be responsible for experimenting with new methods and tools to help improve best practices, and will also train teams and the organization the latest innovation principles and processes.
The Product Design Leader leads a team, along with project work, to ensure products are designed to meet consumer needs and translate into production with their designed attributes, through the use of sensory analysis, consumer product understanding and the ability to connect the two. The ideal candidate will have a passion for developing people and teams, deeply understanding consumers and applying sensory design principles to deliver the remarkable consumer experiences that maximize business impact.
Responsibilities
- Coach cross-functional teams through CFD Innovation approach from problem identification through iterative launch learning
- Primary point of contact for learning journey on the solution (product/packaging/structure)
- Create project momentum through effective planning and coaching
- Develop appropriate research plans to test and validate our hypotheses through an iterative series of experiments.
- Execute full research plans, from creating interview guides, writing screeners, conducting customer research, and synthesis and analysis of findings into reports.
- Plan and lead CFD sessions, such as design sprints, including coaching on
- Leap of Faith Assumptions (LOFA)s and job, circumstance, foothold and design principle clarification
- FMOT testing, remove barriers for creation of MVPs of product and package for FMOT and SMOT testing
- Lean Start Up, Agile, and Design Thinking methodologies
- Validated learning
- Train the organization to elevate skills and adopt insights of the CFD Innovation Approach
- Lead a team of sensory professionals; responsible for prioritization of work, mentoring, team development planning, and performance management.
- Partner with business and research teams to develop and execute experimentation and learning plans for innovation, core growth, and quality.
- Lead projects through appropriate consumer, descriptive, and discrimination testing learning plans from exploration to confirmatory testing to build foundational product knowledge and consumer understanding.
- Responsible for the daily operation of the PGI laboratory and overall safety to assure a healthy and safety working environment
- Other duties as assigned
Required Skills/Experience
· M.S. degree or PhD in Sensory Science, Food Science, Psychology, Statistics, or related field + 5-10 years experience in sensory or consumer research working with project and/or business teams.
· Experience in Ethnography, Psychophysics, Consumer Insights, Product Development, Flavor Chemistry, or Statistics is a plus.
· Experience planning and executing sensory and consumer guidance research in conjunction with broader R&D, Consumer Insights and Marketing functions.
· Proven ability to apply sensory evaluation methods and interpret statistical analysis results of sensory evaluation data.
· Fundamental understanding of applied statistical analysis, including design of experiments and multivariate analysis techniques.
· Exceptional interpersonal, collaboration, communication and influence skills.
· Proven ability to interpret and communicate sensory and product insight findings with business and project teams.
· Ability to effectively manage resources and leverage existing data to effectively lead and influence multiple projects.
· Passion for leading and developing people.
· Experimentation and learning mindset.
Preferred Skills/Experience Understanding of Agile product development principles
- Understanding of Agile product development principles
- Team facilitation skills preferred
COMPANY OVERVIEW
We exist to make food the world loves. But we do more than that. Our company is a place that prioritizes being a force for good, a place to expand learning, explore new perspectives and reimagine new possibilities, every day.
We look for people who want to bring their best — bold thinkers with big hearts who challenge one other and grow together. Because becoming the undisputed leader in food means surrounding ourselves with people who are hungry for what’s next.
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