Remote Product Discovery Lead | Customer Research & Strategy

NelNET; Sioux Falls (SD); Remote; USD 140,000 - 150,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical, Dental, Vision

HSA and FSA

401K + Student loan repayment

Tuition reimbursement

Employee stock purchase program

Performance-based incentive pay

Wellness program

Life insurance & AD&D

EAP

AI/hiring tools awareness

Job summary

Nelnet is seeking a Product Discovery Manager to lead customer and market discovery efforts, turning opportunities into focused research questions and evidence-based product directions. You will partner with product, design, technology, and business teams to ground decisions in customer needs and data.

You will recruit participants, conduct interviews and tests, synthesize insights into actionable recommendations, and help establish scalable discovery practices across the organization.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in business, design, HCI, psychology, sociology, marketing, research, product management, or related field, or equivalent experience.
• 5+ years in product discovery, user research, product management, design, 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, audiences, and evidence criteria needed to evaluate opportunities.
• Recruit and engage customers, users, buyers, SME, and other participants to gather insights.
• Conduct interviews, workflow observations, concept testing, and other qualitative or quantitative research activities.
• Synthesize evidence into themes, Jobs to Be Done, opportunity areas, and product requirements.
• Develop and test prototypes, concepts, workflows, and other representations to accelerate learning and reduce risk.
• Evaluate findings and recommend whether opportunities should advance or be discontinued.
• Partner with stakeholders to translate insights into product strategy and priorities.
• Establish scalable discovery practices and documentation to improve quality and speed.
• Communicate findings clearly to influence decisions.

Skills

Research & Information Gathering

Feedback Gathering & Analysis

Critical Thinking

UX/UI Design

Strategic Thinking

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Design, HCI, Psychology, Sociology, Marketing, Research, PM or related field

Advanced degree or relevant training in UX research, PM, design or related discipline

Tools

Figma

Adobe XD

Job description

Nelnet is seeking a Product Discovery Manager to lead customer and market discovery efforts, turning opportunities into focused research questions and evidence-based product directions. You will partner with product, design, technology, and business teams to ground decisions in customer needs and data.

You will recruit participants, conduct interviews and tests, synthesize insights into actionable recommendations, and help establish scalable discovery practices across the organization.