Director of Product, Lab

Highlights • Location: Georgia, Remote (core hours 9:00-18:00 CET) • Stock options • Languages: Fluent in English and Russian • Reports to VP, Product About Fundraise Up Fundraise Up is a global fundraising platform that powers tens of millions of dollars in donations every month for leading nonprofits - including UNICEF, the Alzheimer's Association, and a wide range of global NGOs. We're known for product quality, performance, and a 4.9/5 rating across top review platforms. As we scale the core, we're deliberately investing in high-risk, high-upside product bets that could define the future of digital fundraising. That's where the Lab comes in. The Lab The Lab is Fundraise Up's 0 1 track. It operates ahead of the roadmap, investigating opportunities driven by new technologies, AI, data, and infrastructure shifts - often before there's a clear buyer or demand signal. The Lab does not run scaled products. It finds, validates, and hands off the ones worth scaling. The Role This is a player-coach role. You'll build and lead the Lab function while personally owning 1-2 of the highest-leverage bets. Your job is to reduce uncertainty, not ship features. You'll own ideas end-to-end - from hypothesis framing through fast experiments to explicit investment decisions: scale, pivot, or kill. Most ideas should die early. A few may graduate into Core or New Products with strong evidence behind them. Success = learning velocity, decision quality, and team leverage - not output volume or adoption. Key Responsibilities • Portfolio & Strategy: Own the Lab bet portfolio. Size opportunities, set entry/exit criteria, and make decisive scale/iterate/kill calls. Maintain a visible exploration backlog. • Experimentation: Frame experiments around the single riskiest assumption. Define kill criteria before building. Choose the right fidelity (prototype, spike, wizard-of-oz, no-code, live pilot). Ship fast and protect learning speed. • Investment Decisions: Synthesize results into opinionated recommendations. Communicate what was tested, learned, and what remains unknown. Kill zombie initiatives - every experiment ends with a decision. • Handoffs: When a bet shows strong signal, prepare validated hypotheses, evidence packs, risks, and a proposed scaling model. Transfer ownership fully. • GTM & Partnerships: Source and close lighthouse pilots with clear scope, metrics, and off-ramps. Identify enabling partners and join strategic calls to move pilots to business validation. • Team: Build a repeatable Lab Operating System (pipeline reviews, kill reviews, demo days, post-mortems). • AI & Transparency: Use AI tools to accelerate research, synthesis, and prototyping. Explore AI-enabled product ideas with a realistic lens on cost, data, and accuracy. Publish decision memos and share failed experiments openly. What Great Looks Like in 12 Months • 3-5 high-risk bets tested with clear outcomes (scaled, iterated, or killed with rationale) • 1-2 bets graduated to New Products or Core with evidence packs and clean handoffs • A transparent kill list that saves months of misdirected effort • A functioning Lab team with clear ownership, experiment discipline, and stakeholder trust • A repeatable Lab Operating System that compounds learning Requirements Experience (Must-Have) • 8-10+ years in Product with a proven 0 1 track record • Personally owned multiple high-risk bets with explicit go/kill decisions • 3+ years managing PMs (player-coach or group lead) • Fluency across validation tools: discovery, prototypes, engineered MVPs - knows when each is appropriate • Cross-functional leadership across Eng/Design/Analytics and GTM; comfort in pre-sales/pilot settings • Experience where learning speed mattered more than polish and real downside risk was present AI & Technical Judgment (Critical) • Hands-on experience using AI as a product-building and exploration tool • Can prototype with LLMs, APIs, or modern tooling and ship a functional prototype quickly • Able to scope AI experiments realistically and judge feasibility without full engineering validation • Can spot capability shifts and turn them into testable hypotheses • Evaluates build vs. buy vs. partner decisions This background often comes from: founder/co-founder roles, early-stage startups, internal labs/innovation teams, or new market bets inside larger companies. Bonus • Ex-founder with a clear ship/scale/kill story and measurable outcomes • Payments, fintech, e-commerce, or nonprofit domain experience • EU market familiarity (PSD2/SCA, data/privacy norms) and additional languages This Role Is Not For You If... • Your background is mostly in roadmap-driven delivery with stable scope • You prefer incremental optimization of mature products • You need long planning cycles and large teams to move • You avoid pilot conversations or hesitate to ask customers for real commitments • Ambiguity makes you uncomfortable Why Work With Us • Real owne...