Senior Product Manager Growth & Retention

Senior Product Manager Growth & Retention at Knuddels

At Knuddels, our mission is to make social networks genuinely social again, focusing on authentic human connection and valuable relationships. As a community platform with gaming and dating elements, we thrive on users joining, finding real connections, and staying with us.

Our product team is central to this success. We embrace modern methodologies and actively use AI tools pragmatically to accelerate our processes, from hypothesis generation to experimentation and measurable impact.

We're looking for you: an individual with an analytical mind and a growth mindset to ensure more people discover Knuddels, experience their 'aha!' moment, and become long-term members of our community. You understand the interplay of Acquisition, Activation, and Retention, and provide strategic input on monetization to maximize long-term User Lifetime Value.

If you're eager to work in an environment where your arguments outweigh your status, and where you see the direct impact of your work in the numbers, then we're looking for you!

Your Responsibilities

• Acquisition & Activation: You identify and optimize levers for new users to discover Knuddels and experience their 'aha!' moment. You will work on onboarding flows, first-session experience, and critical early days to convert new registrations into active community members.
• Retention & Engagement: You analyze the user journey on our platform, from initial chats to gaming interactions and dating features. You develop targeted measures to improve DAU, MAU, and especially retention (Day 1, Day 7, Day 28). You understand why users churn and systematically work to prevent it.
• Strategic Input on Monetization: You contribute your knowledge of user lifecycle and engagement to shape our monetization strategy (Premium Subscriptions, In-App Purchases). Your goal is monetization that maximizes long-term User Lifetime Value, rather than short-term revenue at the expense of user retention.
• Data-Driven Experimentation: You formulate Growth and Retention hypotheses, design A/B tests, and systematically evaluate them. Mixpanel is your daily companion, used proficiently to understand user behavior, analyze cohorts, and make informed decisions.
• Team Leadership with Growth-Mindset: You provide technical leadership to a cross-functional team, consistently aligning it with growth objectives. You create an environment where your team works experimentally, learns quickly, and delivers real business impact.
• AI as a Growth Lever: You not only use AI tools for personal productivity but also actively consider how AI can improve user acquisition and retention, whether through personalization, smart onboarding, or intelligent engagement loops.

What We Offer

• Flexibility that fits your life: Up to 100% Remote Work, trust-based working hours, and the option for 10 unpaid "Flexi-Urlaubstage" in addition to 30 days of vacation.
• Genuine Cohesion: We foster an open, respectful, and cooperative culture where we support each other.
• Growth tailored to your vision: Utilize 10% of your working time for professional development and benefit from our coaching pool, in-house workshops, and regular feedback.
• Focus on our own B2C product: You will see the immediate impact of your contribution on our community and help bring people closer together.
• Excellent Equipment: We provide superb technical equipment. If you work fully remotely, we also subsidize a mobile air conditioner.
• Top-located office (Karlsruhe): Featuring a free breakfast buffet, freshly cooked lunch daily, full air conditioning, and a huge rooftop terrace.
• We support your health: Subsidy for a gym/sports club.

All benefits can also be found at jobs.knuddels.de

What We Don't Offer

• Dusty corporate structures
• Working on B2B client projects (We are a B2C company)
• A far-fetched third bullet point when we only have two :)

We look for competencies and proven impact, not a perfect resume. If you feel this is a fit, please apply. However, please bring concrete examples demonstrating measurable growth successes at a Senior level.

What You Bring

• Proven User Growth and Retention: You have several years of experience as a Growth Product Manager and can name specific projects where you measurably improved user acquisition, activation, or retention, ideally with specific KPI improvements (e.g., "Day-28-Retention increased by X%" or "Activation-Rate in onboarding increased by Y%").
• User-Lifecycle and LTV Thinking: You understand how acquisition, activation, retention, and monetization intertwine. You develop strategies that create long-term value and know when monetization strengthens retention and when it harms it.
• Analytics Expertise: Mixpanel (or comparable platforms like Amplitude) is not a black box for you, but your daily tool. You routinely build funnels, cohort analyses, and segmentations, developing action recommendations from them.
• A/B Testing Mastery: You have profound experience in designing, conducting, and statistically sound evaluation of experiments, knowing when a test is meaningful and when it is not.
• Team Responsibility: You have proven experience in leading, guiding, and developing cross-functional teams and can align and motivate a team towards common growth goals.
• Comfort in B2C App Environments: Ideally, you bring experience from areas like gaming, dating, or social media. You understand the dynamics of platforms where users want to spend time, not have to, and know how to transform engagement into real growth.
• Intelligent AI Utilization: You actively use AI tools (like Gemini, Perplexity, etc.) to make your work more efficient and have ideas on how we can meaningfully integrate AI into our growth strategies.
• Numbers and Business Acumen: You can not only develop growth strategies but also convincingly present them to stakeholders and translate them into business cases.

Your Application Journey

• First Introduction: A relaxed video call (approx. 30 min) to get to know each other and align expectations, especially regarding your previous growth experiences and motivation for Knuddels.
• Applicant Day (remote or on-site): You experience the product team live. You work on practical case studies and discuss the results directly with your future colleagues. This gives everyone an authentic insight into our collaboration.
• Final Interview: We collectively reflect on the day's insights and clarify any remaining questions.

We look forward to getting to know you!

Key Skills/Competency

• Product Management
• Growth Strategy
• User Retention
• User Acquisition
• A/B Testing
• Data Analytics
• Mixpanel
• User Lifecycle Management
• Cross-functional Leadership
• Monetization Strategy