Head of product

Band 8c · Product manager · 640 job evaluation points

UK GDaD PCF level: Head of product

Most often performed at Civil Service grade G6.

A head of product provides support to all product managers in the organisation and to the product community across government. They lead on product strategy, working closely with lead product managers and their business units. They are responsible for setting and raising standards for product management in their organisation.
At this role level, you will:
coach others in product management
work with organisation management and other communities to represent product community interests
oversee every member of the community, including their role, assignments, development, pay and performance
manage recruitment, development, moves and exits from the community, covering civil servants and contractors
line manage senior and lead product managers

Contains public sector information from the UK Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (https://understand-digital-data-roles-skills.service.gov.uk/), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright.

Responsibilities

Set the organisation's product strategy, working with executive, clinical, and operational leaders.
Set and raise standards for product management, including how products manage clinical risk and measure outcomes.
Lead the product profession, including recruitment, career paths, and capability building.
Decide investment priorities across products, using evidence of need, value, and equity.
Represent the organisation's products with partners across the health and care system.

Skills

Skill	Expected level	What this level means
Agile and Lean practicesUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean good practices create and tailor the right approach for a team, challenging, evaluating and iterating the approach through the life cycle experiment with new and innovative ways of working to improve delivery across the organisation act as a recognised expert and advocate for Agile and Lean approaches
Applying user-centred insightsUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: advocate for a range of effective research approaches across the organisation coach others in making decisions that meet user needs across a range of channels advocate for continuous use of user insights in teams use user insights to make strategic decisions to provide the best user experience
Creating value for moneyUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: develop and own a business case and iterate it throughout the life cycle coach others on identifying benefits whilst balancing user and business needs communicate the delivery of incremental value build the case for an organisational approach to value through product strategy coach and empower teams to take a value for money approach
Life cycle managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: lead and coach teams through different phases of the life cycle ensure effective support for the product or service and its users predict, prevent, mitigate and manage potential risks at different phases of the life cycle contribute to the assessment of other teams, providing guidance and support
Managing product outcomesUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: use data to make prioritisation decisions for multiple or complex projects, products or services use data to influence priorities of senior stakeholders guide and challenge teams to make better use of data guide and challenge teams to demonstrate achievement of outcomes identify opportunities to share and connect product data across government
Product leadershipUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: seek opportunities for reuse and learning across government co-ordinate the product management community lead on coaching and mentoring for product management in your organisation lead some activities in cross-government communities, establishing and maintaining wider relationships across the profession represent product management in your organisation in conversations with senior stakeholders
Product managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: set the strategy and vision for your products, collaborating with others create a prioritised roadmap for your products and use it to discuss product strategy at all levels plan prioritised work across multiple teams, minimising dependencies and risks support multiple teams in delivering quality outcomes in the right way coach and mentor others in product management
Stakeholder relationship managementUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: direct the stakeholder relationship strategy for your teams ensure stakeholder's objectives are set and support teams to meet them influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders to resolve issues and enable progress
Strategic ownershipUK GDaD PCF	Expert (4)	You can: support and coach others in creating and implementing a successful long-term strategy and tactical approach that others agree with influence and persuade stakeholders to support delivery of the strategy support with strategic decision making ensure strategic alignment across the organisation
Understanding health and care servicesThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: shape organisational strategy using a deep understanding of the health and care system represent the organisation with health and care partners and leaders anticipate how policy and service changes will affect digital services and care
Clinical risk managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead hazard identification and risk assessment for a product or change write and maintain hazard logs and clinical safety case reports agree risk controls with product teams and check that they work advise teams on applying clinical risk management standards
Information governance and data protectionThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: lead data protection impact assessments and information sharing agreements advise teams on lawful basis, consent, confidentiality, and retention investigate incidents and recommend improvements
Medical device software regulationThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: assess whether a product is a medical device, and its likely class plan the regulatory work for a product with quality and clinical colleagues
Equality, diversity, and inclusionThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: carry out equality impact assessments build inclusive teams and practices
People managementThis reference	Expert (4)	You can: lead managers and shape the culture of a large area design workforce plans and organisational change coach leaders and resolve complex people issues
Budget managementThis reference	Practitioner (3)	You can: hold and manage a budget, forecasting and explaining variances build a business case with costs and benefits

Typical qualifications and experience

Extensive experience of leading product management across an organisation.

Band 8c outline

Knowledge: Expert knowledge, and wide organisational and sector understanding.
Autonomy: Sets strategy for a function; accountable to a director.
Scope: A function or department.
Leadership: Leads a function through several management layers.
Accountability: A function's performance, workforce, and budget.

Job evaluation (illustrative)

Factor	Level	Level summary	Points
Communication and relationship skills	6	Gives highly complex, highly contentious information where there are significant barriers to acceptance, using the highest level of communication skills.	60
Knowledge, training, and experience	7	Highly developed specialist knowledge across the range of the specialism (master's level or equivalent).	196
Analytical and judgemental skills	5	Judgements on highly complex facts or situations needing analysis, interpretation, and comparison of options.	60
Planning and organisational skills	5	Forms long-term strategic plans, with uncertainty and effects across the organisation.	60
Physical skills	2	Skills gained through practice, such as standard keyboard use or driving.	15
Responsibility for patient and client care	1	Helps patients, clients, or relatives during incidental contact.	4
Responsibility for policy and service development	5	Implements and develops a range of policies or services for a directorate.	45
Responsibility for financial and physical resources	4	Holds or sets the budget for a department or service, or buys or maintains its assets.	32
Responsibility for people	4	Line manages a function or department, designs training programmes as a main duty, or delivers a full range of HR services.	32
Responsibility for information resources	6	Manages and develops information systems across the organisation as the main duty.	46
Responsibility for research and development	2	Regularly does research, development, trials, or equipment and system testing as part of the job.	12
Freedom to act	5	Works within general policies, and in most cases decides how to interpret them.	45
Physical effort	1	Sitting, standing, and walking, with little physical effort.	3
Mental effort	3	Frequent concentration on unpredictable work, or occasional prolonged concentration.	12
Emotional effort	2	Occasional exposure, or frequent indirect exposure, to distressing circumstances.	11
Working conditions	2	Occasional unpleasant conditions, frequent travel or outdoor work, or near-continuous screen use on most days.	7
Total (Band 8c: 630 to 674)			640