Main Job Purpose
The Group Product Manager is responsible for the product roadmap and delivery oversight across Chancen's two technology streams: operational automation (Layer 1 and Layer 3, owned by Central IT/MIS) and the Chancen Companion product (Layer 2, owned by Chancen Tech). This is not a coordination role — it is a builder role. The Group PM owns the product backlog, drives prioritisation, translates operational insight into product decisions, builds prototypes, and ensures that what gets built actually gets used.
The role reports to the CEO as Product Owner and works in close partnership with the Head of IT, the Group SysDev Manager.
Responsibilities
Product strategy and roadmap ownership
Own and maintain the Group product roadmap across automation and the Chancen Companion, aligned to Chancen's 2026 OKRs and the Technology and Automation Strategy
Prioritise the product backlog using the Opportunity Scoring methodology — ensuring decisions are grounded in operational evidence, OKR alignment, and user impact, not technology preference
Lead the quarterly product review at the Technology Steering Committee, presenting roadmap progress, trade-offs, and recommended priorities.
Make and document Build vs Buy recommendations for significant technology decisions, in accordance with the framework set out in the Technology and Automation Strategy
Translate the feedback loop between operations and innovation into concrete product decisions — ensuring what country teams are experiencing informs what Chancen Tech builds next.
Chancen Companion product management
Own the product requirements and feature backlog for the Chancen Companion across all three markets, working directly with CTO and the Chancen Tech team
Build prototypes stemming from the above requirements, in close collaboration with the CTO. This role expects pre-existing skills and/or willingness to learn AI-native workflows.
Drive the rollout programme currently underway: Kenya full rollout, South Africa and Rwanda beta and soft launch phases, and the expansion to all users per market
Gather structured feedback from internal users (country operations staff) and external users (students and members) and translate it into product improvements
Monitor engagement, adoption, and user satisfaction metrics across all markets — and make calls on what to change, add, or stop
Contribute to the positioning of the Companion as an external B2B product, ensuring it is always designed as if the customer is a financial institution, not just Chancen's own teams
Explore and propose AI-powered features within the Companion that could improve financial coaching, repayment behaviour, and member outcomes.
Operational automation oversight
Work with Country Product & Systems Managers across Rwanda, Kenya, and South Africa to review submitted automation opportunities, score them against the methodology, and advise on prioritisation for the IT Steerco
Ensure the nine-step automation methodology is being applied consistently across countries — and that Discovery Steps (Identify, Map, Design) produce quality inputs before anything moves to Build
Collaborate actively with the CTO and Country teams during the Build phase steps.
Own the product sign-off at Pilot and Rollout) — the Group PM is the person who confirms a solution is genuinely ready, not just technically complete
User insight and continuous improvement
Run structured feedback sessions with country staff, students, and PEIs to surface pain points and unmet needs — this is the primary input for both automation prioritisation and Companion product decisions
Analyse usage data, support ticket patterns, and adoption metrics to identify where solutions are working and where they are not
Maintain a clear distinction between what is a product problem, what is a training problem, and what is a process problem — and ensure each is addressed in the right way
AI and emerging technology
Stay current with AI tools and applications relevant to financial inclusion, youth engagement, education finance, and operational automation
Identify practical AI use cases within the Chancen context — for both the Companion (member-facing coaching, repayment nudges, financial literacy) and internal operations (risk assessment, portfolio monitoring, reporting)
Brief the Head of IT and central team on emerging tools and approaches that could raise the ceiling of what Chancen's technology can do. Run capability-building workshops, hackathons and similar internal events.
Person Specification
Essential
Based in Rwanda, Kenya or South Africa — this role requires deep contextual understanding of the markets Chancen operates in and the communities we serve. Applications from outside Africa will not be considered
Genuine obsession with financial inclusion — you should be able to speak at length about why access to education finance matters, what the gaps are across the continent, and where the opportunity lies.
This is not a line on a CV; it should be evident from your work history and how you think
Proven product management experience — minimum 7 years of experience, at least four years in a product role, with clear examples of owning a backlog, driving prioritisation, and delivering working software in a resource-constrained environment
Experience working across multiple countries or markets simultaneously, ideally within Africa
Comfort with AI tools in practice — not theoretical knowledge, but demonstrated use of AI in your own work, with a view on where it creates real value and where it does not
Strong analytical instincts — able to read data, identify patterns, and make product decisions based on evidence rather than opinion
Excellent written and verbal communication in English — this role produces written artefacts (roadmaps, requirement documents, sprint review summaries, steering committee reports) that need to be clear and actionable
Strongly preferred
Experience in fintech, financial services, or edtech — ideally in a context where the end users are low-income or underserved communities
Familiarity with agile sprint delivery and working directly alongside software developers
Understanding of data systems, APIs, and system integrations at a conceptual level — you do not need to be a developer, but you need to understand the implications of technical decisions for product
Experience with conversational AI products, chatbots, or WhatsApp-based user engagement
Ability to turn requirements into evaluation datasets highly desired.
French or Kinyarwanda language skills an advantage given our Rwanda operations