Product Owner/Manager

Product Owner/Manager at Telepathic Instruments

Telepathic Instruments is an internationally based electronic instruments company founded by Kevin Parker and friends. Our core mission is to help musicians find what’s on their mind. Our first product, Orchid, combines intuitive design with deep synthesis and sampling capabilities, and we’re just getting started. Our product design adheres to 3 core principles: Insight, Innovation, and Inspiration. We are building more than instruments—we’re building a movement of creative musicians who see themselves as collaborators in the future of music technology.

Role Summary

We’re hiring a Product Owner/Manager to own the end-to-end lifecycle of Telepathic’s software and firmware products. You’ll take ideas from roadmap to release—and back again—ensuring delivery, quality, and long-term viability. You’ll work at the intersection of hardware, firmware, software, sound, and creative intent. This is a senior hands-on role for someone who knows how to translate complexity into clarity, ambition into action, and chaos into cadence.

You’ll be responsible for:

• Release management
• Backlog ownership
• QA and testing
• Cross-functional reporting
• LAB-stage product exploration

Your partners in crime will include Kevin (Creative Director), Tom (Design Director), Sam and BJ (Engineering), and Charl (MD).

Responsibilities

Product Ownership & Roadmapping

• Own the roadmap for firmware, desktop software, plugins, and internal tooling
• Sequence and prioritise initiatives in line with OKRs
• Maintain high signal-to-noise in planning and documentation
• Balance near-term delivery with long-term viability and technical health

Release Management

• Define and run release cycles across firmware, software, and VSTs
• Coordinate delivery with Engineering, Design, Sound, and Operations
• Make go/no-go decisions and own communication to internal stakeholders
• Set and enforce standards for performance, stability, and user experience

Project & Ticket Management (Asana)

• Run backlog prioritisation and sprint planning
• Write testable user stories and technical requirements
• Keep Asana clean, current, and trustworthy
• Ensure tasks are properly scoped, sequenced, and resourced

QA & Validation

• Define and oversee test plans for hardware, software, and firmware
• Manage bug triage, tracking, and regression testing
• Coordinate internal testing and external beta workflows
• Support QA loops with manufacturing partners for production firmware

Stakeholder Communication & Reporting

• Provide regular product updates and OKR tracking
• Translate complexity into clarity for non-technical stakeholders
• Escalate risks early with options and recommendations
• Align cross-functional priorities across product, creative, and commercial

New Product Development (LAB)

• Co-lead LAB sessions with Kevin, Ignacio, and Tom
• Shape early ideas into scoped features and product concepts
• Run feasibility and validation sprints
• Define DVF criteria and phase gates for new product initiatives

What Good Looks Like

• Releases ship on time, with fewer surprises
• Firmware and software quality improves over time
• Product plans are clear, visible, and trusted
• Risks are surfaced early and clearly
• LAB projects move cleanly from idea to delivery

Skills & Experience

• 10+ years in technical product, project, or QA roles
• Proven experience owning software and/or firmware delivery
• Background working on hardware-software integrated products
• Deep comfort with release planning, QA, and backlog management
• Fluent in Agile / Lean practices (but not dogmatic)

Strengths & Attributes

• Systems thinker who brings order to chaos
• Strong product judgment and clear trade-off thinking
• Calm under pressure, decisive under uncertainty
• Excellent communicator across disciplines
• Technically literate; credible with devs, creative with designers

Tools & Workflow

• Asana (required)
• Google Suite / Docs
• Slack, Notion, Figma
• GitHub, Linear (nice to have)
• Familiarity with CI/CD and test frameworks

Bonus Points

• Audio software, plugin, or DAW experience
• Experience with contract manufacturers or production firmware
• Music tech background or passion for instruments
• You secretly love writing test plans and cleaning up backlogs

Key skills/competency

• Product Management
• Release Management
• Backlog Management
• QA & Testing
• Firmware Development
• Software Development
• Agile Methodologies
• Stakeholder Communication
• Roadmapping
• User Stories