Products Research Manager

Application Deadline: 31 August 2023
Department: New Product Development
Location: Andover

Description

Great People Work Here.

Are you searching for a career with bags of variety, in an environment that celebrates differences and empowers collaboration, which values individuals and will encourage you to make an impact? Do you want the freedom to explore, and the opportunities to find new ways and to innovate? If so, TwiningsOvo delivers.

We’re looking for people who don’t just come here to get the job done, but who have a real passion for the brand and a desire to do the best job they can. In return, we offer an inspiring package of employee benefits - to show just how much we value you. This role will offer you the scope for growth and the tools to aim high.

The Products Research Manager is a pivotal role with an ability to have an outsized impact on the trajectory of our business by helping drive consumer led innovation within R&D and across the Twinings and La Tisinere brands. Through strong consumer centricity and game changing Product Research (Consumer and Sensory Science/CSS) thought leadership, you will ultimately help create consumer winning products, claims and stories that will ensure we deliver our 5-year brand plans and overall company ambition. Reporting to the Global R&D Director you will have the opportunity to join our newly formed team and have an outsized impact on the trajectory of our business.

Key Responsibilities

• Build world class sensory capability (research, facilities, and team) that underpins R&D decision making and drives brand growth.
• Drive rigour and agility in product insight, decision making and qualification across the Stage and Gate cycle for all innovation types; improving our speed to market for new products.
• Partner seamlessly with technical and commercial teams to demonstrate the richness of technical insights that sensory brings including sensory JTBD (Job to Be Done) insights.
• Partner with the Insights team to maximise insight and consumer-product understanding by aligning best practices and synergising sensory and consumer-product data.
• Develop CBAs (Current Best Approaches) for maximising learning through sensory research.
• Explore and pilot the role of AI within Sensory.
• Build consumer-product model for innovations; linking desired consumer experience to product attributes that drive liking. Lead integration into product development to ensure innovation is focused on key quality attributes that best drive consumer liking.
• Ensure key drivers of liking are fully understood, and in partnership with NPD Quality and Supply Chain Quality, are built into quality specifications, and fully met in routine production.
• In partnership with Twinings Insights Community, provide expertise to the business on Technical Consumer product research, encompassing a wide range of sensory and consumer science methodologies incorporating both qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
• Take a broad consumer view of proactive technologies, building consumer-product learning plans that drive foundational consumer product understanding during FEI (pre gate).
• Seamlessly partner across R&D and commercial teams to drive consumer led thinking of strategic big bet platform technologies
• Spearhead in depth understanding of historical product data to maximise technical insights and identify product differentiators across portfolio and across markets that can be used for commercial innovation and/or portfolio optimisation.
• Develop program of consumer compelling product performance claims and product stories to maintain product relevancy with consumers in our different markets.
• Build clear focused product design briefs detailing key levers for driving liking within existing portfolio and for new opportunity spaces.
• Strong partnership with commercial team, in particular the Insights Community, and with R&D to drive consumer relevant product stories and claims to grow Twinings.
• Build understanding and capability in consumer led design and qualification approaches within R&D in support of Twining’s innovation ambition.
• Champion and embed new methods/approaches to strengthen voice of consumer in product innovation and drive to quicker, richer product insights (least amt of most effective research).
• Identify opportunities to propel consumer product learning through agile tools and integration of insights from trends, external platforms, AI etc.
• Understand the consumer journey, how this impacts consumer choice and the levers which can be pulled to optimise user experiences.
• Emphasis on working with external partners to expedite learnings and drive richness of product insights in the rapidly evolving world of tea.
• Build network of key product-sensory research partners to ensure Twinings is leveraging best practice thinking.
• ‘Bring the outside in’ so Twinings can benefit real time from latest consumer product thinking.
• Proactively contribute to team meetings.
• Team leadership and people development; coach and train team for maximum impact.
• Build strong working relationships in R&D, with commercial partners and with stakeholders.
• Partner with R&D Director to build R&D and Product Research/Sensory team of the future.
• Be proactive and take actions to address your personal development needs.
• Keep up to date with consumer/product/market/testing developments.
• Continuously develop technical skills and consistently seek opportunity to increase Product Research/CSS capability and raise profile externally (conferences, publications etc).
• Network with consultants, research agencies, interest groups and keep abreast of development in journals, research papers and market news.