Lead Product Manager

The Lead Product Manager owns one area of the FlowFuse product outright and runs it end to end: vision, roadmap, backlog, prioritization, sprint sequencing, refinement, and the GitHub issues engineers build from. The area of ownership is assigned based on company priorities and can shift over time. It may be Certified Nodes and the protocols that connect customers to their industrial systems (OPC UA, S7, MQTT), the core platform, the infrastructure underneath it, or how FlowFuse applies AI for its users. The shape of the role stays constant regardless of the area: a single owner who lives in their domain and runs it like it's theirs. This role builds on the [Product Manager](https://flowfuse.com/handbook/peopleops/job-descriptions/product-manager/) role. Where the base role defines product strategy across FlowFuse, the Lead Product Manager applies that craft with full ownership of a single area, working hands-on and directly with engineers. The Lead Product Manager is primarily responsible for: - Continuous Discovery: Sitting in on sales and customer calls, reviewing call recordings, and talking to users directly to find the problem behind each request. The Lead PM develops deep knowledge of FlowFuse customers and the industrial IoT domain, and keeps that knowledge current. - Owning the Area Roadmap: Holding the one-to-three-year view for their area and breaking it into work that ships in the current sprint. - Running the Area Day to Day: Triaging the backlog and incoming ideas, prioritizing, sequencing, and moving work into sprints. - Writing Exacting Specifications: Producing precise, technical, unambiguous GitHub issues. Engineers should never have to guess what "done" means. There is no PM/designer/engineer trio at FlowFuse; the Lead PM writes the spec and the ticket, and what they write is what gets built. - Running Refinement with Their Engineering Squad: Arriving prepared, making product calls within their area, and unblocking the team quickly. - Filtering and Translating Input: Leadership, peers, and active customer deals generate ideas at high volume. The Lead PM absorbs that input, turns it into a clear and sequenced plan, and protects their engineering team's focus. The Lead Product Manager reports to the Engineering Manager. ### [What is the Lead Product Manager not responsible for?](https://flowfuse.com/handbook/peopleops/job-descriptions/lead-product-manager#what-is-the-lead-product-manager-not-responsible-for) The base [Product Manager](https://flowfuse.com/handbook/peopleops/job-descriptions/product-manager/) exclusions apply, with the following clarifications: - People management: The Lead PM leads product decisions and runs refinement for their squad, but does not manage the engineers implementing the work. Building and managing a product team is a potential growth path for this role, not part of the starting scope. - Technical decisions on how the product is built or architected. - Effort estimations, the Lead Product Manager provides effort estimation when creating issues. However, the DRI for this process is the CTO. ## [Skills](https://flowfuse.com/handbook/peopleops/job-descriptions/lead-product-manager#skills) What the Lead Product Manager brings to the table: - Bias Toward Action: Moves fast, ships, and shows their work. Prefers making a reversible call today over scheduling a meeting about it next week. - Proven Craft: Has written real specifications and tickets, owned a backlog, and run refinement with an engineering squad. - Fast Learner of Hard Domains: Industrial, OT, or protocol experience is a strong plus, not a requirement. A demonstrated track record of going deep on a difficult domain matters more than existing IIoT credentials. - Fluency with Engineers: Speaks their language, respects their constraints, and makes their work easier. Earning the engineering team's trust is core to the role. - Sound Judgment Under Pressure: Holds a firm line on guardrails, coaches others toward their best work…