Type: Business
Role: Product Manager
Venture: Pawame
Location: Nairobi, Kenya
Deadline: July, 14 2019
About Pawame
Pawame provides solar home systems (SHSs) and more to off-grid communities in Africa on a rent-to-own basis. Starting from our base in Kenya we are tackling the huge challenge (opportunity!) to electrify and serve the >160 million households (70% of the population) in sub-Saharan Africa that don’t have access to grid power. Our SHS is not just cheaper, cleaner, and more convenient than traditional solutions, it’s transformation: by the time our customers have paid off their systems (after about 18 months) we are able — using technology, proprietary credit scoring and innovative payment schemes — to profitably offer them an array of life changing products and services that they would not otherwise be able to access or afford. Ultimately we aim to be not just an energy access company but a leading provider of products and services to the ‘bottom of the pyramid’, a trusted life partner for our customers, and one of the most respected consumer brands in Africa.
In partnership with Pawame, as a Fellow with Engineers Without Borders Canada (EWB Canada), you will be placed as a Product Manager with Pawame to work with their team in Kenya. Throughout your Fellowship with EWB, you will receive guidance, mentorship and financial support from the community in Canada and in East and West Africa.
About Engineers Without Borders Canada
EWB is a free-thinking charitable organization that brings people and ideas together to tackle the most crucial causes of poverty and inequality. We nurture talent and leadership, enable social entrepreneurship and advocate for policy innovations to cross-breed systems-changing innovations to ensure economic and public opportunity reaches everyone, including the most underserved and marginalized populations, especially women and girls.
Through our leadership curriculum and Fellowships Program, we offer experiential learning opportunities in Canada and sub-Saharan Africa to launch future shapers equipped to understand and re-engineer complex social systems. For more information, visit ewb.ca.
About You
The CTO team focuses on Product, Procurement and Supply Chain. As with most Product / Supply Chain orgs, we’re always trying to be very lean and use initiative and alternative thinking to achieve what we need to. The role would have a lot of autonomy and flexibility, we’re looking for a smart candidate to dictate what they think works for Pawame and its strategy. There’s field travel and opportunity to work with the other teams regularly. All in all if the ideas work for the company’s strategy we’re flexible to suit.
Responsibilities and Qualifications
As a Product Manager for Pawame, your responsibilities will include:
- Product Development.
- Working with Marketing and Sales teams to define new product offerings that tie in with Pawame’s financing model and can utilise the existing credit profile of a existing good paying customer. We’re currently working on Solar powered refrigeration, water pumps, water tanks, hoping to move towards pay as you go mobile phones, school fee loans.
- Product sampling.
- Performing a desktop analysis of chosen products for suitability within the Pawame portfolio, including some limited physical trails. Basically trying to assess them and/or break them before we move to the next stage.
- Product pilots.
- Identify new / existing customers to trial a new product range / model and assess its true suitability for Pawame’s customers large scale.
- Test plan writing and other assessment criteria.
- Location of pilots, identifying key measurement criteria, measurement devices needed, working with Sales and Portfolio management teams to identify suitable customers and or geographies.
- Applying for grants and funding.
- Working / leading funding applications that relate specifically to an R&D / Product event. Whilst grants aren’t guaranteed we do try to use them where possible. Debt and company capital are also funding sources which we try not to use where we can.
Sound exciting? Here’s who we are looking for.
Skills & Qualifications
- 5+ years of progressive responsibility and track record of success in management consulting, strategy and planning, and/or program/project management roles with a major company;
- Extensive experience partnering with cross functional executive teams;
- Commercial acumen. Expert in the understanding and application of theoretical and practical approaches to business and business management;
- Ability to analyze financial data/reports and produce actionable insights that drive of business performance, generally and in specific problem areas;
- Ability to think strategically;
- To think about a complex system in a holistic, integrated fashion;
- To link strategy to implementation and develop strategically-focused plans;
- Business strategy and planning skills;
- Strong general management skills;
- Comfort with information technology.
Application Inquiries
- For inquiries about the EWB Fellowship experience, please contact: fellowrecruitment@ewb.ca
- For inquiries about the role with Pawame, please contact: Catherine Wahome
Application Instructions
For further details, please refer to our website.
