Remote Product Discovery Lead

NelNET; Hastings (NE); Remote; USD 140,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, dental, vision

401K

Tuition reimbursement

Stock purchase program

Paid time off

Wellness program

Job summary

Nelnet is seeking a Product Discovery Manager to lead customer and market discovery activities, translating evidence into actionable product recommendations. You will work with product, design, and technology teams to reduce uncertainty before major investments and define clear strategies based on customer needs.

The role requires 5+ years in product discovery or related fields, with strong research, prototyping, and communication skills.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of experience in product discovery, user research, product management, product design, customer research, innovation, or related discipline.
• Experience independently planning and conducting customer or user discovery and translating findings into actionable recommendations.
• Experience evaluating ambiguous opportunities and using evidence to influence product or business decisions.
• Experience collaborating across product, design, technology, commercial, or business functions.

Responsibilities

• Lead product and customer discovery activities to understand customer needs, behaviors, workflows, pain points, and unmet opportunities.
• Define research questions, hypotheses, target audiences, and evidence criteria needed to evaluate product and business opportunities.
• Recruit and engage customers, users, buyers, subject‑matter experts, and other relevant participants to gather actionable insights.
• Conduct interviews, workflow observations, concept testing, and other qualitative or quantitative research activities appropriate to the business question.
• Synthesize customer and market evidence into clear themes, Jobs to Be Done, opportunity areas, product requirements, and recommendations.
• Develop and test prototypes, concepts, workflows, and other representations of potential solutions to accelerate learning and reduce product risk.
• Evaluate discovery findings and recommend whether opportunities should advance or be discontinued based on evidence.
• Partner with product, design, technology, commercial, and business stakeholders to translate insights into product strategy and development priorities.
• Establish scalable discovery practices, research repositories, templates, tools, and documentation to improve quality and speed of discovery work.
• Communicate findings and recommendations clearly to stakeholders, using evidence and business context to influence decisions.

Skills

Research & Information Gathering

Feedback Gathering & Analysis

Critical Thinking

UX/UI Design

Strategic Thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Sociology, Marketing, Research, Product Management, or a related field, or equivalent combination of education and relevant experience.

Job description

Nelnet is seeking a Product Discovery Manager to lead customer and market discovery activities, translating evidence into actionable product recommendations. You will work with product, design, and technology teams to reduce uncertainty before major investments and define clear strategies based on customer needs.

The role requires 5+ years in product discovery or related fields, with strong research, prototyping, and communication skills.