Product Development Manager

Responsibilities

• Own product development strategy for assigned IPs/categories in China, translating franchise priorities into licensee 12-24 month hardlines product line plans, assortments, and seasonal drops.
• Lead end-to-end hardlines development from concept/brief to mass production: ideation, costing, CMF direction, prototyping, factory sampling, packaging, and production sign-off.
• Establish and run a clear stage-gate process, ensuring on-time milestones, risk management, and stakeholder approvals (brand, legal, compliance, manufacturing, retail).
• Collaborate Across Teams: Work closely with commercial, marketing, and product development teams to translate business objectives into compelling creative strategies. Partner with Sales/BD to support pitching, line reviews, and customer-specific initiatives for hardlines key accounts and licensees.
• Manage and influence licensees: provide briefs, design/PD direction, feedback loops, and approvals; elevate output quality while enabling speed and scalability.
• Own supplier and vendor collaboration: align on technical feasibility, tooling approach, materials, safety standards, test requirements, packaging specifications, and lead-times; drive continuous improvement on cost and delivery.
• Ensure Quality & Efficiency: Streamline workflows to optimize cost and effectiveness, while maintaining global quality standards. Champion best practices, templates, and governance across hardlines projects (briefs, tech packs, approval trackers, sample review cadence).
• Support Strategic Initiatives: Contribute to pitch decks, concept mock-ups, and visual storytelling for business development and content partnerships. Provide product narratives, range architecture, and commercial rationale tailored to hardlines.
• Ensure assets are aligned to product launches and franchise calendars.
• Track development progress and support forecasting inputs (e.g., launch readiness, key risks, and assumptions) to improve business predictability.

Requirements

• Creative Excellence: High personal standards and attention to detail across graphic design, product development, and visual storytelling. Able to set the bar for partners/teams and ensure consistent execution at scale.
• Hardlines Product Development Expertise: Strong understanding of hardlines development workflows including materials, mechanisms/structure, CMF, packaging, costing, tooling considerations, and production constraints.
• Compliance Mindset: Familiarity with product safety and compliance requirements, testing documentation, labelling, and quality gates for hardlines categories.
• Commercial & Analytical Skills: Comfortable with range architecture, cost-to-margin thinking, and using sales/consumer insights to guide product decisions.
• Strategic Thinking: Ability to solve creative challenges with innovative, brand-aligned solutions. Strong judgment to balance brand integrity, feasibility, speed, and profitability.
• Collaborative Spirit: Enjoys working with diverse teams and thrives in a multi-disciplinary, multicultural setting. Confident working with external licensees, suppliers, and stakeholders across regions.

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