Associate Director of Product Innovation
1 day ago
East Hanover
Position: Associate Director of Product Innovation Location: East Hanover, NJ 07936 (Hybrid – 3 days onsite and 2 days remote) Duration: 12+ Months Job Purpose: Reporting to the Executive Director, CRM Labs, the Associate Director, CRM Innovation Labs supports the strategy, development, and execution of CRM Labs priorities across shaping, prototyping, and proof-of-concept activities. This role tactically implements the CRM Labs iterative innovation model by translating demand into disciplined experimentation that validates business value, user experience, and technical feasibility before enterprise commitment. The Associate Director partners closely with Product Owners, business stakeholders, IT, architecture, engineering, UX, analytics, privacy, legal, and compliance teams to run rapid, evidence-based cycles that refine, advance, or off-ramp ideas quickly and transparently while ensuring successful concepts are positioned for transition into scaled delivery through standard product road mapping and production processes. Major Accountabilities: • Execute the CRM Labs model through structured, timeboxed stages including ideation support, shaping, prototyping, review and decision, and proof-of-concept readiness., • Lead tactical implementation of rapid prototyping by planning and overseeing prototype iterations with timeboxed lifecycles, ensuring disciplined scope and clear endpoints., • Translate opportunities into testable concepts by partnering with Product Owners, business stakeholders, and technical teams to define value hypotheses, assumptions, success criteria, and practical build plans., • Drive evidence-based decision making by capturing learnings from each cycle and preparing recommendations to refine, advance to proof of concept, or off-ramp initiatives based on business value, technical signal, and enterprise readiness., • Coordinate cross-functional execution across CRM Product, IT, architecture, engineering, UX, analytics, privacy, legal, security, and compliance teams., • Support proof-of-concept planning and transition by clarifying scope, dependencies, risks, governance needs, user involvement, and enterprise gates required to test in real environments., • Protect production capacity and enterprise investment by ensuring Lab work remains focused on de-risking and does not become shadow delivery, unmanaged customization, or parallel production execution., • Document and operationalize learnings through concise outputs including findings, decision logs, opportunity assessments, prototype outcomes, and recommendations that inform product roadmap and scaled delivery decisions., • Maintain governance, privacy, and compliance by following established guardrails for privacy, security, compliance, and data usage., • Partner in demand intake and prioritization by supporting regular triage of ideas from leadership, Product, business and field teams, DDIT, and lab-sourced opportunities., • Stay informed and bring back to Novartis the state of the art across enterprise CRM, generative AI, Agentic AI, deterministic AI, and data products. Key Performance Indicators: • Prototype Cycle Speed: Progress experiments through shaping and prototype cycles within defined timeboxes, with clear decisions at the end of each cycle., • Evidence-Based Outcomes: Deliver documented decisions to refine, advance, or off-ramp, supported by business value signal, feasibility insight, and stakeholder alignment., • Quality of Shaping: Ensure opportunities entering prototype have clear assumptions, value hypotheses, scope boundaries, and success criteria., • Quality of Execution: Deliver prototype outputs that are actionable, reusable, and suitable for decision making by product and production teams., • Prototype-to-PoC Readiness: Translate successful prototypes into well-defined proof-of-concept recommendations with understood dependencies, governance requirements, and delivery implications., • Stakeholder Confidence and Satisfaction: Build trust with Product, business, and technical partners through clear collaboration, practical execution, and disciplined follow-through., • Governance and Compliance: Ensure Lab activities follow established governance, privacy, security, and compliance processes with appropriate documentation., • Operational Rigor: Maintain accurate documentation, decision logs, experiment outputs, and status reporting to support transparency and continuity., • Enterprise Protection: Protect roadmap capacity and enterprise investment by avoiding uncontrolled sprawl, lingering pilots, or shadow delivery., • Learning Velocity: Generate actionable learnings quickly enough to inform prioritization, scale decisions, and future innovation efforts., • Transition Effectiveness: Support clean handoff of validated concepts into standard product planning and production delivery processes where appropriate. Education & Language: • Education: Bachelor’s degree in a related field is required., • Preferred Education: Master of Science and/or MBA preferred., • Language: Fluent English; other languages desirable. Required Skills & Qualifications: • Proven success executing rapid experimentation, prototyping, or proof-of-concept work that tests business value and feasibility before larger-scale investment., • 6+ years of experience in CRM, product management, innovation delivery, consulting, technology strategy, or related leadership roles, preferably in the pharmaceutical, healthcare, or CRM sectors., • Strong understanding of the CRM landscape across Sales, Marketing, and Service, including Salesforce (Agentforce, Data Cloud, core platform), Veeva, and adjacent technologies in the customer engagement ecosystem., • Understanding of CRM, AI, and data platforms and architectures, such as Salesforce, AWS, Veeva, OpenAI, Anthropic, Snowflake, or similar enterprise technologies., • Experience translating ambiguous ideas into clear experiments, including framing the use case, defining assumptions, identifying success criteria, and shaping practical build plans., • Experience working across business and technical teams, including Product, architecture, engineering, UX, analytics, privacy, legal, compliance, and operations., • Strong operational discipline in agile delivery, work management, documentation, decision tracking, and transparent status communication., • Comfort working hands-on in iterative delivery cycles with a bias toward action, speed, learning, and practical outcomes over excessive polish., • Experience supporting governance in regulated environments, including privacy, security, compliance, and risk management considerations relevant to healthcare and customer engagement platforms., • Excellent communication skills with the ability to build stakeholder alignment, synthesize learnings, and recommend decisions grounded in business value and empirical evidence., • Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with the ability to interpret complex inputs, challenge assumptions, and adapt approaches in a rapidly evolving technological landscape. Preferred Skills / Experience: • Experience enabling the transition from prototype to production, including partnering with delivery teams to package outputs, define next steps, and minimize rework. Leadership Competencies: • Identify key issues in complex situations, keeping focused on the big picture and adapting and prioritizing during change., • Demonstrate long-term vision by taking a broader view, thinking through indirect consequences and longer-term implications., • Deliver collective impact., • Engage with others and integrate diverse perspectives from colleagues to achieve the best outcome for the enterprise., • Demonstrate influence without authority and work and collaborate across boundaries., • Challenge assumptions and make decisions grounded in data., • Build situational awareness and adapt leadership style to enhance the impact of others and performance of the team.