Dandelion Chocolate is a bean-to-bar chocolate factory in the Mission District of San Francisco.
We opened our workshop out of a lifetime love of chocolate. Our friends often said that given enough time, it seemed inevitable that one of us would open a chocolate factory. They watched as we experimented with growing small cacao plants in our apartments, pan roasted beans in the oven, and ate our way through the many of the chocolate shops of the world.
In early 2010, we decided to share our craft chocolate with our friends and family and have expanded since. Currently, in our factory in the Mission district of San Francisco, we roast, crack, sort, winnow, grind, conch, and temper small batches of beans and then mold and package each bar by hand. By sourcing high quality beans and carefully crafting tiny batches, we try to bring out the individual flavors and nuances of each bean.
We’re excited to bring artisan bean-to-bar chocolate back to the bay area. Like many, we miss Scharffen Berger now that they moved east to join Hershey’s. We lost our local source for cocoa nibs and some of our favorite bars of dark chocolate. We hope and aspire to take over where others have left off and bring quality, local chocolate back to the area.
We aspire to create some of the best chocolate experiences in the world and that extends beyond our stores, tours, and classes and hope to have one of the best online experiences in the world as well. In this role, you will help drive forward our vision and roadmap for our online store, special products available online, help craft our online marketing programs, devise our overall digital strategy and figure out ways to get our chocolate into the hands (and mouths!) of our fans.
You’ll work directly with the Marketing, Analytics, and Engineering teams as well as chocolate maker, kitchen, and creative teams to build novel experiences that expand how people relate to chocolate. We hope to curate new chocolate experiences that might connect a chocolate connoisseur with a new origin, that develop a chocolate novice’s palette, and that become cherished gifts for a loved one -- even if that chocolate enthusiast is not in our geographic area. You’ll also be responsible for helping craft our online presence including our online store and how our products are presented and how they convert -- but also beyond: to our own website, social sites, Google, ads, and all parts digital.
You’ll dig deep into, and own, our digital strategy, looking at best practices of digital native brands, and help craft a strategy that positions Dandelion Chocolate as a leader in online chocolate experiences.
A Day in the Life
While no day is ever the same, your morning might start off with a quick stand-up with key members from the Chocolate Making, Operations, and Creative teams. While working on a new online exclusive product offering, the team became inspired to create a new infographic to show how to make the perfect S’mores sharing kit which has spun off into a research project on perfect ganache melting temperatures, marshmallow shelf life, and finding suppliers for rare birch skewers. In the afternoon, you sit in on a Finance meeting to see how this week’s numbers are shaping up against our forecast. On your way out, you run into a PR team member in the hallway who wants to review next month’s online marketing strategy. In that exchange, your colleague shares that the NYTimes just wrote to see if we had any special chocolate tasting kits that they could highlight in next week’s magazine. You spend an hour or two sketching some rough concepts and building slides that the PR team can share. Before heading home, you update the online roadmap so that the Chocolate Maker teams have the most current schedule for their morning meeting. And while heading out the door, you do a final check of the day’s numbers to see how our current initiatives are performing.
About You
Our ideal candidate is customer-focused, buttoned-up, a team player, and is always on brand. The best products come from informed, aligned, and inspired teams -- all guided by your leadership. As one of Dandelion Chocolate’s first Product Managers, you will also be developing best practices and tools for future Product Managers. Having a few previous tricky product launches under your belt will serve you well. There are always surprises and even when we think we have a bullet-proof plan, beans fall off ships, the government shuts down, or a vendor discontinues a part without notice. Your previous experience will help you develop a plan B (and maybe a plan C) so we can continue a tradition of exquisite products.
Responsibilities
- Vision: Work with stakeholders to design a product roadmap of beautiful, inspiring experiences that despite all of the crazy logistical complexities (e.g. technical limitations, resource limitations, not-sure-it’s possible, etc) still maintain a coherent vision. When possible, develop “out of the box” solutions to new problems rather than making easy compromises that lead to mediocre products.
- Strategy: Predict where Dandelion Chocolate wants to be in a year (e.g. revenue, online presence, community relationships, cacao sourcing), assess potential opportunities, and envision what would be the “Dandelion way” to see these products & experiences realized. Develop a schedule so we meet our annual goals while building goodwill within a community that can’t wait to see what we are up to next.
- Planning & transparency : There are so many amazing ideas! We have such an amazing team! And yet, we only have the resources to nail a few concepts each year. Maintain an open list of ideas and share how you’re prioritizing so the team knows all ideas were considered and fairly prioritized. Proactively share expectations of the cost, budget, revenue, lead time, etc so teams can plan ahead. Maintain a rhythm of daily check-ins so teams are in sync and we spot bottlenecks as early as possible.
- Specs and testing: You love numbers! You love data! You A/B test and figure out what really works based on real customer interactions and not just gut instinct and anecdotes. You know your funnels, and your cohorts and dream about LTV and CAC.
- Specs and systems: Developed an annual calendar of events that is a repeatable platform we can build upon for the future of Dandelion. Develop specs that will scale across multiple years. Maintains space and organizational systems anticipating repeating projects with minimal overhead. When developing a new product, think about what is necessary for this product to be successful in the second and third iteration.
- Stakeholder relationships: Ask as many questions upfront with all key team members to fully understand objectives, to build alignment among execs, & to be a reliable resource to the team so they can make good day-to-day trade-off decisions. You’ll likely know when you need more time, money, or resources than anticipated and you proactively propose solutions as soon as possible rather than waiting until the last minute or taking on unnecessary risks.
- Team player: Enlist team members in product development process and help translate concerns and issues across the organization in terms that team will best understand (e.g. numbers, pixels, schedule, strategy, etc). Provide feedback without overstepping boundaries and receive feedback gracefully. Spot where leaders aren’t yet aligned and open up communication lines without creating rifts or politics. Ultimately, we aim to align the teams so that our product looks like it was designed by a single person with a consistent eye rather than multiple teams in conflict.
- Research & logistics: Research market data, competitors, regulatory issues, technical constraints, so that products launch smoothly and there are few recalls, hiccups, safety incidents, or unnecessary revisions. When possible, work with outside teams for additional expertise and design resource and be the trusted contact that represents Dandelion Chocolate for those external relationships.
- Operational savvy: Understand how Kitchen, Wholesale, and Retail teams operate and see what issues might be important like asking the kitchen to work on a large order over the holidays, avoiding shipping chocolate to Dubai in the summer, anticipating how much space is necessary to store 25000 boxes over two years, or wondering whether tying teeny bows might result in RSI.
- Tools: Continuously further your toolkit for planning, prototyping, communicating, and research. When necessary, help roll out new machines and technologies across teams by socializing upcoming new changes and helping managers support their teams with changes & trade-offs.
- Metrics & Reports: Write weekly reports without prompting. Plan and track metrics so it is easy for exec & operational teams to see progress. Double-check data before jumping to assumptions. Think about what metrics to track long-term so we gain useful insights for future iterations.
- Day-to-day planning: Guide the team through daily stand-ups using Agile principles to maintain momentum and communication so team members stay up-to-date and are
- Other tasks as necessary
Requirements
- Online: Experience building and shipping online products and/or managing an online store.
- Graphic design skills: Can use basic graphic or sketching tools to build a mockup, wireframe, prototype, or storyboard that excites and aligns team members and allows them to give feedback at appropriate parts of the process.
- Technical skills: Can build spreadsheets with formulas where the assumptions are easy to track and can be used for multiple years. Can develop schedules in a medium that makes the most sense for the team (spreadsheets, charts, calendars, etc). Proactively evaluate new tools for scheduling and planning.
- 3-5 years in product development role: Previous experience in a customer-focused product role such as on a Creative, Product, Packaging, or Engineering team is a big plus. You know how to handle the inevitable last-minute hiccups, how to build documentation for future iterations, and have the patience and perspective to work on product initiatives that may span 2-3+ years.
- Bonus : previous experience working in the intersection of food, design, and manufacturing.
- Bonus : Prior UX/HCI experience is a huge plus for reshaping business strategy into user-focused product priorities.
- Bonus : Basic coding abilities to be able to write simple scripts, run tests, pull data out SQL databases.
Benefits
Dandelion Chocolate constantly invests in its people and culture. We offer excellent perks including subsidized medical, vision, and dental benefits as well as the option to enroll in our 401k program. Hourly employees receive paid vacation time and sick time. In addition, our team members enjoy commuter benefits, local gym discounts, and lots of chocolate tasting opportunities.
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