Innovation Expert
New York, NY

Job Description

What is ADAPT

The Advanced Digital & Product Team (ADAPT) at Bain is a rapidly growing global team of world-class strategists, engineers, designers, product managers, and entrepreneurial builders. Clients depend on us to solve their toughest problems, to provide strategic advantage fueled by technology and deep analytics, and to fundamentally reimagine business models and processes to take them into the future.

In collaboration with our existing strategy teams and other experts (such as Advanced Analytics), ADAPT delivers integrated outcomes that range from innovation experiences to digital experiences to working software. We build solutions to support digital transformation, teach people new paradigms of achieving results, and leave every person we touch better and more enabled than before.

Job Description and Responsibilities

Joining ADAPT is an exciting opportunity to build a new and critical capability at Bain. You will work closely with the global ADAPT leadership and the regional Digital, IT, Advanced Analytics, and Results Delivery practice teams. You will be a member of Bain's Technology and Analytics Group.

Your role as an Innovation Expert will be to lead and align multiple stakeholders in the digital transformation process. It will include the following responsibilities:

Deliver ADAPT contribution to client successfully (Client results) Run the process of experience design/product development from ideation to launch, in collaboration with design and development leads and their teams; manage execution of solutions (Distinct/technical expertise, client results) Build capabilities and skills of ADAPT team, Bain team, and client teams (Distinct expertise, Developing self and others) Disseminate and deploy ADAPT at Bain internally (Distinct expertise, communications, stakeholder mgmt.) Invest in building an inspired team, including global ADAPT team, client team, experts, and other stakeholders (Developing self and others) Help to build/scale a new business: Ops, Talent, Systems (Sustainable business model)

Responsibilities & Duties

Deliver ADAPT contribution to client successfully

* Accountable for ADAPT success to ensure high impact results
* Broker ADAPT capabilities with Bain case team and client team to deliver on business need
* Effectively collaborate and co-create with multiple stakeholders to drive results (e.g., internal practice teams, experts, outside partners, 3rd party vendors)
* Create promoters for Bain and for ADAPT at all levels of the client; create reference-able results stories & experience

Run the process of experience design / product development from ideation to launch, and manage execution of solutions

* Own seamless relationship with case team: effectively manage ADAPT project and team processes (e.g., work planning, product/experience redesign opportunity identification, product plan development, test design and delivery)
* Run an integrated ADAPT process to tie together each area of core competency (e.g., user testing, ideation workshops, product design, software development)
* Lead communications and process which demands heavy collaboration with key stakeholders
* Have technical and design know-how to partner with design and development leads on client solutions, which requires comfort & facility with modern design & development principles
* Run cross-functional design and development efforts in Scrum
* Understand the solution architecture for development projects and work with lead engineers to mobilize the team to build software
* Align stakeholders-including client team, Bain case team, and ADAPT team-on the best approach in a given situation
* Manage flexibility required to meet changing client and case team demands; assess impact of those changes on ADAPT contributions and pivot where necessary

Build capabilities and skills of ADAPT team, Bain case teams, and client teams

* Build the ADAPT knowledge base by capturing learnings from client engagements
* Use client and case team experiences to codify ADAPT's 'playbook' and strengthen our value proposition
* Bring expertise across ADAPT product portfolio to selling and serving (grow our "roster" of use cases)
* Embrace new challenges and opportunities to expand expertise that will enhance overall ADAPT capabilities
* Define & reiterate on a commercially relevant/thought leading product offering & approach
* Identify and nurture opportunities to teach and transfer knowledge, expertise, and capabilities to Bain teams and client teams

Disseminate and deploy ADAPT internally with positive impact

* Inspire, teach, and collaborate with case teams as we work in a hybrid team configuration
* Support positioning of ADAPT internally and build awareness of value proposition
* Build the ADAPT capabilities of Bain teams and partners; transfer expertise

Invest in building an inspired team

* Play an active role in recruiting, onboarding, and integration of new talent
* Invest in global team building (e.g., cross region experience sharing)
* Contribute to ADAPT culture creation and take on team, office, or firm initiatives
* Successfully integrate rotational AC/C team members
* Serve as a mentor and coach for members of the design and development labs

Help to build and scale a new business

* Commercialize ADAPT offering by participating in proposal development
* Represent Bain/ADAPT as an expert in sell and conversion situations, speaking fluently to strategic, technical, and design aspects of pitch
* Help to achieve pricing realization for ADAPT
* Enhance ADAPT's brand through external reputation building and marketing efforts
* Invest in special initiatives and projects that help us scale the function (ops/systems)

Qualifications

The Innovation Expert role requires passion for transformation, an entrepreneurial spirit, product development experience, empathy, and technical aptitude.

The following are highly valued:

* Passion for delivering high-impact client results in a fast-paced, evolving environment. Experience working in startups and other entrepreneurial environments.
* Technical product management experience and history or track record of managing ideation to launch of software, enterprise solutions, services, mobile/web apps, or other products. You should be able to speak fluently to the technical aspects and architecture of any software you helped build.
* Experience and/or knowledge of design thinking principles and leading or facilitating workshops to cultivate design thinking innovation process.
* Agile project management experience and familiarity with Scrum.
* Ability to rapidly absorb and interpret technical information. Fluency with modern design and development principles.
* Ability to manage cross functional/inter-disciplinary teams including product designers, software engineers, and data engineers
* Ability to manage and align a team of multiple stakeholders including expert practitioners, client teams, case teams, third-party vendors, and other collaborators. Particularly important to be able to translate Bain manufacturing and delivery process into ADAPT terms and vice versa.
* Exceptional interpersonal skills and emotional agility, able to interface across any level of Bain and client organization.
* Strong alignment with Bain operating principles.
* MBA preferred.
* Top tier consulting experience preferred.

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