Product Manager, AHTP Coalitions & Internal Operations

About TakeRoot Justice

TakeRoot Justice (TakeRoot) was founded in 2001 and provides legal, participatory research, and policy support to strengthen the work of grassroots and community-based groups in New York City to dismantle racial, economic and social oppression. TakeRoot employs a unique model of partnership with grassroots and community-based groups. Our partners take the lead in determining the priorities and goals for our work and advance our understanding of justice. We believe in a theory of change where short-term and individual successes help build the capacity and power of our partners, who in turn can have longer-term impact on policies, laws, and systems that affect their communities.

TakeRoot models our internal structure on anti-oppressive and democratic principles to build a workplace culture that mirrors the progressive change we pursue through our work. We encourage all staff members to participate in key organizational decisions and to help manage integral aspects of our internal operations through a system of committees, or “circles,” that oversee areas such as hiring, budgetary decisions, racial justice work, internal and external community building, communications, policy, and more. To learn more about TakeRoot, visit takerootjustice.org.

About the Position

TakeRoot seeks a Product Manager to lead the continuous improvement of the technology systems and workflows for our Housing team—12 attorneys and four paralegals—and the contract managers across the 13 legal services organizations in the LEAP Coalition working on NYC's Anti-Harassment Tenant Protection (AHTP) program, which is coordinated by TakeRoot. This role will also spearhead our implementation of product development principles and processes within these two areas.

This is a new position borne of a transformation that has been underway for the past year and a half: transitioning the work of our Resource Management Team from collecting data from practice areas for contract compliance purposes, to building technology that supports every aspect of our work, including the delivery of our legal services. The person in this position will help us take that transition to the next level.

The Product Manager’s job is to systematically understand the processes of the Housing team and the AHTP contract managers, talk to the people doing the work to imagine better solutions, and help prioritize what we build next. The discovery process will also include hands-on work—fielding questions, helping coordinate data collection, supporting our current systems—until the tools this role hopes to build are mature enough to be handed off.

We do not currently have any engineers on staff, but we may be able to engage one on an as-needed project basis. For strategic decision-making and implementation, the Product Manager will collaborate with our Director of Data (the equivalent of the “product owner”), formerly a generalist at tech startups and an attorney on our Housing team. We develop principally within Airtable, utilizing scripts within Airtable automations to integrate other tools—though we’re open to utilizing other tools or building our own whenever it makes sense.

This is a full-time, hybrid position with only occasional in-person work required in our New York City office. TakeRoot is committed to work/life balance—the Product Manager can do excellent, meaningful work and still log off when the day is done.

About the Team

The Resource Management Team (RMT) collaborates with all of TakeRoot’s practice areas⎯Housing, Immigrants’ Rights, Workers’ Rights, Equitable Neighborhoods, Capacity Building, Consumer Justice, and Research & Policy—to manage our government contracts and data systems and ensure our organization’s work is well-resourced. Externally, we coordinate several coalitions of legal services and community-based organizations to secure resources, manage contracts, and coordinate services, all to build our partners’ and allies’ collective power.

We are in the middle of two related transformations: switching from LegalServer to Airtable as the core of our technology stack; and building our systems as genuine products designed to support the people doing the work, rather than treating our systems primarily as contract compliance infrastructure. We undertook this transition first with our Housing team and the LEAP AHTP coalition, and the results have been very encouraging: we’re capturing more work that was always being done, our advocates spend far less time on administrative overhead, and the relationship between RMT and Housing has shifted from extractive to genuinely collaborative. This role will build on this initial success—and as we undertake the same transition with other practice areas and coalitions, this role’s work with the Housing team and the LEAP AHTP coalition will help shape what the model looks like at scale.

Responsibilities and Duties

Product Discovery & Requirements

• Conduct user research and requirements interviews with advocates, contract managers, coalition partners, and other stakeholders to understand how our systems are serving them
• Document workflows and pain points clearly so solutions can be designed and evaluated thoughtfully
• Translate what people actually need into a prioritized roadmap for what we build and when, informed by input from all stakeholders
• Define clear requirements and success criteria for new features and system improvements
• Identify and evaluate technical solutions—whether that means building within Airtable, integrating third-party tools, or knowing when a problem warrants bringing in outside engineering help
• Given that we principally build in Airtable, the Product Manager will likely be able to take many designs from prototype to implementation—that kind of end-to-end ownership is something we actively welcome

Operational Support

• Support the LEAP AHTP coalition’s monthly and quarterly reporting, and referral intake process, as we build out new tools and processes
• Support TakeRoot’s Housing team operations for contract reporting and to strategically allocate cases to the team’s contracts, as we build out new tools and processes
• Liaise with contracting agencies to advocate for logistical improvements on behalf of the LEAP AHTP coalition

Other Work

• Attend and assist with regular TakeRoot and RMT organizational meetings
• Actively participate in TakeRoot committees/circles and contribute to overall governance and operations
• Assist with other projects as needed, including product management for other practice areas and coalitions in the future

Qualifications

• Comfortable with systems design thinking: ability to map how pieces of a workflow connect, spot where complexity is hiding, and anticipate downstream effects of changes
• Excellent listening and questioning skills; ability to draw out what people actually need, not just what they’re asking for
• Highly organized and detail-oriented, with strong time and project management skills
• Strong writing skills, capable of producing clear, concise narrative reports, requirements documentation, and communications
• Ability to work effectively both independently and as part of a team, demonstrating flexibility and initiative
• Genuine commitment to social justice
• Cultural competence: the ability to engage respectfully and effectively with individuals from diverse backgrounds and skillsets

Preferred but not required:

• Experience as a product manager, especially for internal operations
• Experience with relational databases or other data management tools
• Experience with user research methods and/or human-centered design
• Experience with sprint planning or a Kanban approach to project management
• Familiarity with coding, especially JavaScript and React
• Experience in nonprofit operations or a legal services organization

Salary and Compensation

This is a non-exempt position with an expected salary range of $83,490 to $96,550, commensurate with years of relevant experience and in accordance with our collective bargaining agreement scale. An excellent benefits package is available, including generous vacation, personal, and sick time, along with strong medical and dental coverage. This is a union position, proudly represented by Local 2320 of the National Organization of Legal Services Workers, UAW.

Equal Opportunity Employer

TakeRoot is an equal opportunity employer. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, marital status, age, national origin, ancestry, physical or mental disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic information, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other status protected under the law. TakeRoot strongly encourages applications from people with diverse backgrounds, including, but not limited to, women, people of color, immigrants, people with disabilities, LGBTGNCNBQI+ people, people from low-income backgrounds, people of all ages, people with personal experience with the criminal justice system, and people with direct and lived experience(s) with the communities we serve. TakeRoot believes that diversity and inclusion are critical to our success, and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people from a diverse candidate pool.

Benefits including an HRA plan, health, dental, vision, 401K, life insurance, PTO, and flexible work hours.