Senior Director of New Product Innovation and Growth

Capstones Senior Director of New Product Innovation and Growth is accountable for identifying building launching and scaling new content-driven digital products that help kids learn and build their literacy skills while creating meaningful new revenue streams. This role explores market needs and opportunities develops innovative product concepts assesses acquisition opportunities and creates strategies to extend existing or new content into new formats and channels.

This is a hands-on product role that owns the full lifecycle from early customer/market insights and product concepts through development launch and market adoption with a clear expectation to deliver $5M in new product revenue within 3 years of the products launch. This is a high-visibility mission within Capstone with direct accountability to Capstones Executive team and regular checkpoints with the Board and Ownership.

The ideal candidate brings their fast pace and experience navigating ambiguity. This role uses creativity and customer insight to drive tangible high-impact results. The successful candidate will bring a strong product development sensibility consumer or education go-to-market expertise and a track record of turning ideas into scalable revenue producing products.

Our preference is for this role to be hybrid based out of our Edina MN location. However fully remote work may also be considered for the right candidate.

Why Youll Want To Join Capstone

Have you ever read something that increased your understanding of the world around you An article a book a research paper a piece of local legislation even a poem or short story

Capstone is a mission-driven community of passionate creative people like you who believe in the power of literacy. Our mission is to make reading fun for kids so that they never experience literacy as the barrier that prevents them from understanding and engaging with the world around them.

For more than 30 years Capstone has led the way in K5 educational publishing creating award-winning books and digital learning experiences (PebbleGo). The information landscape has changed dramatically since we first started out in 1991 and competition for kids attention is at an all-time high. This changing landscape inspires our continued growth and innovation todays kids need trusted sources of content more than ever but their standards for whats considered engaging have never been higher! At Capstone were excited by that challenge are you

Your Responsibilities:

Drive the development launch and go-to-market activities for new products. Including the initial innovation and design cycles through product development launch and successful market adoption. Key activities include:

• Implementing and owning responsibility for a structured product innovation process with rapid iterative product prototyping feedback and market analysis cycles.
• Hands-on product development work and user and market research with a mix of independent work and cross-functional collaboration with design engineering content finance and sales team members.
• Assessing partnership and build vs. buy opportunities.
• Creating a business case for a product and market target that will generate $5M in new revenue for Capstone in 3 years.
• Defining success metrics during the innovation process and post-launch phases including product impact/outcomes user engagement market adoption and revenue goals.
• Defining hiring and managing the development and go-to-market teams required for different phases of the product and go-to-market build out.
• P&L accountability for the new product post-launch.

Education Experience and Skills desired:

• Bachelors degree in Business Marketing Education Media or a related field; MBA or advanced degree preferred.
• 10 years of experience in product innovation and management business development or content strategy.
• 5 years of experience successfully building and scaling new products ventures or businesses with direct ownership of outcomes.
• Demonstrated experience in identifying growth opportunities and launching product from concept to commercialization with at least one example of a product generating $3 in revenue.
• Strong analytical and strategic thinking skills with the ability to translate data into actionable insights.
• Hands-on product development/management experience. Content development experience a plus.
• Comfortable operating in a fast-paced ambiguous high-pressure environment with significant executive visibility.
• A collaborative energetic and dynamic leader who is comfortable working both independently and in teams; navigating ambiguous situations; and supporting change initiatives.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills with experience working with executive leadership.
• Experience in acquisitions partnerships or licensing preferred.
• Passion for content media education and exploring innovative ways to reach audiences.
• Demonstrated ability to take calculated risks fail fast learn and pivot quickly.

Travel Requirements

This position requires some travel (Up to 10%).

Inclusion & Belonging

Capstone embraces equal opportunity and a culture of belonging for all employees and applicants. We are an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All candidate information will be kept private according to EEO guidelines. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process please send a request to

The pay range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered surrounding compensation including but not limited to: skill sets experience and training work location and other business and organizational needs. At Capstone it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role. A reasonable estimate of the annual pay range for this position is $148000 - $223000.

Capstone strives to provide comprehensive and market-competitive benefits to meet the needs of our employees and their families. Click here to see our benefits.

Pre-Employment Background Check Required

California Applicants:

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Employment Authorization:

At this time Capstone unfortunately cannot sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa. To be considered for one of our roles applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.