Early Stage Product Manager (User Discovery & Early Product) - Contract
Company: Huddle Location: Remote or Seattle, WA Type: Contract / Part-time (10–20 hrs/week to start) Stage: Early-stage startup Compensation: Competitive hourly or monthly contract About Huddle Huddle is a trust-based babysitting platform designed to help parents and sitters book care without the back-and-forth—by combining shared availability, calendar syncing, and trusted networks. We’re building Huddle for families and sitters who already know each other (or are connected through real communities), and we’re obsessive about making the experience feel simple, human, and reliable. We’re currently preparing to roll out Huddle to our first early users, starting with small, trusted cohorts of parents and sitters. Our focus right now is learning: understanding how real users interpret the product, where they get confused, and what actually drives confidence and booking behavior. The Role We’re looking for a Product Manager focused on user discovery and early product validation to work closely with the founder during this pre-scale phase. This role is not about sprint planning, Jira tickets, or long-term roadmap ownership. It is about deeply understanding users, identifying friction, and translating insight into clear product recommendations. It’s a discovery-first role focused on making sure we’re building the right thing before scaling. You’ll help us answer questions like:
- Where are parents and sitters getting stuck?
- What features are unclear, underused, or overcomplicated?
- What changes will most improve trust, clarity, and booking success?
This role is best suited for someone who enjoys shaping products before scale, when learning comes from conversations and observation rather than metrics. What You’ll Do
- Help design and run early user discovery with parents and sitters
- Plan and conduct user interviews with parents and sitters
- Observe early product walkthroughs and onboarding flows
- Gather qualitative feedback from:
o Interviews o Early in-product behavior and user walkthroughs o Support questions and drop-off points
- Synthesize findings into:
o Clear themes and insights o Actionable product recommendations o Prioritized suggestions (P0 / P1 / P2)
- Collaborate directly with the founder to:
o Pressure-test product assumptions o Refine flows, copy, and UX o Decide what to build, change, or cut What We’re Looking For
- 3+ years experience in product management, product discovery, or UX research
- Strong qualitative research skills (interviews, synthesis, insight framing)
- Experience working on very early-stage or consumer products
- Comfortable with ambiguity and imperfect data
- Clear communicator who can turn messy feedback into sharp insights
- Bonus: Experience with marketplaces, scheduling tools, or consumer trust products
Why Join
- Rare chance to shape a product before first real scale
- Direct influence on product direction and UX foundations
- Close partnership with a hands-on founder
- Opportunity to help define what “great” looks like before it’s locked in