Learning Innovation
If you are interested in working at the intersection of learning, innovation and organizational change, then the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) is where you want to be. This latest role is for an Associate Director of Product. CAI’s Chief Marketing Officer, James Cleaver, graciously answered my questions about the opportunity.
If you are leading a search for a role that aligns with the readers of this column and want to amplify it, please get in touch.
Q1: What is the university’s mandate behind this role? How does it help align with and advance the university’s strategic priorities?
A: Michigan Online is the University of Michigan’s destination for lifelong learning, extending the reach of a Michigan education beyond our campuses through online and hybrid programs. The Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) creates Michigan Online’s website (online.umich.edu), maintains the technology and partnership ecosystem behind it (including LMS, CRM and credentialing platforms), and works with faculty and academic units to create noncredit and for-credit online programs.
Through Michigan Online, more than 12.5 million learners worldwide have engaged with learning experiences created by University of Michigan faculty, earning more than 4 million credentials along the way.
As CAI and the university look ahead, our goals for Michigan Online are ambitious. Michigan Online is central to the university’s commitment to serving the educational needs of learners and students over the course of their lives and careers, wherever they are in the world. It is a key way in which the university delivers life-changing education.
We believe this position presents a unique opportunity for an emerging product leader who wants to apply modern product practices to challenges that have meaningful societal impact. Few roles offer the opportunity to influence a product that serves millions of learners while helping shape how a world-class university approaches lifelong learning.
Q2: Where does the role sit within the university structure? How will the person in this role engage with other units and leaders across campus? Is the role in-person, hybrid, or remote-eligible?
A: This role is a new one, and with it comes an opportunity to make a big impact. This is a highly visible leadership role with the opportunity to shape both product strategy and product culture within the Center for Academic Innovation. The associate director will partner closely with members of the center’s executive leadership team—including our chief marketing officer, chief technology officer and chief learning officer—to help define the Michigan Online vision.
Work on Michigan Online within the center is organized into multidisciplinary, empowered “squads” focused on aspects like the website platform, learner innovation and marketing. The associate director will work across the squads to guide discovery and delivery of the Michigan Online product, and engage in discovery and advocacy with stakeholders across the center and university.
A typical day might see the associate director collaborating with our product engineering leader and our user experience design leader to discuss discovery and opportunities, as well as value, usability, feasibility and institutional viability risks across our squad work; coaching the product manager who reports to them in their squad-level work; or, engaging faculty stakeholders in conversations about their needs or those of their learners. As a center, we offer a hybrid schedule that prioritizes in-person collaboration in our center workspace on campus in Ann Arbor, Monday through Thursday.
Q3: What would success look like in one year? Three years? Beyond?
A: In all that we do at the center, we are guided by our vision of a future in which education connects and empowers learners everywhere to reach their full potential throughout their lives. Within a year, the person in the role will have sharpened our articulation of the Michigan Online product vision and furthered our discovery efforts and opportunity mapping. They will also have made meaningful contributions to our squad work, supporting learners in finding and enrolling in new noncredit certificate programs, and delivering other commitments to campus.
Within three, we will have made progress toward achieving meaningful outcomes for learners, for organizations with workforce development needs, and for our institution. We anticipate scaling our learner base, helping individuals and organizations to find the learning experiences they need sequentially over time, and helping them do their best learning in experiences that respond to their context and progress.
Beyond that, success means helping establish a sustainable model for how a major research university can leverage product thinking to create educational experiences that are more accessible, responsive and impactful for learners around the world.
Q4: What kinds of future roles would someone who took this position be prepared for?
A: This role offers an unusual opportunity to sit at the intersection of product management, education, technology, product research and institutional strategy. The individual will gain experience leading product strategy in a highly complex environment, balancing the needs of millions of learners, faculty creators, institutional stakeholders and technology teams.
Within the center, this role offers the opportunity to grow as Michigan Online grows. The success and growth of Michigan Online creates opportunities for advancement within center leadership or to other units within the university.
More broadly, someone who succeeds in this position would be well prepared for future leadership roles such as director of product, head of product, chief product officer or broader innovation and strategy leadership positions within higher education, edtech and mission-driven technology organizations.
