Chief of Staff - Product at Freshdesk in San Mateo, CA

As the Chief of Staff for the Chief Product Officer at Freshworks, you’ll work directly for the CPO and work closely with the leadership team to help them grow, scale, and run the product organization more effectively. In this role, you will not only don the hat of a chief of staff but also head the product operations function. In this role, you will help manage the business through three primary functions: Project and Program Management, Product/ Business Insights and Strategic Analysis, and Communications. You will define and execute the Rhythm of the Business for the office of the CPO; including meeting cadence, quarterly reviews, off-sites, and all-hands. You will collaborate cross-functionally to develop and manage resourcing plans, enabling our team to execute and innovate at speed. You will serve as a critical partner for senior leaders on ad hoc projects ranging from business decision support to working with external partners. Finally, you'll serve as a Program Manager for key projects, driving both the strategic vision and project execution. This role requires a highly resourceful, self-driven individual with the ability to partner, execute, and lead through influence.

Key Responsibilities:

• Identify and own key projects to drive operational maturity at Freshworks in partnership with the CPO.
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• Be a solid bridge between the Product organization and Engineering and GTM organizations.
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• Lead the product analytics and operations function and centrally own the metrics, tools, data, product experiments, and product strategy.
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• Manage operational rhythm of the business: build meeting agendas, capture key insights and action items, and follow-up accordingly.
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• Drive the OKR process and maintain current for the organization.
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• Provide the CPO with insightful data-driven strategic recommendations.
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• Partner with the CPO to drive key organizational improvements, ranging from org structure, to cross-org collaboration and communication and more.
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• Manage the headcount plan and budget for the CPO organization
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• Support the key initiatives of all orgs rolling up to the CPO, which are currently: Product Management, Design, and Product Marketing.
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• Develop plans for communicating key messages throughout the organization.
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• Partner closely with other functions including GTM, Engineering, Communications, PR, Marketing, Finance, Legal and Operations. Use cross-functional knowledge and seek to understand issues, trends and perspectives that may influence the business.
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• Drive the Leadership team of the CPO org towards clear, efficient and accountable decision-making.
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• Be a thought partner to leadership on the organization’s vision, priorities, challenges, and team culture.
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• Distill and cascade core tenets of our strategy for leadership and other internal and external stakeholders.
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• Own and lead the product operations function.
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• Drive strategic initiatives on behalf of our CPO and the executive team.
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• Attend meetings on behalf of the CPO and act as a representative when required.
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• Solve ambiguous problems.

Skills and Experience:

• 10 years of experience in Strategy, Stakeholder and Project Management.
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• An entrepreneurial approach; you’re a self-starter who loves to own things end-to-end. You don’t ask for permission - you make it happen.
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• A proven ability to solve ambiguous problems by applying frameworks to get to the first principles, aligning resources on the goal, executing, learning, and adapting.
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• Experience partnering effectively with cross-functional teams or projects.
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• Experience working with C-level executives.
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• Ability to work across multiple functions - including Sales, Communications, Finance, with working knowledge of Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, HR and Operations.
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• Ability to effectively influence and communicate cross-functionally with all levels of management with exceptional verbal and written communication skills.
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• Effective Program Management skills, with demonstrated ability to lead complex strategic and operational initiatives.
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• Start-up and/or management consulting experience a plus.
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• All of the above experience could have come from time in Product/ engineering, consulting, or anywhere you have picked up good discipline.

Culture Fit and Impact:

• Strong Match with Freshworks Culture: https://www.freshworks.com/company/careers/
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• Integrity and Ethics: Be honest, have integrity, intensity and passion – necessary to blend with the rest of the executive management team
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• Passion: An enthusiastic, high-energy and motivating leader with a sales mindset who is visibly passionate and is capable of inspiring a fast growing and highly ambitious organization
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• Results Oriented: A strong focus on execution. This individual must be strategic and creative - but strong execution and transformation capabilities are critical for success. Success will be judged on what is accomplished and delivered, not what is proposed
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• Collaboration: Highly entrepreneurial, with a high level of energy, dedication, and a persevering drive to succeed and win. Not afraid to work side by side with the his/her team

Freshworks provides innovative customer engagement software for businesses of all sizes, making it easy for teams to acquire, close, and keep their customers for life. Freshworks’ Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provides customer experience and service management solutions that are ready to go, easy to use, and offer quick return on investment. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Freshworks counts 3000+ team members, 40,000+ customers, and has raised $327 million in capital from brand investors including Accel, CapitalG, and Sequoia Capital with a recent valuation of more than $3.5 billion.

Freshworks has received numerous accolades for its growth and innovation including ranking #16 in the prestigious Forbes’ Cloud 100 list, the Economic Times Startup of the Year, and listings on Gartner Magic Quadrants for CRM Customer Engagement, CRM Lead Management, Sales Force Automation & IT Service Management. Freshworks was ranked as a top 25 company to work for during the COVID-19 pandemic by Battery Ventures/Glassdoor.

Freshworks’ suite of products transform the way world class organizations collaborate with customers and co-workers, includes Freshdesk (Omni-channel customer support), Freshservice (IT Service Desk), Freshsales CRM (Intuitive fully-integrated CRM and marketing automation), Freshteam (HR Management System for growing teams), Freshchat (Modern messaging software) and Freshcaller (Cloud PBX system).

Freshworks is committed to diversity and inclusion. We celebrate and respect each other's differences. We recognize that our collective uniqueness is integral to the success of our products, our culture and our organization.